Different Location, Terrible Weather, Yet NMCA/NMRA Rocked it in St. Louis!

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This year has been an absolute nightmare when it comes to drag racing and being able to hold events. The “Pandemic” has hit NMRA & NMCA just as hard as well, as evident from the fact that for the first time in the history of the joint series Superbowl event it was not held in Joliet at Route 66.

This marked the 15th annual running of the NMRA/NMCA Superbowl event, and as I stated, This is the first time that it was held away from the Route 66 track in Joliet Illinois. Due to everything that has been going on in the world, and in this country, the series was forced to moved the event from Joliet, Il. to Madison, Il. and the historic Gateway Motorsports Park (Yes I am aware it’s called something else). The track has held epic events over the years, from NHRA, MWPMS, NMCA, NMRA, World Ford Challenge, and so much more. It should come as no surprise that the facility was ready to take on the challenges involved with hosting 20+ different classes this time.

Normally this is event is a four-day event spanning Thursday through Sunday, and that is exactly what was on the schedule this year as well. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had much different ideas for us over the weekend. I rolled down to Gateway on Thursday to catch some afternoon testing, but at 3 pm the call was made to can the rest of the day due to terrible weather. The forecast didn’t look much better for Friday either though. As you can imagine, Friday rolled around and so did the rain, yep we lost Friday as well. Imagine if you will, attempting to truncate four days of racing into about 36 hours. That is the challenge facing Rollie Miller and the entire staff at NMRA/NMCA, along with the Gateway staff.

Pro Mod is always the headliner of the event, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. While there were certainly a lack of turbo entries on the property, which from what I have been told is a rules issue with weight, the cars that did make the drive put on one hell of a show. It was a battle between the centrifugal superchargers, the bottle fed nitrous cars, and the screw blower cars. When we made it to the semi-finals it was two nitrous cars, a Procharger, and a screw blower. Jim Widener, Jackie Sloan, Adam Flamholc, and Eric Gustafson were the one’s all vying for a spot in the finals. When the smoke cleared it was Gustafson vs. Widener in the finals. Widener, in his nitrous fed Corvette had been pretty consistent each time down the track, and in the finals it was no different. He put the hammer down and lit the boards with a 3.74 to Gustafson’s 3.78. Widener also lit up the sky at the finish line with a huge nitrous burp that appeared from where I was standing, to send the hood scoop sky high in the process.

Street Outlaw, better known to most as a closely related mirror of X275 featured two of the sports heavy hitters in the finals. Dom DiDonato was the man to beat all weekend, as he seem to be dropping low 4.30’s like candy on Halloween. Not only did he sit at the number one position all weekend, he carried that through to a victory over the white Foxbody Mustang of Tony Hobson. The win allowed for Dom to go into the final two races of the season with a continued points lead in the chase for the World Championship.

Tell me if you have heard this before…”Your winner Joel Greathouse”. As a matter of fact it happened yet again over the weekend. In the combined Xtreme Street / Renegade class it came down to a Ford vs. Ford battle for the win. In one lane you had Tim Knierierm, getting in the beams against one the the best in the world, the red KBX powered Foxbody driven by Joel Greathouse. Tim put up a stout 4.74, but it wasn’t enough, as Joel laid down an even more stout 4.69 to secure the victory.

While I won’t get in-depth with all 20+ classes, I will wrap up the in-depth with my personal favorite class at the event, that being the G-Force Transmissions Sponsored, Coyote Stock. Folks, you have seen me write about them before, and if you truly appreciate drag racing this is a class for you. These are 10 second quarter mile cars that are filled with a sealed Ford Coyote engine and bolted to a manual transmission. Sky-high wheelies, shifting into second while draggin’ the damn bumper out past the 60’. Nathan Stymiest knows all about going sky high, and he had the chance to face off against the first ever 9 second C/S car of Frank Paultanis. This certainly wasn’t 9-second air, but at the end of the day, Frank dropped a 10.21 on Nathan, who could only muster a 10.42 in the runner-up position.

Further Results:

JDM Engineering Limited Street – Bill Putnam


Richmond Gear Factory Stock – Mark Anderson


Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle – Jason Henson

FSC Ford Muscle – Clyde Dunphy

ROUSH Performance Super Stang – Marvin Knack

ARP Open Comp – Dennis Corn

Detroit Locker Truck & Lightning – Bob Dill

Eaton TVS Supercharger Throwdown - Oscar Morin

Holley EFI Factory Super Cars - Tripp Carter

ARP Nitrous Pro Street - Tony Gillig

Dart NA 10.5 presented by Diamond Pistons - Leonard Long

Chevrolet Performance Stock presented by Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center - Jeff Heintz

Coan Stock/Super Stock Combo - George Cox

Quick Fuel Technology Nostalgia Super Stock - Kevin Miller

Detroit Truetrac Nostalgia Muscle - Brenda Blair

MagnaFuel Open Comp - Cameron Bowles