7th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA World Finals

As it does every year, Bowling Green capped off another season of NMRA Denso Ford Drag Racing, and what a season it was! Records were broken, champions were made, and throughout the entire weekend fans couldn't have been more enthused as the 7th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA World Finals ended up being a truly phenomenal event.

Starting off with DiabloSport Pro 5.0, the highlight of the weekend was Don Walsh, Jr. collecting his record-setting third consecutive championship as he ripped through the Pro 5.0 field to win the event. Moving on to the much-anticipated Vortech 10.5 Outlaw showdown, 13 competitors from as far away as Texas came out to fight for championship honors. Names like Tim Lynch, Jim Briante, and Gary Rohe made for a show fans would not soon forget. In the end, the stands filled with cheers of approval for the overall winner, Joel Greathouse, who piloted the trick, twin-turbo, Mark Van Meter '05 Mustang around Dennis Bailey for the win with a 7.59 at 178 mph.

MSD Super Street Outlaw was the talk of the event because of the dominating performances from the nitrous cars. Although the turbocharged car of Manny Buginga again qualified at the top of the pack, in the end it was the nitrous machines of Sam Vincent and Bryan Sorby entertaining the crowd as Vincent won with a 7.99 to 8.12 decision to bag the race.

In the ProCharger EFI Renegade ranks, Scott Lovell made show-stopping runs all weekend long to seal up his spot as champion for 2005. Team Swill made their fourth final round of the season when they outqualified Zoop Zellonis, but unfortunately for the Swill crew, Zellonis was not about to be denied his moment of glory this season, winning with a blistering 8.68 at 154 over Lovell's 8.71 at 157.

Carrying over into BF Goodrich Drag Radial, the highlights were easily the unheard of ET's offered up by a number of different drivers throughout the show. Leading the way, Frank Provenza set the pace in qualifying with an unreal 8.20 at 173 mph! Ripping through the pack of 21 drivers, he went on to pick up a well-deserved win in the finals against Chris Tuten, but not before Tuten would wrap up the '05 championship with a quarterfinal win over Mark Magnuson.

Charlie Booze continued his championship ways at Beech Bend in Edelbrock Hot Street, but he did not go uncontested, as the Roush-reinvigorated efforts of Mike DeMayo would prove to be a reckoning force. Despite his efforts, Booze would go on to win his fourth event of the season. There was some spirited competition in Bowling Green in 5.0 Mustang Real Street as well. Laying down his final strike in a quest for the championship, Brian Meyer came out displaying an obvious mission-to win. He did just that as both Tim Matherly and Jim Breese would fall victim to the blow. Breese, however, put up one hell of a fight for his first final of the year. With both drivers pulling the hoops high off the line, the end results would read as follows: 9.73 at 139 for Meyer, and 9.82 at 137 for Breese.

In other action, Ron Anderson came from nowhere to beat eventual season champ Gene Hindman before meeting Brad Meadows in the finals where he won with a 10.34 over Meadow's 10.57. K&N Factory Stock saw Shawn Johnson put an exclamation point on a season where he won every race except for one as he beat Jeff Schmell in the finals.

Moving on to the cam-crazy crew of Vortech Modular Muscle, a solid 50 cars came out to rip down the Bowling Green facility. Unlikely as it may have seemed from the beginning of the weekend, Ed Hicks made a stomp all the way to the finals, and then past Carole Parker to stake a claim on his first-ever NMRA championship-much to the disappointment of then-current-class-leader Tom Motycka.

Speaking of Motycka, his cousin Mike Motycka may be a serious force next year in Detroit Locker Truck & Lightning. Running through the 17-truck field in Bowling Green, Motycka met his challenges with great precision until meeting Keith Kohlmann in the final. Having the championship in the bag, Kohlmann was feeling good at Beech Bend and wasn't about to have anybody rain on his parade, as he outgunned Motycka on the tree for the win.

Finally, in Toyo Tires Open Comp, a grueling championship effort was rewarded in full when Bruce Parker superceded Jeremy Gillam in the quarterfinals. With Parker's points lead then being unsurpassable, he carried on into the finals, but was unable to win the whole Kentucky show, as Bobby Sisco laid down a flawless 10.30 on a 10.28 dial with .009 off the tree.

Maximum EffortMark Van Meter Debuts One Of The Trickest Mustangs Ever SeenOf all the new cars that have debuted this season, none have been as highly anticipated as the twin-turbo '05 Mustang GT owned by Mark Van Meter. NMRA Joliet was chosen as the place where this new steed made her debut and, with two-time world champion Joel Greathouse behind the wheel, the performance didn't disappoint.

With a lazy start and strong top-end charge, the team was admittedly just trying to creep up on the right tune-up combination, but that didn't stop them from being low qualifier in Vortech 10.5W with a 7.16 at 198.79. A week later at Bristol, they ran even better with a 7.13 at 200-plus at over 3.800 feet of air.

"It took a lot of effort from a lot of different people to get us here today," Van Meter said quite modestly. "We didn't want to build just another 10.5 Outlaw car. We wanted to build something special. Our sights set on making NMRA Joliet our first race. We've had a lot of bumps and bruises along the way in getting to this point, but the car's performed well and we're looking forward to seeing how far we can go."

Like many people, Van Meter always had an interest in drag racing, but couldn't afford to run the car he wanted or tear up any parts. He definitely enjoyed watching the sport and eventually found a lot of satisfaction in engineering, then building a car and watching it perform. In 2004, Van Meter and Greathouse ran a number of 10.5-inch tire events with a '98 Mustang, which was later sold to Mike Young, who still campaigns the car today.

"We weren't content to stay in one spot," Van Meter said when asked why they built this newer car. "We wanted to step up and take our program to another level."

Yet, when talk went to what that other level was, it became pretty clear what Van Meter had in mind.

"If you look in the dictionary under the word 'competitor,' I think you'll find Bill Glidden's name," Van Meter continued. "He's been at it a long time and he's very good at what he does, but our goal is to outrun Billy and to do it on a consistent basis. When we meet that goal, I'll feel successful with this car. Till then, we're going to work hard toward that goal."

One of the most remarkable things with this new car is how effortlessly it seems to go down the track. Steve Matukas, of Matukas Motorsport Race Cars in Bowling Green, built the car with double-framerail construction and a steel body. The car is very similar to a Pro Modified from the firewall back and uses a specially designed Mark Williams rear-end floater to clear the 15-inch bead lock wheels.

"These cars are very similar to a Pro Modified in terms of horsepower, but they present a bigger challenge with the 10.5W tire," Steve said. "It's important to know the limitations of what that tire size can do and then build your chassis to that. Efficiency is the key and finding that just involves a lot of time and effort with a chassis. Mark gave us the budget to use top-of-the-line parts wherever we turned, and that's what allowed us to run a 7.16/198 in just its second pass down the track."

While Van Meter was making sure that his driver would have a good ride underneath him, Steve Petty was working under the hood. Details weren't exactly forthcoming with regards to specifics about the engine combination, but it was revealed that the team is running a 449ci small-block engine combination with twin Garrett GT4788 turbos along with a Bruno transmission and Big Stuff 3 engine management system.

"The car is truly amazing," Greathouse added to the conversation. "Without having another car to base this on, building this was truly an engineering feat. The longer 108-inch wheelbase helps in getting us down the track and, in perfect conditions, I think this car is very capable of running a 6.85."

"If you're going to do something, do it 100 percent," Van Meter said in closing. "It takes a lot of effort, focus, and hard work. It's definitely not a cheap sport, but I believe you should pour yourself into it and try to be the best at what you do."

Looks like these guys are on the right track.