2007 NMRA Keystone Ford Nationals - Worlds Collide

The essence of the Super Bowl... 

   

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The essence of the Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing is pitting NMRA class winners against NMCA class winners. The ProMedia folks had predetermined which classes were to be matched up against each other for the finale. Here, Ron Anderson (near lane) represents NMRA with his Pure Street ride while Jeff Swanson (far lane) carried the NMCA banner with his Mean Street entry. Anderson got a jump on the Tree because Pure Street cars are slower than the Mean Street class. Team NMRA defeated Team NMCA for the second year in a row.

In football, the Super Bowl pits the top team in the NFC against the top team in the AFC to duke it out for the title rights and the NFL season championship. The hoopla drummed up prior to the big match each year is unrivaled by few, if any, sporting events. Wanting to achieve that same level of excitement and drama, the gang at ProMedia, promoters of the NMRA Keystone Ford Nationals and NMCA Edelbrock racing associations, had its own rendition of the Super Bowl that set the two premier street-legal sanc-tioning bodies against each other in a quarter-mile slugfest.

It's called the Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, and each year the two series converge on Route 66 Raceway just outside of Chicago for a wild weekend of drag racing, car showing, and to see the huge manufacturer's midway. Even the True Street class is a mix of machines to see not only who, but which brand of vehicle, is the baddest on the street.

This year the MM&FF staff saw a slathering of old-school musclecars and modern machines. The weekend climaxed with a showdown between the winners of the NMRA classes taking on the winners of the NMCA categories for bragging rights, bonus money, and a coveted Nitto Tire Diamond Tree ring.

The game at Route 66 was simple. Both series run concurrently in regular fashion, with qualifying and eliminations over a three-day period. After all NMRA and NMCA class winners are decided, they're thrown into the Super Bowl bonus round. ProMedia officials pitted Pro 5.0 vs. Pro Street, Super Street Outlaw vs. Super Street 10.5, Drag Radial vs. Xtreme Street, and right on down to the Open Comp and Index-style classes for both sanctions. Since the classes are different-even the heads-up ones-each category was run off an index, albeit with no breakout. The index was determined by the racer's quickest pass of the weekend. For example, John Urist squared off against Billy Glidden. Urist had run a best of 7.51, while Glidden knocked down a 7.06. Their Super Bowl meeting had Urist getting a 0.45-second head start.

Last year, Team NMRA prevailed as it came down to the final round, pairing Tony Bischoff and Pro Street racer Brian Robbins. Bischoff took the victory and sealed the fate for the NMCA crowd. The final tally was NMRA 6 and NMCA 5. This year, Team NMRA took a commanding victory over the NMCA racers as they clinched the title rather easily. The final count showed NMRA with seven wins while NMCA mustered only four.

Both sanctioning bodies attracted a lot of entries, and there was a spectacular display of cars on and off the racetrack. One of the coolest things about attending this extravaganza was getting a glimpse of a wide variety of cars while still watching Mustang drag racing. The Super Bowl truly combined the best of both worlds, and hosting it at Route 66 in Joliet, Illinois, makes it that much better. The facility is large enough to handle the 450-plus heads-up racers and hundreds of True Street and show cars that also attended the weekend's festivities. It's a top-notch facility with one of the best racing surfaces around. Combine that with favorable weather conditions, and it was the perfect setting to watch record performances and side-by-side drag racing.

Two generations of Ford drag...        read full caption Two generations of Ford drag racing legends were on the property. Jack Roush (right) was the Grand Marshal of the speed festivities while Billy Glidden (left) competed in the NMCA Super Street 10.5 category.

The Nitto Tire Diamond Tree...        read full caption The Nitto Tire Diamond Tree ring was the object of every racer's desire. Nitto decided the Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing deserved a special ring that went to the overall winners. Each NMRA vs. NMCA match winner walked away with one of these fancy Super Bowl-style pieces of jewelry, a bonus check of $500 or $1,000 depending on the category, and a custom bottle of champagne courtesy of Motive Gear-on top of their category payout and contingency prize money.

Great track prep and no wheelie...        read full caption Great track prep and no wheelie bars gave photographers phenomenal photo ops like this one. Downs Ford Motorsports' main dude, Ricky Riccardi, went sky high in his Hot Street entry.

Winner Bruce Hemminger was...        read full caption Winner Bruce Hemminger was deadly consistent in the Real Street eliminator. His Edelbrock Nitrous-powered coupe ran 9.86 at an incredible 139 mph. Hemminger failed to back up the speed for the national record, but he took the class win and his Super Bowl matchup against Tim Meagher, who couldn't make the lane call.

Misfortune Struck Super Street...        read full caption Misfortune Struck Super Street Outlaw racer Christian Helms during qualifying. A fuel line ruptured and poured fuel onto the headers, causing a massive fire. Helms got the car stopped and exited without injury. The '89 Mustang LX has been on the scene a long time and was affectionately nicknamed "Baby Blue" when it was campaigned by both Kenny Moss and Carlo Catalanotto.

Travis Gusso (center) of NHRA...        read full caption Travis Gusso (center) of NHRA Comp Eliminator fame helped the MM&FF staff and proved to be quite the rock star.