NMCA Drag Racing Action at Atco Raceway - Calling All Cars

Who doesn't respect a barge that really hauls ass? We were slobbering over Andy Warren's 10-second '71 Caprice. The Rineyville, Kentucky, native has owned this car for more than a decade, and it was as slow as molasses when he first got it.

The 4,000-pound car is powered by a 400ci small-block and has run a best of 10.79 at 124 mph. Andy races in the Original Parts Group Nostalgia Muscle Car class and finished runner-up for the weekend.

Andy finished in Second Place behind this guy, Ralph Seran, and his beautiful '70 Super Bee. Ralph is from Clayton, New Jersey, and his Bee is an original V-code 440 Six Pack car.

For drag racing, though, he runs a single-plane intake and a Holley four-barrel carb because they were easier to tune. There was no need to replace the 727 TorqueFlite and Dana 60, though. "I can shift at 5,600 rpm all day long," Ralph says. He runs consistent 11.40s.

Joey Winick of Vineland, New Jersey, nailed the win in Hamburger's Performance Nostalgia Super Stock with his '63 Tempest. Joey, a member of the South Jersey Hit Squad, wheels his 461-inch Pontiac to low-9-second passes at more than 140 mph.

Two other cool cars in Nostalgia Super Stock belong to brother and sister John and Stephanie DiMineo. That's John driving the '66 Coronet (above) packing 572 inches of Hemi heat. He bangs the gears in his Jerico trans to blistering 8.90 times at more than 150 mph.

Stephanie isn't too far behind in her '66 Impala. It began life as a lowly inline-six commuter whip that has been elevated to a 9.06-second dragstrip warrior with a 572-inch big-block thundering away under the hood.

BFGoodrich Tires mean street competitors always put on an entertaining show. This is a no-wheelie-bar class, so wheels-up launches are the rule rather than the exception. Jeremy Gillam of Schererville, Indiana, (above) was the class winner with a 10.165-second pass in the final round with his '91 Mustang.

Alan Von Ahnen of Pennsville, New Jersey, piloted his '79 Mustang to Second Place with a traction-limited time of 11.529.

Only two of Car Craft's Street Race competitors were able to make it to Jersey for the weekend, and John Macaluso had the edge over Tim Hendricks the whole time. His Mustang beat Tim's Firebird with a final round pass of 8.978 at 155.06 mph.

One of the best-looking race cars we saw all weekend was this '83 Monte Carlo SS driven by Jack Boer of Brentwood, New York. This is one of less than 500 Super Sports made in '83, the first for the SS option. Last year, Jack finished second in points with his 1,250hp Shafiroff 637-inch big-block. However, a rule change this year has kept the team struggling to keep up with its more aerodynamic competitors in the Nostalgia Pro Street class. The rules-mandated smaller nitrous jets keep the car in the 8-second range, but Jack says the car, properly tuned and jetted, is capable of low-7-second passes at speeds approaching 200 mph.

Of course, the really fast cars draw the biggest crowd, and the Scorpion Performance Pro Street class is the fastest of the NMCA. Vinny Budano, last year's champion, was the top qualifier with a 6.35-second pass at 220.87 mph, but 140-degree track-surface temperatures that were plaguing guys all weekend made launching the car difficult. Vinny was eliminated in the first round.

The overall win went to Mark Micke of Jefferson City, Missouri. He was able to get the power to the ground, rocketing his '67 Camaro to a winning pass of 6.498 seconds at 220.3 mph.