Then again, Matt has new equipment that doesn't require much updating. His '05 Mustang was built from a body-in-white by Mid-Coast Performance in St. Louis and sports a 351W pushrod engine and Tremec 600 transmission. "There's nothing special about the suspension-it's close to stock, and there are aftermarket coilovers and original spindles. The S197s don't need much in AI. Getting the weight down is the trick to match the Fox cars. Mine is at 3,150 pounds without me in it; the others are at 2,800."
Like others in AI who had their cars built by pros, Matt went that route because he didn't have the time to build one himself, nor does he consider himself mechanically inclined. "I had the car built by the guys at Mid Coast Performance near St. Louis, and an engine guy did the motor. It was expensive, but I couldn't build it and no one had done one. It was a learning experience for the builder and the owner, but it's worked out."
Last year Mark Luna was set to quit racing. His daughter had just been born and his McDonald's restaurant, as always, wanted his time. Then Mark lost the Nationals.
Normally, losing isn't an inducement to continue: Almost everybody loses the national championship, after all. It's just that Mark had come so close-setting a lap record, winning his qualifying race, sitting on the pole, and lapping with eventual winner Jay Andrew. It was going to be epic, but when Mark's crankcase breather pushed out of the back of his 331-inch engine, he was black-flagged for leaking oil and lost the race.
Mark couldn't leave on that note. Racing was too much fun, and the chance to battle with Andrew too much of a draw. So he has gone through his Fox Mustang and continued to work with Maximum Motorsports to improve his suspension, reinforcing the rear suspension pickup points, changing the rear wing and splitter, and detailing the Stop Tech brakes, which he says were already a strongpoint.
He has also ditched the 331 in favor of a 302. The 331 made too much power for his lightweight chassis, and dumbing the stroker down with lazy timing and a rich fuel mixture only washed the cylinder walls, ruined the rings, and pushed the breather out from all the blow-by. With obvious talent and a hunger to win, Mark is one to watch.
New to Nationals race watchers this year is Ryan Walton, a West Coast driver who's worked his way up from open-tracking to full sponsorship from Agent 47 in American Iron.
Ryan is a racer's racer, saying he "started in HPDE with the Cobra Club-the old guys. Those lapping days got me out of drag racing. Then I ran with NASA in HPDE open tracking, got tired of point byes, and decided to go AI so I could race."
He's so dedicated to running door-to-door that Ryan also drives a friend's Honda CRX in other NASA competitions, citing the crowded fields and never-ending sparring as excellent race schooling. He's not alone in running a second car: Many others we interviewed cited circle track or other NASA class racing in their current activities.
"The Mustang is hands-down the most fun track car to drive, but racing with the Honda is great. There are so many clusters of cars going around the track nose to tail, and they bump each other down the straightaway. In AI, you just can't do it."