Photos courtesy of Dragzine, NMRADigital, and Keith Fidura.

Is it that time again? With the 2017 racing season flying by quickly, the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing took place over the weekend in Joliet, IL.

Alton Clements Jr.

This has been a very good season for Alton Clements so far in the NMRA Renegade class, currently sitting with a comfortable points lead going into the Super Bowl and looking to keep it going and expand that lead. “Going into first round of qualifying we’re going to leave everything the same from Ohio where we ran 7.49 at 184 on the last pass,” Clements said.

At the end of the first round of qualifying, Alton Clements had placed his 1989 Vortech V-30 94B Supercharged Fox Body at top of the Renegade field with a 7.50 at 181 MPH. At the end of all rounds of qualifying, this turned out to be good enough for the #2 qualifying spot overall.

In Round 1 of eliminations, Clements turned in a 7.48 at 183.42 mph, taking out Jimmy Dahl. Alton would go on to eliminate Brian Mitchell in Round 2, to earn his place in the finals.

The Renegade finals saw the #2 and #3 qualifiers going head to head, with Clements going up against Tony Hobson. Hobson took a holeshot advantage with a .054 reaction time to Clements’ .070, but was no match for the efficient boost from the Vortech V-30 94B Supercharged setup, and Clements drove right around Hobson on the big end, turning in a 7.51 @ 183.37 mph to Hobson's 7.68 @ 182.60 mph.

To top off his win and already stellar weekend of racing, Alton Clements met Dart Pro Stock racer Kevin Lawrence in the ninth pair down in the Superbowl. Clements scored the point for NMRA and scored himself a Super Bowl ring for his efforts.

Andrew DeMarco

For Andrew DeMarco, the Super Bowl was a good place for some shake down runs in his Mustang after some extensive changes were made. “The car has a new motor from top to bottom from ABT Machine in Massachusetts, new front half from DMC, new nose, and is running a Vortech V-30 112A spec blower for Street Outlaw. So far the car is looking really good and went a 4.51 on its third pass.”

It was evident fairly quickly that the overhaul of Andrew DeMarco’s car paid off, as his 4.49 at 160 mph run qualified him in 4th place. He had managed a 4.44 the night before, having to pedal the car a bit to keep the front end from coming up.

With any new setup, there are bound to be a few bugs to work out. In this instance, the "bugs" in question were with DeMarco himself attempting to shift prematurely. To combat this, DeMarco's crew guys left him some friendly reminders inside the car to help him out.

DeMarco stated “I want to thank Dennis and DMC Race Cars, Patrick Barnhill and Jason Lee, Steve Summers, my crew Jason Sabo and Franny “The Leprechaun”, my family and everyone at home, Menscer Motorsports and especially my wife Melissa.”

Nikki Frost

Easily one of the most recognizable cars in the field, Nikki Frost's Mustang is a welcome addition to the Coyote Modified class. Powered by a Revolution Auto prepped Coyote engine with boost for the 2013 GT provided by a Vortech V-7 JT-B Supercharger.

Frost improved run after run in qualifying, and ended up turning in a 9.004 @ 155.02 mph. Round 1 of eliminations put her up against Haley James-Shneider, where Nikki's 8.932 @ 157.87 mph was not enough to get around the Coyote-powered Fox Body of her opponent. Look for even more improvements from this team in the near future.

The Super Bowl is always an action packed good time, but coming up next month is the last event of the season, the 19th Annual NMRA All Ford World Finals. See you then!