Today the action heats up at The Fastest Track In Michigan, as the 2nd Annual Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival Presented By TorqStorm Superchargers as qualifying runs wrap up and racers roll into eliminations.
While the heads-up and index racers begin eliminations, Torqstorm Superchargers True Street contestants will endure a 30-mile cruise led by Tom Bailey and his merry band of drag-n-drive racers in the Sick the Invitational Presented by Gear Vendors.
After the cruise, True Street competitors endure three back-to-back quarter-mile runs to determine the winners across a broad range of elapsed-time categories with the average of their three passes.
Likewise, the Dodge // Mopar Hemi Shootout will determine victors across its ET categories as well, with the eight swiftest machines moving on to the HHP Racing Hemi Quick 8 class held tomorrow.
And, of course, there is plenty to see away from the racetrack, including the UPR Products car show, an expansive Manufacturer's Midway, and even the original Big Foot monster truck on the property.
As always, stay tuned to this page and our social channels, for updates on the action from US 131 Motorsports Park.
Here’s a look at today’s scheduled action from the 2nd Annual Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival Presented By TorqStorm Superchargers.
Scott Christoffel of Oswego, Illinois, is back racing with the VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod this weekend in his burnt orange C5 Corvette. This is Christoffel’s second year with the car, which is powered by a Noonan Race Engineering Hemi engine and Mike Janis roots blower. Christoffel’s best ET is a 3.80, and he is hoping to improve on his 3.87 in round two of qualifying and perhaps get into the 3.70s.
Donnie Brass heads up the marketing for the Factory Appearing Stock Tire racers group, and when he’s not promoting them, he does a bit of racing himself in his FAST Factory Stock small-block-powered, four-speed C2 Corvette. The FAST cars are the type of vehicles that kicked off the National Muscle Car Association more than 30 years ago.
Nathan Stymiest says he needs a bit of his brother Shane’s luck this weekend. He started off the race by chasing things. He spent all day Thursday working his G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock entry. After pulling his transmission to correct a broken clutch, he also discovered a leaky pinion seal. With the repairs made, he started finding his way with the new setup. He also recently installed a new Clutch Tamer and was using his datalogger to help dial in the adjustments.
There are a wide variety of high-performance companies on the Manufacturer’s Midway this weekend at the 2nd Annual Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival Presented By TorqStorm Superchargers, including the Arrington Performance trailer, which hosts displays from the likes of 3030 Autosport, Baer Brakes, Classic Instruments, Fi-Tech, Kooks Headers, Moser Engineering, Torqstorm Superchargers, and QA1. And, that’s just a sampling of the companies on the property this weekend at US 131 Motorsports Park.
There is a strong turnout today in the UPR Products Car Show. Case in point is Justin Hewitt's 1989 Mustang. Painted in teal, the Fox definitely gives off Cobra vibes. Riding just right over Weld wheels, it is powered by a naturally aspirated small-block with a forward-facing throttle body and an MSD coil-near-plug ignition, his "Slow Fox," looks anything but slow.
Scott Christoffel of Oswego, Illinois, is back racing with the VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod this weekend in his burnt orange C5 Corvette. This is Christoffel’s second year with the car, which is powered by a Noonan Race Engineering Hemi engine and Mike Janis roots blower. Christoffel’s best ET is a 3.80, and he is hoping to improve on his 3.87 in round two of qualifying and perhaps get into the 3.70s.
Donnie Brass heads up the marketing for the Factory Appearing Stock Tire racers group, and when he’s not promoting them, he does a bit of racing himself in his FAST Factory Stock small-block-powered, four-speed C2 Corvette. The FAST cars are the type of vehicles that kicked off the National Muscle Car Association more than 30 years ago.
Nathan Stymiest says he needs a bit of his brother Shane’s luck this weekend. He started off the race by chasing things. He spent all day Thursday working his G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock entry. After pulling his transmission to correct a broken clutch, he also discovered a leaky pinion seal. With the repairs made, he started finding his way with the new setup. He also recently installed a new Clutch Tamer and was using his datalogger to help dial in the adjustments.
ARP Open Comp Racer Tom Hoffman is enjoying the fruits of his off-season brake and rearend upgrades. He says the car is doing great, he is just dialing in his reaction time. To tame the front end at launch, he stiffened the shocks and adjusted the timing. With no drag from his fresh brakes, he also has to adjust his deceleration method at the top end, as he changed so much on the car he is still getting used to it. Hoffman was all smiles, however, and enjoying his race weekend.
Since the inception of the class, Aaron Worstell always dreamed of running in G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock. These days he happily calls many of his class heroes friends as he lives the dream of racing his GS Performance Automotive-backed Fox GT with a sealed Coyote under the hood. This weekend he is trying to tune for the track, but he believes the car has the potential to run fast if he gets the clutch settings and shift points dialed in.
There are a wide variety of high-performance companies on the Manufacturer’s Midway this weekend at the 2nd Annual Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival Presented By TorqStorm Superchargers, including the Arrington Performance trailer, which hosts displays from the likes of 3030 Autosport, Baer Brakes, Classic Instruments, Fi-Tech, Kooks Headers, Moser Engineering, Torqstorm Superchargers, and QA1. And, that’s just a sampling of the companies on the property this weekend at US 131 Motorsports Park.
Since the last event, Frank Paultanis determined his G-Force Transmissions Coyote Stock New Edge Mustang was ready for a set of fresh tires. With the new rubber, he was still tuning in the launch. Since upgrading to the Gen 3 Coyote engine and adding a 9-inch rearend, the former class champ is trying to get his groove back. However, working out of state engineering Ford’s latest Super Duty trucks means he doesn't have ready access to the car for testing. He does hope to spend more time with the car in the over the winter.
After sorting out some driveline issues that reared their head in Rockingham, Randy Soper’s G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock machine showed its potential in St. Louis, so he is feeling more relaxed and confident this weekend. He plans to just go out and have fun driving the car. He might even continue the fun and temporarily convert the car to run in TorqStorm Superchargers True Street trim at the 21st Annual NMCA All-American Nationals Presented by Sick the Mag next month.
There is a strong turnout today in the UPR Products Car Show. Case in point is Justin Hewitt's 1989 Mustang. Painted in teal, the Fox definitely gives off Cobra vibes. Riding just right over Weld wheels, it is powered by a naturally aspirated small-block with a forward-facing throttle body and an MSD coil-near-plug ignition, his "Slow Fox," looks anything but slow.
While he’s usually at NMCA races supporting his father who competes in Xtreme Pro Mod, Randy Adler Jr. is at US 131 Motorsports Park this weekend racing his own Chevy Camaro in Open Comp. The second-gen F-Body packs a big-block powerplant and Adler Jr. will have his work cut out for him in the tough MagnaFuel Open Comp category this weekend.
ARP Nitrous Pro Street champion Vince Khoury and his team felt this year’s engine combination wasn’t cutting it, so they swapped in the nitrous oxide-assisted big-block from last season and immediately picked up. After three rounds of qualifying, Khoury sits second.
We caught Kevin Smith fueling up his Dodge Demon with VP Racing Fuels Q16 as he readied for today’s test session. Smith, who also owns the Dodge // Mopar Challenger Drag Pack in the background that they campaign in Holley EFI Factory Super Cars in the background, told us the Demon can dip into the 8s in good weather, and is expecting low 9s during today’s Dodge // Mopar HEMI Shootout.
First-time NMCA racer Terry Ausmus is competing in ARP Nitrous Pro Street this weekend with his 1997 Pontiac Firebird. This is the first year Ausmus has raced the car, and while he is responsible for the 582ci big-block and Induction Solutions direct-port nitrous system under the hood, his wife Angela took lead on the flashy paint job that adorns the Pontiac. Ausmus has been 4.75 with the car on just it’s 10th pass, and the Belleville, Michigan, resident will have his work cut out for him with the top qualifiers running in the 4.30s.
With TorqStorm Superchargers facility just down the road from US 131 Motorsports Park, the company bought tickets for its employees to come out to the Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival presented by TorqStorm. We found this beautiful 1957 Chevy in the TorqStorm pits that was equipped with a small-block Chevy and two TorqStorm blowers.
Brad Zaskowski won his class last year while piloting his father Bill’s Chevy II Nova, and he finds himself racing it once again this year in Super Stock Eliminator while his brother Shane gets his license in his 1987 Camaro. Zaskowski is quite the accomplished racer having won 7 NHRA national event wins and a Division 3 championship. Bill built the Chevy II in the late 70s and sold it to build the Camaro when building the new late-model cars was popular. Twenty-four years later, someone contacted him and asked him if he wanted to buy it back, which he did and the family subsequently restored it to racing form.
The Zaskowski Camaro, like the Nova, features a Liberty stick-shift transmission with a Browell bellhousing and a Jimmie Ronzello-built LS3 powerplant. It’s run a best of 9.03 seconds. Just as Brad took over the family general contracting business, he took over driving the Camaro in 1999 and has been rowing the gears ever since. Brad’s brother, Shane, will be making license passes this weekend and then will drive a Fox-body Mustang that they have been building for Brad’s son Blaine—that is until he’s old enough to get behind the wheel himself.
Makenna Oshinski has joined the TorqStorm Superchargers True Street class this weekend. The Caledonia, Michigan, resident is driving a 2006 Mustang GT and has run a best of 13.80 in the car. She aiming for the 14.00-second class, and if she wins, she can collect the extra Nitto Tire bounty money as the Mustang is equipped with Nitto tires. Makenna told us that the Mustang should be getting a big upgrade in the form of a TorqStorm Supercharger sometime after the event.
Daryl Nelson encountered some fuel system issues with his 1966 Ford Fairlane and as it happened, was able to talk to Weldon High Performance’s Jim Craig here at the track. Craig was able to diagnose the issue as a faulty gauge, and Nelson was back in business for Quick Fuel Nostalgia Super Stock competition. Nelson previously ran a 428 Cobra Jet combination in the Fairlane, but now has a 427ci mid-riser FE engine that features two thirsty Holley HP carburetors. The 428 pushed the Ford to 11.50s, and Nelson is hoping for 9.50-10.0 ETs with this new combination.
The Edelbrock Xtreme Renegade class is packed with 24 cars here at US 131 Motorsports Park, and as of Q2, Dave Fiscus led qualifying with a 4.609. Fiscus and car owner Jason Waterman fixed a boost controller wiring issue in the pits and are ready for Q3.
VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod racer Jackie Slone hasn’t been able to race this year as he has been waiting on parts for his Camaro. This event is his first NMCA race of the season and he’s attacking the class with a newly designed Pat Musi Racing Engines 959ci powerplant. A faulty transbrake had Slone miss his Q2 pass, but he was able to improve is qualifying on round 3 with a 3.74 for fifth in the 15-car field.
While his father Tony looks to be a favorite to win the TorqStorm Superchargers True Street class with his twin-turbocharged 1969 Camaro, Nicholas Karamitsos is here shaking down his Fourth-Gen Camaro that packs an LS swap with a Precision 88mm turbo. The father/son Camaro project has put down nearly 1,100 horsepower to the wheels with Kyle Morris handling the tuneup on the Holley EFI. Trick Tuning and Performance fabricated the hot side of the turbo system, and Tyler Baber of 269 Motorsports gets them the parts they need. Clemens Motorsports will be installing a 25.3-cert roll cage after the event so Karamitsos can unleash the full potential of the Camaro safely.
Coming off a successful weekend at Norwalk — where she dual enrolled in the EXEDY Racing Clutch Modular Muscle and SunCoast Performance 8.60 Street Race classes — Autumn Schwalbe was feeling good this weekend after fixing her idling issues with a fresh fuel filter. Naber Racing is dialing in the Haltech EFI tune-up on her Whipple-boosted Fox, so she is feeling good about her prospects in Modular Muscle this weekend. However, she already has her sights on doubling up on classes again at the 24th Annual Whipple Superchargers NMRA World Finals Presented by Competition Clutch Featuring the Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival.
Drag & drive veteran Tim Flanders is on the property this weekend competing in the Sick the Invitational Presented by Gear Vendors category. Saying he "brought a sharpened popsicle stick to a gunfight," Flanders slipped off the line earlier in the day, so he hoped to get hold of the track and run under 8.20 seconds this weekend. Despite competing in this grueling racing style, Flanders says his Fonzie Novelo-built Coyote hasn’t been out of the car in a year and a half and has only needed fresh spark plugs and oil changes.
ARP Open Comp racer Paul Svinicki is holding steady with the bolt-on 7.3-liter Godzilla combination under the hood of his Cobra Jet. His company, Paul’s High Performance, is proving out a double-roller timing chain (pictured) setup that eliminates the factory variable valve timing and greatly improves on-track durability. This setup does require some machining of the timing cover, so they are currently performing durability testing of a single-roller chain setup that requires no cover timing cover mods. So far the single unit has endured 70 hours at wide-open throttle and the plan is to push it to 100 hours to ensure it is durable and ready for sale. After this race, Svinicki plans to upgrade the engine with rugged rods and pistons to push the performance higher at the World Finals in Bowling Green, Kentucky.