Where were you last weekend? Were you dodging a rainstorm, or digging yourself out of a snowbank, perhaps? Well, although weather across most of the country has been rather inclement as of late, not in Bradenton, FL, where the racers of the NMRA were having their first event of the year. It was a Ford racing fan's paradise, with all types of amazing drag racing action on hand, and all types of fast Fords in attendance.

Sondra Leslie - Limited Street

Sondra arrived in Bradenton ready to race, with her Vortech Supercharged & MPR Racing Engines powered Coyote Fox tuned up and ready for battle thanks to Ken Bjonnes and Palm Beach Dyno. Also new for this season is more boost from her Vortech V-2 Ti Supercharger, a larger charge cooler courtesy of Rarefab, and a refreshed torque converter from Ultimate Converter Concepts. Dropping the hammer with a 2nd round qualifying run of 8.90 @ 155.52 mph put her in the comfortable spot of being the only Limited Street racer in the field in the 8's through Round 2 of Qualifying. It was going to be a great weekend of racing for Sondra and crew.

In the finals, Leslie went up against a familiar opponent from last season in Mike Ciborowski. The match up turned out to be one of the closest races of the entire weekend, with Ciborowski getting a jump at the tree by a hundredth, and then managing to barely hang on for the win with the incredibly close margin of  3 thousandths of a second, 8.841 to Leslie's 8.844. Leslie comes away from the event Runner Up, and had this to say after the event "With the first race in the books, we couldn't be more excited about making a run for the championship with Vortech in our corner".

Steve Shrader is no stranger to rowing the gears to fast quarter mile times in his bright yellow Vortech Supercharged New Edge Mustang dubbed "Brightmare", as the competition that he met in Bradenton quickly found out.

Shrader, who runs Shrader Performance in Gastonia, NC, mowed through the ranks of the Stick Shift Shootout with consistent mid-9 second runs at over 150mph. Steve took it all the way to the finals against Yandro Ulloa, but lit the red bulb at the tree, giving Ulloa the win.

Willie Lujan - Limited Street

Many people are likely familiar with Willie Lujan and Lujan Motorsports, but not necessarily with this particular 1990 LX Mustang. This Fox is powered by a Vortech Ti Supercharged 363 cubic inch powerplant, and is actually a completely registered and insured street car! We hope to see more of Willie and his new set up at future events this season.

Look for more racing action coming up next month in Georgia for the NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals.