In a 43-car Open Comp field, it came down to a pair of Pennsylvanians for the top prize. Tom Demalto from Philadelphia lined up against Paul Mileski, and both men had 11-second indexes, but Paul ran too fast since he had the slower reaction time of the two racers. Score one for Tom.
For the past couple of years, the NMRA's Atco Raceway stop in New Jersey meant losing a few pounds due to intense heat. Thankfully, after the heat at Reading, Pennsylvania's Maple Grove Raceway, Atco was a breath of fresh air with temperatures comfortably in the low 80s. Some people still didn't like the heat, but when you're used to 90-degree weather, low 80s are a nice change. For once at Atco, the weather was perfect, and many racers were rewarded with record times and personal bests. Find out who won and who didn't right here.
Horse Sense: Although BES Racing Engines may not be a household engine-builder name, several longtime racers have enjoyed the fruits of its labor. Just to name a few, racers who benefit from BES power include Filthy Phil Hines, AJ Powell, Matt and Andy Schmidt, Andy "The G-man" Law, and Rocky Mason. But with Tony Bischoff in the seat of his own Pro 5.0 mount, count on the BES name getting even more recognition within NMRA circles.
Add Ryan Hecox's Pure Street racer to the list of cars yours truly has worked on that have stayed together. We know it's a feat in and of itself, because the daily driver can barely live under those circumstances. But Ryan had a new Rich Groh Racing- designed Comp Cams grind to go in the car before Atco, and no one to help install it-his fellow JPC Racing stablemates had to take their weekly shower that night. This author had nothing to do, so we got started around 11 p.m. Thursday night at the Hecox household with Mountain Dew, bottled water, and pizza. Our heads hit the pillow at about 3 a.m., so to say we were sleep-deprived the next day would be an understatement. Luckily, there were a few Dews left, and we made full use of their caffeinated properties. With the hard work done, we asked Ryan how much the new cam would be worth. When his answer was 0.08, we about choked. But when you're battling for every hundredth, 0.08 is a nice gain for a Pure Street car. Even so, once at Atco, the newfound power took out the transmission, but that was fixed. In the first round of eliminations, the car stood them up, making Ryan pedal it just enough to let Amy Sherwin get past him.
At each event, we try to shoot feature cars that would otherwise be out of our reach, and we had them lined up at Atco. Unfortunately, we'll remember Tim Babit's photo shoot for some time, as will everyone involved. We shot Tim's Cobra in an elementary school parking lot located down the road from Atco Raceway, and everything was going accordingly until we did a few burnout pictures. That's when two police officers arrived, and one of them was not too happy. The police lieutenant that lives within sight of the school didn't take kindly to the black marks we were leaving and called it in. We can almost laugh about it now, but Tim received several tickets from the officers and had to enlist the services of a lawyer. The case is still under litigation as of this writing.
UPR Products' parts trailer had an extended stay in the northeast, as the Atco NMRA race was one of several stops on the northern tour. Mark Mainiero, Jeremy Martorella, and Big Phil stayed busy selling parts and giving expert advice. At any event, UPR's trailer will have Mustang keychains, upper and lower control arms sets, tubular K-members, and everything in between. Contributing to UPR's success at events such as the NMRA races is that it has a lot of small-ticket items on hand, enabling fans to get something without blowing a hole in their cash stash. At the same time, UPR has big-ticket items for those willing to come off the wallet.