2007 NMRA Bowling Green Race - Final Countdown

Pure Street - We've started to think of Pure Street as baby Hot Street. Like Hot Street, Pure Street is a naturally aspirated class, and nowadays, just like Hot Street racers, Pure Street times have been separated by thousandths. It was more of the same at Bowling Green. Ryan Hecox was only trying to move up to the fourth qualifying spot, but he must've been a leapfrog superstar as a child because he put his Cobra in the top spot. Ryan swore something was wrong with his Cobra in the semis against Brandon Alsept because he wasn't gaining ground on Brandon at all. Nothing was wrong with Ryan's car; Brandon's BES powerplant hammered out a stellar 10.19 compared to Ryan's suddenly off-pace 10.28. Brandon continued his semifinal success into the final against Brad Meadows with a win.

Pure Street - We don't know what it is about Pure Street at Bowling Green, but every year the class boasts a full field. This year, Pure Street featured 16 qualified cars, with Ryan Hecox at the top when qualifying was over. Brad Meadows had a few drivetrain issues, but he qualified with a 10.35 at 131 mph, although he was still down in the sixth spot. That didn't mean much to Brad during eliminations, as he moved through to the final against Brandon Alsept. This time, modular power prevailed over pushrod power with Brandon taking the win.

Factory Stock - Farmer Steve Gifford just can't harvest a break. His car has run strong all year in Factory Stock, but on a few occasions, victory was out of Steve's grasp. He improved in the second half of the season, and he needed everything to go right to make a run at the championship. He set the Factory Stock class on its ear with 11.30s at Columbus, and he closed out the year with a victory at Bowling Green. Tommy Godfrey's number-one qualifying effort and final-round appearance against him means Steve's GT will wear a two on the window for 2008. We can't wait for Bradenton.

Factory Stock - After his Bradenton opener victory, Tommy Godfrey looked to be single-handedly putting the pushrod engine back on the Factory Stock map. However, it went downhill from there until a combo change right before Columbus turned things around for the JPC Racing pilot. Tommy went rounds all year long, but he made up ground in the final few races, including Bowling Green, where he qualified number one and went to the finals again. With that performance, he took the championship in his first full year of NMRA competition.

Modular Muscle - In Modular Muscle, some would call it bad luck that Rick Doern had to race Robert Hindman in round one. Rick was battling Roxanne Shepard in the points championship, so to be lined up with one of the all-time modular Mustang racers in round one could be classified as bad luck. However, it's most often better to be lucky than to be good, so Roxanne will take it. Her Tweety has run well all year, and she has been at the top of Modular Muscle all year, so it's not all luck. At Bowling Green, though, Robert took it to the house in the final.

Open Comp - Even though Redline Randy Conway didn't win the race at Bowling Green, he did win the Open Comp class again in 2007 in his '94 Cobra. Saul Walker took Randy out in round three, but not before Randy was able to win the championship. When the Open Comp noise died down, it would be two big-block Mustangs battling it out with Robert Motycka and Sam Dyer getting after it. Robert must've seen someone taking off on the family Bronco golf cart, causing a redlight start and a victory for Sam.

Truck - We're fairly sure Truck and Lightning competitors were wishing Randy Henry was still racing in Hot Street. However, he's not, and Randy is one of the top Truck and Lightning competitors at every race. In the final at Bowling Green, Craig Cain went 0.397 red versus Randy, and we're sure he'll be thinking about that one all winter long.