The sophomore season of NMCA racing on the West Coast kicks off this weekend with the Lucas Oil NMCA WEST Street Car Nationals at the Auto Club Famoso Raceway in glamorous Bakersfield, California. Five heads-up classes and a full slate of index and open-comp-style categories will be vying for the coveted NHRA Unleashed “Wally” as their reward for a successful weekend of racing, and we’ll be bringing you all the details each day.

Keep us bookmarked and check back for updates as the race weekend progresses, and if you’re in Cali, head on down to B-Field for some of the best doorslammer drag racing this coast has seen in decades!

With gates opening at 10am and the track firing up at 1PM, Friday’s test and tune was a leisurely affair, but some racers made the most of the uncrowded staging lanes and good air to take a few practice hits at the tree. Though more competitors are arriving overnight and tomorrow morning, right now it looks like the Outlaw 8.5 class will have the best turnout.

Our own Project BlownZ didn’t get to turn a tire down-track on Friday, thanks to some prudent inspection when the initial fire-up produced some odd noises. Here, Dean, Josh, and Sean wrestle the blower drive into submission.

Steve Bothwell says the team is “just testing” their Camaro this weekend, but driver Rick Snavely wasn’t playing around, fighting brutal tire shake on two consecutive passes on Friday.

That’s going to do it for today – we’re calling it a night so that we can be back at the track early tomorrow to get ready for the last T&T session at 9am Pacific, followed by the opening round of qualifying at 11. Keep us bookmarked – we’ll have full qualifying results tomorrow afternoon!