2012 NMRA Maryland International Raceway - Mid-Atlantic Mustang Mayhem

Ryan Joyce of Pennsylvania finished with a 13.48 average from his ’00 Mustang GT Saleen clone.

Nick Blankenship took his E=HP entry to the runner-up finish in True Street. The two-tone coupe sits just right and runs damn fast too, with low 9-second runs from its nitrous-injected 331ci stroker.

Take a brand-new 2012 Boss 302, throw some sticky tires under it, and run True Street. That’s what Jonathan Roberts did with his new Stang. The Connecticut-based enthusiast had fun and ran a 12.37 average with nothing more than the RedKey tune from Ford, a Flowmaster axle-back exhaust, and the aforementioned tires.

JPC Racing’s lead-calibrator, Kevin MacDonald, built this coupe with a Three-Valve modular engine, homemade twin-turbo system, and a Lentech 4R70W, amongst a lot of other little parts. It might sound exotic, but the car is a low-budget build and ran 8.99 at 150 mph in the True Street brackets on Sunday. His first True Street run on Saturday produced a 9.19, but tirespin in round two netted him a 10.78. His trusty iPhone calculator helped him figure out a low-10 was needed to win the 10-second segment, and he knocked off a 10.18 for a total of a 10.05 average.

It was a tough break for Robert Kulpowicz, as he had to pop the hood on his ’98 Mustang GT after two runs. Lifting your hood after the cruise starts is a big no-no in the True Street rules. In his case, the charge pipe blew off the throttle body. A massive single turbocharger pumps up a Four-Valve modular engine; we’ve seen this car go low-9s in True Street competition at other NMRA events.

Mike Eyler’s Mustang broke before the race, so the West Virginian entered his ’00 Excursion and dropped three high-17-second runs to finish with a 17.91 average.

The UPR Products Car Show was filled with S197 Mustangs in a variety of forms, including Saleen and Roush versions to full customized ones.

The UPR Products Car Show was filled with S197 Mustangs in a variety of forms, including Saleen and Roush versions to full customized ones.

Gotta Have It Green by Brenspeed—Miles Wagoner of Brenspeed brought his two-week-old ’13 Mustang to the race and won! It was his third straight NMRA win; the Brenspeed team is converting this car to a Roush Stage 3 clone for the next race. Gotta Have It Green by CJ Pony Parts—the CJ Pony Parts crew brought two Gotta Have It Green cars to the race, both with Coyote 5.0L engines. This one features a manual transmission and the other car has an automatic. Follow the cars’ buildup on the CJ Pony Parts blog at GottaHaveBuilds.com.

It was his third straight NMRA win; the Brenspeed team is converting this car to a Roush Stage 3 clone for the next race. Gotta Have It Green by CJ Pony Parts—the CJ Pony Parts crew brought two Gotta Have It Green cars to the race, both with Coyote 5.0L engines. This one features a manual transmission and the other car has an automatic. Follow the cars’ buildup on the CJ Pony Parts blog at GottaHaveBuilds.com.

Joe Charles (near lane) goes wheels-up in the finals of Coyote Stock as he drove the MV Performance Bullitt to victory over Justin Burcham of JPC Racing. Both cars feature sealed crate engines from Ford Racing and go high-10s/low-11s.

Hailing from South Carolina is Drag Radial racer Brian Tuten and his turbocharged coupe. His brother Chris, a noted Super Street Outlaw racer, was handling the tuning chores; the Tuten brothers upset record-holder Jason Lee in the finals with a 7.65 to Lee’s 7.66.

Aaron LeBlanc took a junkyard Lightning engine and slammed it into his ’97 Mustang GT. The only engine mods are a custom tune in the PCM, headers, and a 2.5-inch exhaust. He ran a 12.20 average in True Street and followed it up with an 11.78 at 117 mph the following day in Bracket 3.

Gotta have it Green by CJ Pony Parts--the CJ Pony Parts crew brought two Gotta have it Green cars to the race, both with coyote 5.0l engines. this one features a manual transmission and the other car has an automatic. Follow the cars' buildup on the CJ Pony Parts blog at Gottahave-Builds.com.

There were four ’12 Boss 302 Mustangs in competition in Maryland. One was entered in True Street and three in Super Stang. In fact, all three Super Stang entries were Race Red. Anthony Giagnacovo (near lane) lined up against Pete Esput (far lane) during round three of qualifying. Giagnacovo was a tad slower with a 12.17 at 115 mph, while Esput threw up a 12.03 at 116 mph.

John Urist (near lane) captured his third straight event win when Andrew DeMarco went red in the finals. Urist ran 7.02 at 199 mph while DeMarco posted a 7.18 at 195 mph.

The Truck and Lightning final at Maryland featured a truck and a Lightning. Fred Wade drove his ’04 Lightning to victory with a 10.47 on a 10.46 index to beat Gerry Vanveen and his Ranger, who broke out with an 11.58 on an 11.64 index.

Carlos Sobrino wasn’t joking around on Sunday in Factory Stock eliminations as he grabbed his second win of 2012. He took down the Two-Valve racer of Matt Amrine with a 10.90 at 123 mph to Amrine’s 11.10 at 120 mph.

The Maryland race including a special GT500 versus Terminator Shootout that attracted an eclectic mix of entries from bolt-on street cars to extreme drag-racing vehicles. The top player and class winner was Iowa’s Joe Logan and his Vortech YSi-trim–powered Cobra. The Four-Valve flier ran a best of 8.36 at 167 mph.

The quickest Shelby honors went to Tommy Passalaqua of Connecticut. His GT500 has an L&M Race Engine-built 5.4L with a Kenne Bell 3.6L supercharger. The car ran 8.90s but has been as quick as 8.60 at 160 at last year’s GT500 versus Terminator Shootout, held at the NMRA World Finals.