2009 NMRA Bradenton - Exclusive Photos

Factory Stock
The rest of Factory Stock must've forgotten how to drive over the winter because Carlos Sobrino qualified in the top spot at Bradenton (Just kidding Carlos, great job!). Leading up to the Bradenton race, defending champ Tommy Godfrey wanted to go testing the weekend prior, but we understand it's pretty hard to drag race in 14 inches of snow. With no testing under his belt he loaded the car on the trailer the Friday of the event (Hey Tommy, first round of qualifying was Friday afternoon) left his house at 2:30 p.m. Friday. Arriving at Bradenton Motorsports Park 16

"It was a great honor to win the Best Appearing Crew, and to present it to us on the starting line ceremonies was awesome," says Factory Stock racer John Leslie Jr. He qualified in the second spot just behind Carlos Sobrino and took out Rick Walsh and Brian Marr in the first and second rounds, respectively. However, at Bradenton he didn't quite have enough to take out Tommy Godfrey in the final. John has some things in the works, and whenever anyone has Rich Groh, TRZ Motorsports, and Ford Racing helping out, good things are bound to happen. John and his crew found a lot of things needing addressing, and he hopes to have them worked out by the Atco race.

Modular Muscle
We have some experience attempting to consistently run a high-horsepower GT500, and it isn't easy. That makes us respect Paul Svinicki of Paul's High Performance fame all the more, as he nailed his dial-in when he needed to, and he wasn't just focused on his own car throughout the weekend, as he had customers to help out too. (Could the 5.0&SF license plate could have helped?) In the finals, ran a 9.98 on a 9.91 dial-in, but his opponent, Susan McClenaghan gave away the farm with a redlight start, handing Paul the win, which made the trip back to Michigan much more enjoyable.

Open Comp
Bruce Parker might own one of the quickest Capris in the NMRA, but his is surely one of the most consistent. With a big-block under the hood, Bruce's little Capri runs bottom 9s, and does it every pass. Combine Bruce's work at the tree at Bradenton with consistent 9.30s on a 9.30 dial, and you have a recipe for victory. The win certainly made the trip home to Jersey that much shorter.

Trucks
Mike Motycka and his racing family longhauled from Mattawan, Michigan, and that's a loooooonnnnnngggg way from Bradenton. However, it's not an NMRA race if one of the Motyckas doesn't win. This time around it would be Mike taking a win in the Truck and Lightning class. Mike's Uncle Jesse-inspired '79 F-150 runs a big-block 460, and could probably outrun the General Lee, but that's not really the name of the game in the index-style Truck and Lightning class. At Bradenton, there were 22 trucks in attendance, and Mike made it through them all by cutting solid lights and running right on, or right next door to, his 11.98 dial.

Super 'Stang
Derek Hoffert took his daily driven Shelby GT500 to victory in Super 'Stang. Helping Derek run 11.40-11.50s are Kooks long-tubes and off-road H-pipe, a JBA Super Snake exhaust, 4.10 gears, a Metco 2.6-inch pulley, an SCT Pro Racer package tuned by Derek, BMR upper and lower control arms, Steeda Autosports Sport springs, a C&L cold-air intake, an Afco heat exchanger, and a stock shifter. Yes, Derek still runs the factory T6060 six-speed in his Shelby, which makes his victory that much more astonishing. He went through five rounds of eliminations on Sunday to take the victory over Chris Parisi in the final.