Ford Mustang Motor City Mayhem

The First-Annual Ford Racing Invitational trophy went to a fellow Primedia employee, John Gallagher, the publisher of Car Craft and a former drag racer. Gallagher wheeled a 14-second F-150 and beat out a Road & Track staffer for the trophy.

Smitty fell victim to the 500hp/radial tire/stick-shift combination as he broke out in Round 1. The car had been running 12.50s for two days, but Smitty pushed it a bit in eliminations and went 12.36.

I was fortunate enough to have made it to the final four cars before losing on a -0.008-second red light. Special thanks goes to FRPP for two days of fun.

Winner Pro 5.0's Michael Hauf fought hard to find the proper clutch tune-up, but he got it straight when it counted and blasted to 6.60 runs at 210 mph in the sweltering heat.
Winner Truck and Lightning features mostly Gen 2 Lightnings, and nothing was more contrasting to them than Mike Motycka's '79 F-100. A 460 big-block Ford engine powers the heavyweight to 12-second times. Motycka took out Johnny Lightning as new versus old power went head to head in the index-regulated class. Johnny broke out and Motycka went to the winner's circle at his home track.	Jimmy Wilson (far lane) and Ryan Hecox are both contenders for the Pure Street title. Wilson finished runner-up to Brad Meadows when he went red in the finals but had run in the 10.40s. Hecox lost in the semifinals thanks to a broken gearbox.
Chad Doyle has the BFGoodrich drag radials figured out in his 1,300hp ride as is evident by the wheels-up launches and 1.29 60-foot time. The Michigan resident lost in the quarter-finals due to a faulty crank trigger sensor. Doyle was the quickest and fastest super-charged car in the Drag Radial class with an 8.18 at 169 mph.	Brandon Alsept fired a shot over the bow of the pushrod camp as his modular-powered '96 Cobra rifled off a 10.27 at 130 mph in qualifying. Breakage during qualifying prevented him from putting up a fight on Sunday.
The King of True Street, Chris Escobar, posed with his trusty SVO. Thus far in 2007, Escobar has won the overall title at all three NMRA True Street events. His car is a familiar one that was built by Jake LaMotta and is powered by a 4.6L modular engine and a pair of 57mm turbochargers. The champ finished with a 9.72 average over three runs.	Felix De Inglesias brought out a flawless '93 Cobra that was packing a ProCharger blower and the potential for 10-second timeslips. Unfortunately, the car had some problems, resulting in a 12.92 average.
Darrin Matousek was the 12-second winner with a 12.37 average from his '04 Mustang GT. NMRA True Street official Mike Bruns had a stack of cash that he paid out to the competitors.	Grab a new Shelby GT500 off the showroom floor, add some mods, and come race True Street. It's the perfect recipe for fun.
Former Ford executive Jerry Green was having a blast in his '05 Mustang V-6 car. Paul's High Performance added a Vortech blower, and Green blasted to a 13.93 average.