Ready To Rip: The 2018 NMCA Season Preview

The NMCA has filled its tank up for the 2018 season with some high-octane excitement and it’s ready to unleash on the drag racing world. With six events on the schedule, there will be plenty of action for racers and fans to soak in from the opening event at Bradenton Motorsports Park to the World Finals at Lucas Oil Raceway this September.

The song will remain the same for the NMCA in 2018 with pits packed full of the fastest doorslammers around to provide great racing action. The class lineup will remain the same, from the stripe snipers in Open Comp, to the exciting Xtreme Pro Mod racers. There will also be shootouts and special events to go along with the regularly scheduled racing. The vendor midway, car show, and swap meet will be back again in 2018 to give the fans something to check out when they’re not glued to the on-track action.

For 2018 the NMCA plans to bring back its full slate of shootouts and special events to its races. The festivities will kick off at the Muscle Car Mayhem event when racers in the Outlaw 632 class will make a special appearance. This is a very strong category in this region, and with this shootout being a points race in their local series the racing will be fast, for sure.

At the All-Star Nationals, there will be three shootouts in play that add extra spice to the event. The Open Comp racers from the NMRA and NMCA will be battling it out to see who is king. Brand rivalries will be on full display as the Sealed Motor Shootout kicks off between racers in Coyote Stock and Chevrolet Performance Stock classes. Finally, the small tire warriors in Street Outlaw from the NMRA and NMCA will have their own shootout on Saturday to see who can score the win, cash, and bragging rights.

Since the NMCA is always striving to bring in new racers and expand the sport of drag racing they actively look for new shootouts to add. According to the NMCA’s Mike Galimi, they have one on tap that will bring in the newest generation of modern muscle cars.

“We are looking at possibly adding a shootout at the Norwalk event with Mickey Thompson helping out. This will be for heavy late model cars that have an IRS rear suspension like the Hellcat, Demon, 2015 and up Mustang, and sixth-generation Camaro. As we finalize things more details will be released on this.”

The NMCA All-American Nationals at Norwalk will also play host to the biggest gathering of Cobra Jet race cars in the nation.

“We are going to have the Cobra Jet 50th Anniversary Party at Norwalk with Tasca Ford being a major sponsor of the event. You can expect to see all sorts of special guests from the Cobra Jet program at the event. We are planning a dinner gala, special presentations, a car show, and of course some special classes of racing. Cobra Jet 1 will be there on display along with the first 2008 Cobra Jet when the car was brought back. All of the biggest names in the Cobra Jet program will be there,” Galimi says.

The Factory Super Car class could be worth a lot of money for some lucky and fast racers in 2018. With these Cobra Jets, COPOs, and Drag Pak cars all tickling the seven-second zone Holley has stepped up to push the racers to uncork these cars to see who can be the first to drop a seven-second pass in the NMCA.

“Holley has announced they will sponsor the Holley 7-Second Club for our Factory Super Car class in the NMCA. Holley will give $5,000 to the first car to run a seven-second pass at an NMCA event and they will double it to $10,000 if the racer is using a Holley EFI system. The first five racers after will also be paid as well but slightly less, and all of this is contingent on the car passing tech. This is a big program and we’re very excited they chose us for this since our rules are exactly the same as the NHRA for these cars,” Galimi explains.

The NMCA is working on modernizing some of their long-standing classes as this year. Nitrous Pro Street is getting a makeover for 2018 that will help make it a more attractive class for racers all over the country. “Nitrous Pro Street hasn’t really been changed much like our other classes and it’s the last one to get some big rule changes. We’re making the rules broader, so more cars from different regions of the country where we race can fit in. There will be different weights for engine combinations and the rules will make it easier for cars to crossover into the class,” Galimi says.

Xtreme Street has been going through its own modernization of rules and that concludes in 2018. “For this year Xtreme Street will be a full crossover class for Ultra Street. We have a great core group of racers in this class and we wanted to bring the rules along slowly so we didn’t shock the system too much,” Galimi says.

The 2018 NMCA season is in the burnout box and ready to hit the track. Fans and racers are set to enjoy another huge season of racing that will be action-packed from start to finish. You can see it all LIVE on Speedvideo.com again in 2018 and all the breaking news from the NMCA can be seen right here on their own website.

NMCA 2018 Schedule

March 8-11, 2017: 15th ANNUAL NMCA MUSCLE CAR MAYHEM • Bradenton Motorsports Park, Bradenton, FL
April 5-8, 2017: 10th ANNUAL NMRA/NMCA ALL-STAR NATIONALS • Atlanta Dragway, Commerce GA
May 17-20, 2017: 18th ANNUAL NMCA BLUEGRASS NATIONALS • Beech Bend Raceway, Bowling Green, KY
July 26-29, 2017: 13th ANNUAL NMRA/NMCA SUPER BOWL OF STREET LEGAL DRAG RACING • Route 66 Raceway, Joliet, IL
August 23-26, 2017: 17th ANNUAL NMCA ALL AMERICAN MUSCLE SUPERNATIONALS • Summit Motorsports Park, Norwalk, OH
September 20-23, 2017: 18th ANNUAL NMCA WORLD STREET FINALS • Lucas Oil Raceway, Indianapolis, IN