2009 Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing - Family Feud - NMRA/NMCA Joliet, Illinois '09

Filled and smoothed inner fenders and firewall, tastefully done bling and body-color treatments on the engine, and mirrors in the perfect place for showing it all off makes this Fox coupe's engine compartment a true show-stopper.

So you're wondering, just how big is the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing? Here's a sky view of the racers' pits, which were packed solid over the entire length of the facility (nearly a half-mile).

Don't let anyone tell you differently-the hot deals on Mustang parts can always be found in the manufacturers' midway and swap-meet areas at NMRA events. We drooled over this brand-new turbocharged stroker and Tremec TKO 600 setup, which was being sold for a song in the swap meet, and we were sick that the seller wouldn't take plastic!

In addition to individual round wins, this Nitto Tire Diamond Tree Champion's ring is the prize that every racer at the Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing wants to win. This year rings were awarded to all of the members of the collective team (NMRA or NMCA) that won the most rounds in the final shootout-when the winners in the two sanctions run against each other using handicaps based on e.t.'s. When it was all said and done, the NMCA prevailed as Super Bowl Shootout champions, but we're confident Team NMRA will be back in winning form next year.

The Chitown Mustang Club served as hosts for the NMRA's side of the car-show area, which featured several tricked-out Fox, New Edge (there weren't many SN-95s at this show), and S197 Ponies. The club's officers encourage Windy City-area 'Stangbangers to join their ranks, so dial up www.chitownmustangclub.org if you're interested in joining the stampede.

Reigning BFGoodrich Drag Radial champion John Kolivas can now be called the biggest man on "little" drag radials. After a bit of controversy about the legality of using 325/50-15 DRs in NMRA's Super Street Outlaw class, John strapped a set of much smaller 275/60-15 Mickey Thompsons on his turbocharged 'Stang, and proceeded to set, reset, and finally obliterate the SSO e.t. record with a 7.36 at 194 mph. The record shot puts John atop the list of all other nationally recognized e.t. benchmarks for cars running on the 275s.

Pro Outlaw 10.5
In what could arguably be called the most exciting final of the event, Dan Millen zipped by West Coast phenom Doug Sikora within inches of the stripe, and captured the victory in Turbonetics Pro Outlaw 10.5 with a 6.72 to Doug's 6.76. "We got lucky like you wouldn't believe. The boost tube on the turbo blew off right at the end of the pass. I'm not sure if it would have made any difference in e.t.'s-maybe a 6.71 or a 6.70-but it definitely could have killed us if it had have happened sooner in the run," said Dan.

John Urist showed fellow Freak Show competitors that his Nitto-sponsored Fox coupe is also capable of running in the 7.30s. John clicked off a string of e.t.'s in the high 7.30s, which had the pits abuzz with excitement over John's matchup with John Kolivas in the Super Street Outlaw final. The Fireball pulled all the stops and hit the Tree a bit too hard in that final, redlighting his chances of earning a Super Bowl victory in SSO.

Super Street Outlaw
No, you're not seeing things, those really are the letters S-S-O on the windshield of John Kolivas' 94mm turbocharged '95 Cobra. In his first NMRA race since winning the Drag Radial points title in 2008, John brought his 'Stang out of its retirement from NMRA competition and entered the 10-Inch-Tire Freak Show, using Mickey Thompson 275/60-15 drag radials instead of the class-standard 28x10.5 slicks. The "little" radials carried John to his first victory in ProCharger Super Street Outlaw, as well as helped John rewrite the class e.t. record books four times and establish 7.32 as the new all-time low.

If people didn't know the name "Doug Sikora" before the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl, they surely know it now, as the PSCA Outlaw 10.5 regular definitely made the most of his big adventure from Southern California to Route 66 Raceway. On Saturday, Doug scorched the 1,320 with an eye-popping 6.69 e.t. (at 206.32 mph) to snare low-qualifier honors, and in eliminations, guided his '00 Mustang GT to a final-round showdown with Dan Millen in the Pro Outlaw 10.5 category. "I was aware of the e.t. record (6.77) coming into the event, and thought we were good enough to come out and just compete," says Doug. "But when we went 0.71, and 0.69 and 0.68 after correcting the fuel problem (the team spent about six hours cleaning the fuel system on Friday night after learning that the VP Q-16 fuel Doug uses for PSCA competition is illegal in the NMRA), I was happy-a little shocked, actually. I didn't take credit for the record because Dan Millen runs this deal regularly and we won't be at any future events, but I definitely think i

EFI Renegade
Big Dan Rawls is on an event-winning roll in DiabloSport EFI Renegade. Dan's victory over Bart Tobener in the final round at the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl makes his win count two in a row, as he also took top honors in the class at the Milan, Michigan, race. "We had a few problems but we stayed at it, and Steve Johnson made some great tuning calls that also helped us reset the class e.t. record with an 8.44 in the first round (of eliminations)," says Dan.

Jason Lee's string of final-round victories in 2009 came to an end at the Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, with his -0.052 red-light loss to Enzo Pecchini in the Drag Radial final. "It was Enzo's day," says Jason. "I was trying to cut down the Tree a little bit since my car was a little down on power, but he really made a great pass. I don't think I had enough to beat him anyway (if there had not been a red light), to be honest with you."

Drag Radial"It's been a long time coming," says Enzo Pecchini of his first NMRA victory in the tough BFGoodrich Tire Drag Radial class. "Drag Radial is never smooth as silk, but the car ran consistently all weekend and finally got into the 8-ohs." Enzo's clean coupe ran low-8s throughout eliminations, with the best shot coming in a third-round single (8.01) and a follow-up 8.02 against Jason Lee in the final.

EFI Renegade runner-up Bart Tobener cites tuning (changes in the launch program) and tire-pressure adjustments (added a half-pound of air) as the keys to his success at Joliet. "The best my car has ever 60-footed was 1.32, and it was below that all weekend after I made the adjustments," says Bart, who knocked off past champions Brian Mitchell and Bob Cook on his road to the final round.

Real Street
Once again, defending 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords Real Street champion Bruce Hemminger returned to action at his home race (Bruce is a Chicago-area native), and once again won the eliminator at the Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing (Bruce took top honors in Real Street at the 2008 Bowl). "I had a lot of help from great sponsors, my crew, and, of course, my soon-to-be-wife, Debbie," says Bruce. In a bid to repeat as class champion, Bruce says he will continue to run all of the remaining races this season.

Hot Street
Some things never change. Charlie Booze Jr. found himself sitting in the Route 66 Raceway Winner's Circle after a decisive win in the Edelbrock Hot Street final over Don Bowles Sr. "We did it again here," says Charlie, who has bested the rest in Joliet an amazing six times (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009).

Jim Pickel's runner-up finish in the Real Street final was bittersweet. While the achievement would have been Jim's first appearance in an NMRA final round, an electrical problem with Jim's Olive Drab '93 coupe prevented him from actually making that appearance, giving Bruce Hemminger an unopposed trip down the strip for the win.

Don Bowles's little yellow Maverick's impressive performance continues in its debut season in Hot Street. Don beat defending class champ Robbie Blankenship, as well as the always-tough Max Gross, on his road to the final at the Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, but he fell just short of a class win in an exciting final round versus Charlie Booze Jr.

Real Street stalwarts and teammates Jim Breese (far lane) and Tim Matherly squared off against each other in Round One of eliminations, with Tim cashing in on "racer's luck" and overcoming Jim's massive holeshot (0.023 to 0.233), after Jim's '01 GT experienced engine problems.

Pure Street
Mark Anderson and Sea Biscuit followed up their Milan victory by qualifying on the Pole; then claiming the Eibach Springs Pure Street title over Ryan Hecox at the Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, taking over the class' points lead in the process. "It was a tough race. Teddy Weaver is really starting to fly and so are a lot of other guys in the class. It was a good time, a good weekend. Now that we're leading in points, we'll have to try and go to all of them (the remaining races)," says Mark. Grandpa Ron Anderson says he's strongly considering renaming the Kuntz-sponsored '89 LX "Sunday Money" now, as the coupe continues to rake in the loot on race day.

Three times was almost the proverbial charm for Ryan "Magic Man" Hecox, as it took a trifecta of clutch assemblies for Ryan to reach the final round in Pure Street in his Cobra-cloned '04 GT. Despite the driveline issues, Ryan credits something he calls "the Gene Hindman factor" for helping him get through a tough Pure Street field for his all-or-nothing confrontation with Mark Anderson. "We made a cylinder-head change before we got here (removed the Trick Flow heads for a 50-pound weight reduction), and that made a pretty significant difference. I'm thankful to finish where I finished," says Ryan.

We dig the paint layout on Mad Matt Johnson's clean '93 LX notchback!