Well Monday is here and you are most likely back at work, sipping on some coffee, staring at the computer wondering what happened this weekend. Well you came to the right place to get a wrap up on the need to know. 

We will start over half way around the world. The AAP nitrous pro mod driven by PDRA superstar Lizzy Musi took the win in Qatar this weekend. Lizzy had a very consistant weekend on her way to the winners circle. 

Back on this side of the planet all the talk was what kind of performances would we see at the U.S. Street Nationals at Bradenton Motorsports Park over the weekend. Before we get to that though, the big news was actually what happened in testing before we even got to the U.S. Street Nationals. 

First was the performance of Ziff Hudson in his Racecraft built, single turbo Mustang on 275 Mickey Thompson drag radials. Ziff has been absolutely crushing the clocks lately with his car. Before last week he was already on his way to becoming the quickest car on the planet when bolted to a 275 tire. Well that's exactly what we saw last week as Ziff crushed it when he stopped the clocks at 4.0 in the 1/8th during testing at Orlando Speed World Dragway. Unfortunately there were some issues on the car during testing, and at the top end the head gasket let go and caused a terrible fire. While the damages appeared to be contained just to the engine compartment, it was damage that would have to  be addressed immediately. So, a little more than 24 hours after the car was loaded into the trailer we saw on Facebook that the car had already arrived at Racecraft in Minnesota. Trust me when I tell you this, that is a brutal drive too. I used to live 4 hours south of Racecraft and made that drive to Orlando before. This crew is as hardcore as they come, which is also evident by the fact that on Sunday the engine, plumbing, wiring, etc was all removed from the engine compartment. I am sure we will see Ziff and his amazing Mustang at Lights Out 8 in two weeks. 

What could have been a terrible break, Lyle Barnett, driving Jason Digby's leaf spring Dodge Dart. As we previously reported, Lyle broke the old leaf spring record and continued to do so on Sunday. On Saturday night though it got a little hairy when Lyle was turning off the track and the wheel broke. This caused some damages that they were able to get repaired with parts from some of the other teams on site.  Lyle came back on Sunday and took the Dart all the way to the Semi Finals in LDR where he fell to the eventual class winner Kevin Fiscus. 

Speaking of Bradenton Motorsports Park and the U.S. Street Nationals, there were so exciting moments there as well. Friday was a test session for the cars on the property. Little did most know at the time that would be the best weather of the entire weekend. Saturday rolled around and we saw amazing times coming out in everything from 632 to Extreme Pro Mod. 

The biggest issue came in on Saturday. We had gotten through round one and most of round two when I noticed that it was getting "late". The reason I say late is because they made it clear on Friday that they were shutting everything down at 7 pm because it starts to get too "cold". Well that is exactly what happened on Saturday night. After an very small oil down during an exhibition pass, they all of a sudden called it for the day and cancelled Q3 for all classes. At that point classes were set. This decision did not sit well with a lot of racers we heard from on Saturday night, whether or not it was from radial racers or pro mods. It was further passed on that they wanted to start at 9 am Sunday morning, at which time would have been even cooler than it was when they called it on Saturday night. 

Racing finally started Sunday a little after 1 pm. The track made the decision the all the index classes would not be run and neither would the B Ladder of the pro mods that didn't make the 16 car field. All but one Extreme Pro Mod car left before racing started on Sunday as well. The racers that did stay though, put on one hell of a show for the fans that came out to the track or were watching on the SpeedVideo livefeed. What we believe might be his first pro mod event win outside Big Dog events, Ty Tutterow took home the win in Outlaw Pro Mod when he was able to take out the Q80 Proline powered Mustang driven by Jose Gonzales. 

In the finals of Pro Drag Radial, we saw two of the biggest rockstars in all of radial tire racing face off. It was Mark Woodruff in the Extreme Brand Products backed Corvette and the gorgeous old school blown Camaro of Barry Mitchell, who is testing ran quicker than anyone else in the history of radial. Mark lost a ceramic  wheel bearing that caused the Vette to shoot sideways and whip back and tap the wall. Barry had a solid 3.821 which would have been hard to beat. Mark is ok, and it sounds like they still plan on having the Vette ready for Georgia.

LDR was the hot class of the event. We saw Justin Swanstrom enter his sinister nitrous powered Mustang, and put the class on notice that his combo was one that can be a front runner. Scott Husted, showed up and made his presence known again by going to the semi's against Justin. Kevin "Flash" Fiscus was on the property all weekend as he was tapped to drive Willard Kinzer's orange Mustang. Kevin faced off against Justin in the finals. First it was a staging duel, and it looked like Justin got the jump when all of a sudden "boom" and Justin started to fade. At the same time, Kevin decided that it was time to take flight and was in a wheel stand before setting it down and cruising across the finish line for the win.

U.S. Street Nationals Winners

Pro Mod: 

Winner: Ty Tutterow  R/U: Jose Gonzales

Pro Drag Radial:

Winner: Barry Mitchell   R/U: Mark  Woodruff

Ultra Street:

Winner:  Tony Alm   R/U: Brian Keep

LDR:

Winner: Kevin "Flash" Fiscus   R/U: Justin "Little Country" Swanstrom

632:

Winner: Ken Quartuccio   R/U: Dominic Augustine

Nitrous Pro Mod:

Winner: James Hancock   R/U: George Williams

Heavy Street:

Winner: Rick Prospero   R/U: Black G Body Driver Unknown

To say it was an exciting opening week of drag racing in 2017 would be an understatement. New records, drama, a few cars that need some work done to them to get ready for Georgia as well. Stay tuned as were start to ramp up for one of the biggest events of the year as well.