March 5-8, Bradenton, FL

• NMRA Spring Break Shootout at Bradenton Motorsport Park, presented by Nitto Tire.
• All-Ford drag racing, manufacturer's midway, and car show sponsored by Mustang Monthly.
• Info: 714/444-2426; www.nmradigital.com

2009 NMRA Keystone Automotive Ford Nationals Schedule

As you can imagine, having a Ford event in the shadows of the motor-city means there's lots of potential automotive competition in the area. From cruise nights and open-track events to street action and NASCAR races, the gasoline-fueled distractions are myriad. As such, the NMRA wisely decided to truncate its event. The main reason for the short event was NASCAR had rolled into town on the same weekend, so the NMRA thought it best to give motorsports fans an opportunity to enjoy the NMRA race on Friday and Saturday, and the NASCAR race on Sunday.

When the last Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge participant pulled off Buttonwillow Raceway Park's road course we weren't quite sure how our Mustang challenger had performed. For sure it had lapped faster than the '60s-era Chevy Caprice that Lowrider magazine had just fielded--complete with air bag suspension, no less--but mentally tabulating where our entry finished was beyond our estimation.inline_mediumwraptextright31081845/eventcoverage/m5lp_0912_2009_castrol_syntec_top_car_challenge_web_exclusivem5lp_091200_car_10+Castrol_Syntec_Top_Car_Challenge+.jpgTrue

Horse Sense: Robin Burnett's first racecar was a Ford Fiesta with over 109,000 miles on it. We'll wait while you Google "Ford Fiesta," but Robin won a local SCCA Improved Touring Car class at Waterford Hills Road Racing course. Waterford Hills is a tight, technical race course located in Clarkston, Michigan. Now that you are reminded of the Fiesta, you also see that the car is making a comeback stateside after a successful run over in Europe.inline_mediumwraptextrightProviding some serious thunder and making many others look like they are standing still was Robin Burnett in his Steeda-sponsored No. 21 race car. Robin races the 21 car in the NASA American Iron series and was the '08 champion in that class. To keep finishing on the podium, Robin relies on a Ford Racing Performance Parts Boss 302 engine and pretty much every suspension component from the Steeda catalog, which means you too can bolt AI-level handling onto your S197.26397967/eventcoverage/m5lp_0911_2009_camp_steedam5lp_091100_camp_3_o+2009_camp_steeda+.jpgTrue

Mustangs continued their march on the 24th Annual Fabulous Fords Forever show April 19, muscling their way out of their traditional late-model parking lot and into "other" parking lot. Once exclusively the domain of Model T's, A's, Torinos, and such, the other of the two main parking lots had rows of newer Mustangs standing proud.inline_mediumwraptextright30554061/eventcoverage/m5lp_0911_2009_fabulous_fords_foreverm5lp_0911_01+2009_fabulous_fords_forever+2003_mustang_gt.jpgTrue

When the last Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge participant pulled off Buttonwillow Raceway Park's road course we weren't quite sure how our Mustang challenger had performed. For sure it had lapped faster than the '60s-era Chevy Caprice that Lowrider magazine had just fielded--complete with air bag suspension, no less--but mentally tabulating where our entry finished was beyond our estimation.inline_mediumwraptextrightSon Ron and father Dan Cooper strike a pose in front of Ron's workaday Mustang and our Top Car Challenge entrant. Retired from his own trucking company, Dan lent a trackside hand, as well as moral support.31064175/eventcoverage/m5lp_0912_2009_castrol_syntec_top_car_challengem5lp_091200_car_02+Castrol_Syntec_Top_Car_Challenge+.jpgTrue

Atco, New Jersey
The NMRA, its racers, and fans arrived at Atco Raceway in New Jersey for the ninth annual Nitto Tire Ford Nationals last May, determined to exorcise the oppressive-heat/rainy-weather demons that have cursed the event (traditionally held in August) in prior years.

Most of us aren't too excited about the idea of blowing out 45 candles on a birthday cake, but when it comes to celebrating 45 years of Mustangs, it's easy to get hyped up. Fortunately the Mustang Club of America provided the perfect venue to bust out that celebratory spirit-a 45th Anniversary show at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. This fittingly gorgeous facility provided a picturesque backdrop that brought Mustang fans from all over the globe together with their favorite cars and the company that produced them.

AETC® Advanced Ford Modular Performance Conference December 7-9, 2009 In Orlando, Florida

Does your Mustang put down over 750hp to the wheels? Maybe your Mustang makes that number by 5,000 rpm, but does it possess grocery-getter drivability? Can it run 9s on Nitto NT555R Extreme Drag radials? No one has done that, yet. Is the car capable of making a lunch run to the nearest, or not so nearest BBQ joint in air-conditioned comfort? Is your Mustang equally at home in the car show area as it is on the street or track? Is it capable of competing in 5.0 Mustang and Super Ford magazine's King of the Street competition? If you read these questions answering a resounding "yes" to every one, now's your chance to prove it.

Saturday, August 1st, 2009 saw Brothers Performance Warehouse open their newest facility near Daytona Beach. Located at I-4 and S.R. 44 the 8000 sq. ft. showroom has all their parts in stock. They can install and dyno test your car right there if you'd like.

Though the NMRA season closed on a high note last October, the country's turmoil was at full-throttle. Gas prices were high; the economy threw a rod; an election was imminent. After a tumultuous off-season, would the racers and fans be ready to race again in the spring? We had a feeling that cheaper gas and the need to forget all the bad news and the winter weather would make for a healthy event. That's just the way it turned out.

Horse Sense: We really have to thank the Illinois Corn Growers Association (www.ilcorn.org) and Center Ethanol (www.centerethanol.com) for providing us with enough E85 to run our cars down the track, especially since during our mid-October event window, refineries usually blend up an mixture with more gasoline and less E85 to help with cold starts. Likewise, we couldn't have run the event without Gateway International Raceway (www.gatewayraceway.com) offering us the hospitality of its racing surface for the day. Thanks to all involved for helping us pull off a great event.

Autocross * Burnout Contest * Car ShowsCruise-Ins * Drag Racing & MoreMustang Week 2009
Welcome to Mustang Week
Thinking back over the past couple of years, have you really enjoyed your summer vacations? Maybe you were able to get to a couple local car shows, and maybe you were able to get to a larger weekend-long event at a dragstrip. Or maybe you were able to go on one of the larger cruise-style events lasting a day or two. Maybe you were able to get to the beach, or just blast off on a road trip somewhere you've never been.

We're sure many of you agree that stout performance (i.e., lots of horsepower) probably ranks as Numero Uno on most 'Stangbangers' lists of Top 5-or maybe even Top 3-must-have qualities for street/strip Ponies. Of course, when it comes to putting Mustangs on the dragstrip, "the quicker (a 'Stang covers the quarter-mile), the better" tends to be a unanimous sentiment among the really hard-core members of the 'Stang Nation. And with this being the case, we're seeing more and more "street" Mustangs packing upward of 700 strip-ready, back-tire horsepower nowadays, clicking off 9-second e.t.'s with little effort.