Diehard stick driver Keith...
Diehard stick driver Keith Calitri powershifts proudly behind the wheel of his 306-powered, '88 notchback. He put together the lowest 11-seond average at 11.131 seconds.
"People just came out of nowhere and started helping," said Rollins. Some crewmembers from the nearby Roush Racing trailer came over to help, as well as other True Street competitors, and in a few minutes, the transmission line was reattached. Rollins went on to finish sixth in True Street, and went out in the first round of the Spring Break Shootout in a tight battle against Ron Smrekar.
For 2009, the Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords Spring Break Shootout, presented by Pro50.com (makers of the popular Pro 5.0 Power Tower Shifters), returned to its original home in Bradenton, Florida, and the Ford faithful came back to compete in the wildest street-legal Ford class around. They came from far and wide, with entrants hailing from such places as Texas, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Michigan, Missouri, Maryland, both Carolinas, and everywhere in between. The prolific Florida contingent, however, was stacked and came loaded for bear. They claimed 10 of the top 16 positions that made up the SBS ladder, and also held the top two fastest and quickest times going into eliminations.
Most people probably didn't...
Most people probably didn't notice how fast Christian Worley's '91 GT was, given its sedate looks. Packing a 12.5:1 347-cube, carbureted bullet with a healthy shot of giggle gas, Worley's rocket screamed to a 9.87 on its first pass--on 17-inch drag radials. He followed that up with a 9.97 and a 10.20, which averaged to a 10.02 and gave him the low 10-second win.
True Street killer Chris Escobar took the first round bye as his opponent, Christian Worley, had broke on his third pass in True Street the day before. The nitrous-gulping, 383-cube LX hatchback of Steeda Autosport's Scott Boda took down Tony Whetstone's brand-new turbocharged convertible, and JPC Racing's Justin Burcham drove his record-setting Three-Valve Mustang GT to a first round win over Bryan Bromley.
Modular-powered and twin-turbocharged, the bright red notchback belonging to Jason Borum was victorious over Chris Segura, while Blair Brannock took out Texas hotshoe Joel Cura to advance to Round Two. There couldn't have been better racing displayed this weekend than the first-round matchup with John Rollins and Ron Smrekar. Rollins posted a 10.66 time, while Smrekar lit up the board with a 10.67, but Smrekar had a 0.151-second holeshot that got him to the stripe first. Orestes Gonzalez was victorious over Todd Entenmann, and Randy Seward put the screws to Jason Roberts to advance.
A couple of upgrades to the...
A couple of upgrades to the pair of Precision turbochargers and a hot tuneup by Cal Hartline on the Big Stuff 3 engine management system enabled Chris Escobar's SVO to run a slew of 8-second passes this weekend. Fast times and bulletproof reliability allowed him to take home the True Street crown and trophy. While it remains turbocharged, the SVO now sports 4.6 liters of DOHC, modular power. Aside from forged rods and pistons and the slightest of port work on the heads, the motor is otherwise stock.
Round Two action saw Escobar squeak past Boda, and Borum moved on after Burcham broke. Brannock then edged past Smrekar, and Seward smoked Gonzalez with his Calypso Green coupe. Aside from the first-round bye, Escobar had probably the toughest competition of the shootout. It took an 8.89 to beat Scott Boda's 9.16 run in Round Two, and an 8.94 to beat Jason Borum's 9.12 effort. Randy Seward pulled out a huge holeshot over Blair Brannock to make his 9.23 e.t. and the finish line before Brannock's 8.95 pass.
That set up the final round of Spring Break Shootout competition, with Pensacola's Chris Escobar pitted against Orlando's Randy Seward and his Mustang 5.0 coupe. There were four turbochargers between the two of them, and both were hitting the Christmas tree extremely well all day. When the lights came down, Seward left first with a 0.010-second head start and had a nose on Escobar until the 330-foot mark. That's when Escobar's SVO started freight-training to the finish. Escobar stopped the clocks first with an 8.90-second e.t.; Seward wasn't far behind with a 9.23 effort.
In addition to his seven True Street crowns, Chris Escobar took home the Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords/Pro50.com Spring Break Shootout win, the trophy, the $800 in cold hard cash, a Pro 5.0 shifter, and a new Boss block from Ford Racing Performance Parts.
True Street continues at every NMRA event this year, and rumor has it they may be adding a heads-up True Street shootout to select events, too. If you can't make it to any of those, Florida is always a nice place to be in March. See you next year.