Here is a little more information about the event!

This past weekend was the icing on the cake as Joe Dunne sealed his first NMCA championship by taking the Kooks Custom Headers Pro Street class win at the 10th Annual FueLab NMCA World Street Finals held at the historic Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. Dunne was armed with a Pat Musi Performance 864ci engine as he fought against nitrous and blown rivals for the coveted Pro Street title. It all came to fruition as he stood on top of the quickest and fastest field in NMCA history. “That was one of the toughest fields I’ve seen in Pro Street and I am proud Joe survived the onslaught of record-breaking performances to not only win the race but also win the championship,” says an elated Pat Musi, who is the owner of 8 Pro Street championships as well as the engine shop that provides the power to Dunne and many other Pro Street and Pro Mod competitors.

The road to victory was certainly an uphill battle and Dunne made his mark with consistency. “I was working hard at Englishtown with a few other customers so I asked my long-time friend Rickie Smith to fill in for me with Dunne. We’ve been great friends for over 40 years so I felt confident in putting Dunne and Rickie together,” comments Musi. The two would communicate back and forth over the phone, which culminated in the finals when Dunne unleashed his quickest run of the weekend with a 6.03 at 237 mph as he took out long-time NMCA competitor Randy Adler and his supercharged ’57 Chevy. Musi comments, “it always amazes me how Rickie can call tune-ups over the phone without track temperatures or numbers.” The closest race of the weekend came in the semifinals when Dunne eliminated ADRL and NHRA Pro Mod racer Dan Stevenson. He pushed his ’68 Camaro to victory with a 6.12 at 236 mph to Stevenson’s 6.14 at 233 mph. The margin of victory was a mere two hundredths of a second, which is just inches apart at over 230 mph.

images and copy taken from NMCA Digital

With record heat and a few rain delays, Milan proved to be quite a challenge for even the most seasoned racers. This race was particularly important for us to win because it would give us a good lead in points heading into Columbus, Ohio. With stiff competition this year, every round counts immensely. Thankfully, this was our 6th year racing in Milan, Michigan and with all our old data, we were able to use our experiences here to our advantage.
Friday saw a few rounds of test and tune with two rounds of qualifying before Mother Nature stepped in and ended our night early due to rain. We were lucky enough to be prepared for the track conditions we encountered and qualified #1 with a 7.21. But the rest of the field wasn’t too far behind with the #2 qualifier running a 7.26

Saturday was a busy and hectic day, especially because this race was expected to be a two-day race. With the impending rain on its way, 3rd round qualifying was up in the air, and was finally ran at noon. No one ran better, which only solidified our #1 spot. We were paired up first round with Phil Hines and ran a 7.21 to hand us our first round win. Unfortunately that was all of the racing we got to do on Saturday because the rain moved in and didn’t slow down for hours, cutting our day very short. After much debate about the finals and where the race should be finished, it was agreed upon that the racers would stay for Sunday and finish up the race with the knowledge that a local race will also be happening at the same time.

Second round we ran against Kenjo Kelly and when the tree dropped, we dusted off a 7.28 giving us the win! But it would be a repeat of the final in Joliet, IL as we found ourselves paired against John Kolivas. This time, however, the roles would be reversed as we found ourselves on the winning side of the light with a 7.34 for the win!

With this race win under our belt,  we are in a great position!! We have the month of August off for our wedding with no racing until September in Columbus, Ohio but that doesn’t mean we’ll be resting! Continuing our hard work on the car will give us the best chance at the championship!

-John, Melissa & the Hellion Crew

Congratulations to John Urist for winning NMRA Ford Nationals while running Russell ProClassic plumbing, and Edelbrock SC1 heads prepped by Race Flow Development.

Click here for more information on John Urist.

John Urist

Per team Hellion

A summary of our short weekend at the NMRA Ford Nationals in Atco, New Jersey.

Going into Atco, we decided not to change the car much as it had ran a 7.17 at 200mph in Atlanta. We felt that with the way the car was running, we had a great chance at winning this race without any major changes. Because of impending rain heading our way, we had two rounds of qualifying to finish on Friday night and possibly one round of eliminations. In our second round of qualifying, we ran our personal best of 7.12, at 203mph. This is a new class record for mph and we are striving to achieve the ET class record. After this stellar pass, the impending rain rolled into Atco and unfortunately the rest of the weekend did not look much better.
We came to the track early Saturday morning in hopes of there being a break in the rain but to our disappointment, it did not happen. Early Sunday morning they called the race and it is to be finished in Joliet, IL, our 4th race of the season.
-John, Melissa & the Hellion Team

Urist wins 6th NMRA Super Street Outlaw Championship

A few words from John, Melissa & the Hellion Team

With the end of the season here, I wanted to write one last summary letter to sum up the race weekend in Bowling Green, KY and to take a moment to express my gratitude for all the sponsorship you have given me.

Going into Bowling Green, KY, our team sat 2nd in points, trailing closely behind John MacDonald. We knew that in order to win this race, we needed to maintain our consistent runs and do our best. First round eliminations saw some exciting racing as one of the top 3 contenders was taken out, followed by round 2 where we saw some cars have mechanical failure. Third round eliminations came and we found out that due to engine problems, John MacDonald was unable to race Chip Havemann. MacDonald’s inability to make that round left the door open for us to win the championship. We entered the final round down by 90 points, if we win; we knew we would clinch the championship. The tree fell and our competition got loose mid-track and we have had a solid 7.41 to take the win!

Winning our sixth championship was not only incredibly exciting but also extremely rewarding. After all the seasons’ ups and downs, we were able to win our 6th for not only team Hellion, but for all our sponsors as well. Without your support we could not have won this year. We look forward to defending our championship next year!

Sincerely,

-John, Melissa & the Hellion Team

John Urist 5-Time Champ

The Edelbrock and Russell team wish Team Hellion the best of luck in their pursuit of a 6th world championship.

Kyle Busch

Edelbrock was proud to be a part of NASCAR history this last weekend when Kyle Busch achieved the first Triple Crown in NASCAR history at Bristol Motor Speedway!  Never before has a driver won all of the NASCAR national touring events at the same track in a single week.

It all started on Wednesday night when Kyle Busch won the Camping World Truck Series O’Reilly 200. After starting the evening at the rear of the field because of a pre-race adjustment, Kyle fought his way to the front through several caution flags to take the checkered flag. Kyle Busch Motorsports’ Toyota Tundra is powered by a Triad Racing Technologies engine mated with an Edelbrock #2879 intake manifold.

He continued his streak with his 10th Nationwide Series race victory of the year, winning Friday night’s Food City 250. This was Kyle’s 40^th win in the series and tied him with Sam Ard for the most single-season victories.

Busch then proceeded to complete his history-making trifecta with a victory in Saturday’s Sprint Cup Series Irwin Tools Night Race. Kyle worked hard to fight off strong challenges by David Reutimann and Jamie McMurray in order to keep his lead. Joe Gibbs Racing relies on the Edelbrock Victor Series #2876 intake manifold to power Kyle Busch’s Toyota Camry.

Edelbrock would like to congratulate Kyle Busch in becoming the first driver ever to win all three NASCAR race events in a single week.

Here are a few words from butler Performance…

1963 Pontiac Tempest

Just wanted to give you an update about last weekends Pontiac event at Norwalk, Ohio.

Rodney brought out his twin turbo 1963 Tempest Outlaw Promod car for it’s first 1/4 mile runs. His first full 1/4 mile pass ever was 6.42 @ 222 mph. His fourth pass was 6.27 @ 228 mph! This is by far the quickest and fastest traditional Pontiac powered drag car of all time.

We have the Edelbrock 60509’s on this car – not bad for a Performer RPM head! ( 2720 lb. raceweight ) This was in the final round of the Butler Performance sponsored heads up race at this event, which Rodney won by beating one of our engine customers, John Welter-he ran a 6.92 and also runs our CNC wideport Edelbrock heads. (we believe this was the first ever 6 second side by side competition run by traditional Pontiac powered cars). There are usually 1000+ race and show cars combined at this event and over 10,000 spectators, so a great place for us to run well. On another note, we had GREAT response at our booth for both the Victor high port head and the new D-Port Performer head (thanks to Rick R. and crew for getting it to the show on Saturday). Hope to have both castings here soon.

Click Here to watch a video of the run.

1963 Pontiac Tempest Engine Bay

1963 Pontiac Tempest Interior

John Urist's Team Nitto Mustang

Just when Mustang racers and followers of the NMRA didn’t think “The Fireball” John Urist could be any more dominant than his 5 Super Street Outlaw Championships, Team Hellion once again shocked the Mustang racing world with the first ever pass to break the 7.30 barrier. Hellion was the first to break into the 7.40(s), the 7.30(s) and now the 7.20(s).

“After working out some bugs, we had the chassis straight and we were confident that a low 7.30 was possible, stated John.  First round came, and the track was spectacular…7.29 at 194 – the first sso car in the 7.20’s.”

Although The Team Nitto Tire / Hellion Racing Mustang set a new benchmark for the class, John’s weekend came to an early end on Sunday morning. “Sunday first round was not as expected, as we had a malfunction with a vacuum circuit and lost power, giving the win to fellow racer Chip Haveman. Hats off to Chip.  We know this season will be more competitive than ever.”

“Considering circumstances, we are leaving Florida on a high note; we are the first car in the 7.20′ s and leaving prepared for our next race in Atlanta.  We learned a lot about our new set-up, and thanks to our partners at Edelbrock and Race Flow Development, the freshly plumbed Russell ProClassic hose and fittings worked flawlessly and our high flowing RFD ported Edelbrock SC1 heads are making more power than ever.”

Look for future posts from Team Hellion after every NMRA event.  We wish John, Nitto Tire and the entire Hellion Team the best of luck in 2010.

Joe Cram's E-Force Supercharged Mustang

The 16th Annual season-opening Nitto Tire NMRA Ford Nationals Spring Break Shootout was a huge success.  Not only was the temperature hot, but the amazing performances got the thousands of screaming fans heated as well.  One of the highlights of this event was Joe Cram’s beautifully crafted 2006 Mustang GT/Saleen.  The heart of this Mustang is the fire breathing Edelbrock E-Force Supercharger delivering neck breaking performance.  After catching up with Joe, he mentioned that before leaving for Florida, they were testing out their motor and hurt it to the point that it was impossible to have it repaired in time.  With a little bit of hustling, they were able to put together a stock motor with a 3.5″ supercharger pulley as well as a new ecu tune for this combo.   On Thursday Joe gave the car a shakedown test running the 1320′ in  10.878 @ 126.78 mph.

Here are some words from Joe on how the rest of the event rang out.

“Sunday’s eliminations were tough, 1st round we had 3 time truck champion Don Justice and on a double break out, I received the better of the 2 and got the win light. Second round paired me with Mike Delisanti in his JDM car and a better light and top end play got us the win with a 11.02 on a 11.00 dial. Third round paired me with the Houston Winner Kent Nine and another double break out, with us getting the winning end of that one too. Final round was against a new comer to the class and with a good light and top end play, we took home the win.”

It was all made possible by a lot of folks:

Edelbrock for one great Supercharger that ran cool and helped make some nice runs on the stock backup motor.
Magnaflow Exhaust for the great on and off track support they offered.
Tommie Vaughn Ford for helping with some last minute parts in the wee hours of the night
Ford Racing for making sure we had what we needed at the track when we got there.
Our entire Dyno Joe Performance race team, Lloyd Mikeska, Keith nix and the School of Automotive Machine.

Learn more about Bradenton Motorsports Park

See how John Urist’s Team Nitto fared at this event