RACING: NMRA Takes Over Maryland Raceway

The third stop in the NMRA season was at Maryland International Raceway over the weekend. The track provided ideal conditions with good atmospheric pressure making it possible for several records to be broken.

Dwayne Barbaree made the first ever 6 second pass, smashing the quarter mile in 6.976 seconds at 199.8 mph then continued on to make a pass of 6.98 seconds against John Urist. Barbaree’s record setting ended in the second round when he was eliminated opening the door for Phil Hines to take the win in street outlaw.

Racers in the Renegade class sought the same results aiming for a 7 second run. Bart Tobener, with his recently rebuilt Mustang was able to pull an 8.02 second run in his first race. No one was able to clear that 7 second mark until the semifinal round where Tobener was able to pull a 7.94 second run at over 172 mph. Tobener was able to beat out Johnny Lightning to win the class.

The Coyote modified class saw another record with Frank Varela making a record pass for the class with a run of 8.48 seconds. Varela had won the class in the first two events prior to Maryland, but was not able to do it again. Varela lost to Terry Reeves who won the event in Maryland, running a 8.81 second run.

The Pure street racers did not see the any record breaking runs, but for Tommy Godfrey it was a great event. Godfrey was able to pull out his third consecutive win in this class.

Since the last season of NMRA, Shane Stymiest was leading the Coyote Stock class. Unfortunately for him, this was not his event. He started out strong with a qualifying time of 10.42 seconds, but due to transmission issues Stymiest was forced to swap transmissions on Sunday morning. In the semifinal this second transmission failed which gave Joe Marini and opportunity to win the whole thing.

In the factory stock class, Matt Amrine continued to tear through the competition by setting a record 10.71 second time. He was able to continue his streak by winning his third straight event in the class.

Scott Waters had a good weekend beating out Nelson Whitlock in his 2010 GT500. He laid down a very impressive time of 8.35 seconds. In qualifying he did even better with times of 8.25 and 8.18 seconds respectively.

Roush performance took the victory in the modular muscle class. Roush dominated pitting two teammates against each other to take the top spots in the class. McClenaghan and Donnie Bowles were the two Roush racers. Bowles was able to beat out McClenaghan in the finals. Roush continued their dominance in the Open Comp with Milton Grow taking a win with an impressive reaction time of just .035 seconds.

Nina Gusler faced Randy Conway in the Truck and Lightning class. Nina was able to pull away in the final round - his first NMRA win.

Miles Wagoner faced Al Miller in the final round of the Super Stang class, winning by pulling ahead right out of the gate.

NMRA host their next event on June 12-15 at Summit Motorsports in Ohio.

By Joshua Kashinsky