Live from Maple Grove - NHRA Auto Plus Nationals

[Festus]

We saw a little Stock and Super Stock racing this week end but not nearly enough. The Nationals are such a circus. I think we're more looking forward to next weekend's Dutch. Are those of you attending both allowed to leave your rigs in place? Any advance predictions on car count? Seeing north of 100 in each class as in previous years is awesome from our fan perspective so we're hoping for a large turn out.

Sorry for being a little off topic but should get at least partial points for at least talking about the same track .

[Robert McCoy]

A few more shots from this weekend at the Grove, great weather, more like Summer than Fall.

[Joe Grippo]

Better late than never...some shots from Thursday and Saturday -


10-13 KEYSTONE NATIONALS_188 by Joe Grippo, on Flickr

10-13 KEYSTONE NATIONALS_186 by Joe Grippo, on Flickr

10-13 KEYSTONE NATIONALS_174 by Joe Grippo, on Flickr

10-13 KEYSTONE NATIONALS_112 by Joe Grippo, on Flickr

[Joe Grippo]

From around the 660' mark...


10-13 KEYSTONE NATIONALS_135 by Joe Grippo, on Flickr

10-13 KEYSTONE NATIONALS_134 by Joe Grippo, on Flickr

10-13 KEYSTONE NATIONALS_133 by Joe Grippo, on Flickr

10-13 KEYSTONE NATIONALS_124 by Joe Grippo, on Flickr

[Jack Matyas]

Like they say better late than never - and for Sal Biondo this win has been a long time coming -fifteen times runner-up and finally his first Stock win .His clutch .013 light helped secure this win for sure - congrats to Sal and the Cook Brothers .And a well done to Don Pires Jr for a well fought fight this past weekend in that silver bullet .

And Sal started a new deal for the winners circle as i've witnessed beer baths , champagne drinking and show girls .........But Sal was brought milk and cookies to celebrate with his team . Well done my friend ! ! !

[FrankChastain]

Thanks to all the folks for taking time for all the wonderful the pictures and reports. frankchastain

[SS/GSI]

Just wanna thank everyone who helped us over the weekend, track prep was great, once again, and the weather was fantastic. I hope NHRA continues with the track prep, its been great since after E-Town. Congrats to all the winners.

[cicero819]

I have to say that NHRA has gone out of their way to improve their product. Nice to see the extra attention the track received. The weather was perfect for us spectating but just a tad too hot for the racers out there working at getting peak performance. Who won best engineered race car(hopefully not a pro) it was nice to see the hard work done on all cars, it was a pleasure to see so many great candidate from stock to competition eliminator. One real nice 85 Camaro and 86 Camaro(Kenneth Richard and Nica Hodge) I might be partial having four of them in my garage. My next stop will be the Winter Nationals in Pomona. Looking forward to this trip. Claude Ruel p.s. Hey NHRA open up spots in Stock and Super Stock, you need at least 100 in each categories.

[Michael Beard]

The track was outstanding all week long.

Had a great opportunity come up with the hard-working folks at National Dragster. Much appreciated!

Hey NHRA open up spots in Stock and Super Stock, you need at least 100 in each categories.

The Auto Meter Northern Class Nationals will be open to only the first 250 in each category. Well, we might open it up a little at the gate if we have to.

[Tom Goldman]

Claude ,Best Engineered went to Bob &Tony Niemczyk's I/Dragster.
And for a change this one has some serious racer engineering and innovation.
It's a Turbocharged Neon/Mitsubishi engine, and they have been flogging it for a few years before finally hitting the combination last year.
6.50's @over 205 wnen the track is there.