The western states’ fastest door cars invaded Sin City for the 13th annual Street Car Super Nationals (SCSN) at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This event is by far the most anticipated drag radial and door car race on the West Coast. With contestants coming from as far as Canada to compete, Mel Roth—the event’s promoter—has been consistently putting on this huge event. Now in its 13th year, it brings together a community of dedicated racers to battle head to head.
The event has a class for everyone, from the usual index classes to Big Tire No Time grudge racing. Among them, two of the most exciting classes of the weekend were the 275 Radial and Outlaw Pro Mod shootout.
Rachel Yee competed in the drag radial class putting on a clinic of dragging bumper down the track. The crowd erupted into cheers as she finally set the front end down and made it to the finish line of the track. Somehow crossing the line without any damage to the car from the violence of the landing.
Unfortunately, many other racers did not have the same luck, with constant oil downs on the track pushing back the racing timetable. The team Roth assembled to handle the track preparation did a phenomenal job keeping the surface clean and sticky, which allowed the racers to focus on their racecraft instead of the track conditions.
A Sonny’s twin-turbocharged power plant finds its home in Mike Woodruff’s Outlaw 10.5 Corvette. Woodruff was the number one qualifier in his class with a blazing 3.96-second pass at 204 mph.
Greg Seth Hunter of MMR battling Giuseppe Gentile in a super-sized Mustang matchup.
John Urist raced in his Turn 14 Distribution-sponsored 275 Radial Mustang with a 358 cubic inch Hellion Turbo power plant. Urist has been patiently learning the new setup, and ran low 4.6-second passes all weekend at 161 mph. We can see he is getting accustomed to the new chassis quite nicely and look forward to following his continued progression.
A small backfire on the AV Boys’ Fox-body “Snowflake” turned into a real fire at the start line, however the safety crew was right there to put it out quickly. By smothering the flame so fast, they salvaged the car allowing the team to keep racing for the rest of the weekend.
Giuseppe Gentile was competing in two classes at this event. Gentile ended up becoming the winner in Big Tire No Time over Troy Baugh, capturing a nice $7,000. He was also runner-up in the Outlaw 10.5 class as well—now that’s a good weekend!
Mike Bowman was the recipient of the big check of $15,000 in the Precision Turbo Pro Mod class.
Norman Chang of Atherton, California, grabbed the $4,000 check in the XDR class with his 420 cubic inch small-block-equipped ‘88 Ford Mustang.
Steve Nicholson, who made the long trek from Canada, netted his third outlaw 10.5 win at SCSN in his 959 cubic inch Sonny’s engine. This monster power plant contains six Speedtech Nitrous kits, which combined with some sticky tires to grant him .98X-second 60-foot times.
Jay Boddie was in attendance with his gorgeous twin-turbocharged Chevy Nova that was competing in the Big Tire No Time class.
John Stanley in his Cadillac Outlaw Pro Mod set the record that weekend for the worlds fastest blown door slammer, flying through the traps at 266.74 mph.
This old Celica had a huge single turbo 6.0-liter LSX power plant that was running consistent 7.9s all weekend. Not scared to lift the front end, this was definitely one of the most unique cars there.
The Q80 racing team with their Outlaw Pro Mod Mustang had Proline Racing at the track to assist them, and it paid off when they recorded their best pass of 5.440 seconds. However, the moment that had the crowd and announcers stunned, was the breathtaking pass that accelerated the Q80 Mustang to an astonishing 275 mph.
It was great to see Brian Macy of the EFI Store back in the drivers seat, piloting Darrin Meroniuk’s orange Nova in the 275 Radial class. As many have seen throughout the past year, Macy has been battling cancer. After speaking to him while in the pits, he gave us great news that each checkup has been coming back negative.
With the passing of Chad Reynolds’ wife Daphnie, it really hit the community hard losing someone with such a passion for racing. In memory of Daphnie, Macy added the hashtag #WickedChick to his car.
Longtime racer, event promoter, and drag radial advocate Danny Topol of West Coast Hot Rod Association was in attendance in his Nitrous Nova competing in the XDR class. Danny was able to race to his personal best in the car with a 4.573 at 156.37 mph. Danny couldn’t help but share his praise of the new Induction Solutions Nitrous Power Controller, which he credited with getting the personal best time. Topol also had the privilege in honoring a fellow racer—and dear friend to him—Rick Sachsel, who lost his battle with cancer. Ken Rodrigues brought Sachsel’s ashes to the race. He packed them in Topol’s parachute, to be pulled going down the track in memory of Rick. Sachsel was a well known racer from the small group of like-minded racers called The Chicago Wiseguys. This race was one that Rick dreamed of attending and although he has left, you could sense his presence within his group of friends.
As with any aggressive drag racing event, there were many oil downs, wrecks and cold temperatures at night. Roth and his whole team put on a memorable event; leaving us with why SCSN is an event you cannot miss. With the level of competition and number of broken records, in conjunction with running such a professional operation, there is no wonder why this event is on its 13th year—and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. To stay up to date on Roth’s schedule for next year, visit the SCSN website.
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