The NMRA Ford Nationals Series rolled into Bowling Green, Kentucky this past weekend, to stage their 11th Annual World Finals.  With a record fan turnout on Saturday, over 200 cars in the car show, nearly 90 racers participating in their famous True Street class, coupled with all of their heads-up racers, the event was quite possibly the NMRA’s largest ever.  

One of the biggest stories to come out of this weekend’s event was the continued domination of John Urist in one of the series’ premier classes – ProCharger Super Street Outlaw.  In the eleven years he has been competing in the series, Urist has taken home five of the championships in the class, with the last four successive returning with him to his Albuquerque, New Mexico home base.  However, don’t think that this domination has not been challenged, as John Macdonald carried the points chase all the way down to the second round of eliminations on Sunday afternoon before he went down swinging in a head-to-head matchup.  The NMRA had a season-high fourteen Super Street Outlaw cars competing in the class this weekend with the final round coming down to Urist and Slammin’ Sammy Vincent, with Urist laying down an incredible record-setting 7.317 at over 193 mph for the event win – the fastest pass ever in the class, and winning his fifth championship.

Another class that was full of Drama at the World Finals was the Eibach Springs-sponsored Pure Street class.  Pure Street is a heads-up eliminator that features small-block Ford and Modular Ford engines that are permitted a 313-cubic inch limit, .500 lift camshafts, mild cylinder head porting, and dual-plane manifolds or EFI.  The ultra-limited modification list becomes even more impressive when you realize that these cars are knocking on the 9-second door as the season comes to a close.  Heading into the final event, three racers had a chance to take home the class championship, with Ryan Hecox leading the charge, followed by Mark Anderson and Steve Gifford.  Hecox eliminated Gifford from contention in the second round of eliminations, but Anderson still had a chance to take it home if he could re-set the record and win the race.  Anderson threw it down on his first-round competition bye, cracking off a 10.129 to tie the record, but just couldn’t knock down that last thousandth to claim the record from Hecox.  He had two more chances to do it in eliminations, but just couldn’t pull it off, and Hecox earned the championship with a semifinal bye, giving himself enough points to claim his first series championship.

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