The second round of the TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout and All-Female True Street competitions rolled into the luxurious grounds of Summit Motorsports Park for the 2024 NMRA Homecoming event. In both classes there was excitement, racing intrigue and the usual wild cards that happen when it’s all on the line in drag racing.
TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout
The TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout field had a wider range of E/Ts than the first event this year. But that didn’t mean less action and excitement. Two of the contenders for the shootout ended up with mechanical issues before eliminations, making room for others to qualify.
Florida 9-second racer Alex Martinez was part of the trio to make the trip to Ohio and in the running for the second shootout. But mechanical issues during True Street time trials (he later found metal found in oil filter) kept him from qualifying. Dannie Addair qualified for the shootout with a 9.358 average E/T, but after his last time trial run, the cooling system puked coolant in the engine bay, indicating a head gasket had left the party and would prevent him from racing the next day. This allowed first alternate Dennis Osworth into the field.
Here’s a list of all of the competitors in Sunday’s TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout eliminations and their qualifying runs that landed them there:
Cyrus Hutchinson – 10.301/10.315/10.663 = 10.416 average E/T
Eric Mcnu*tt – 11.640/11.480/11.554 = 11.558 average E/T
Kyle Miller – 8.962/9.350/9.016 = 9.109 average E/T
Curtis Pontones – 10.702/10.589/10.687 = 10.659 average E/T
Dennis Osworth – 11.612/11.787/11.803 = 11.734 average E/T
Chris Rusch – 10.386/10.553/10.488 = 10.476 average E/T
Jeff Smith – 9.392/9.418/10.530 = 9.780 average E/T
Scott Triolo – 10.863/10.935/11.027 = 10.942 average E/T
The rest of the racing action for the TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout is covered in the photos and captions.
In addition to racing for glory and prizes at this event, competitors in the TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout in 2024 are also in the running for the first ever Stick Shift Shootout Championship Ring. The ring will be awarded to the TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout racer who makes all three shootouts and has the lowest average qualifying E/T from all three events. If no racer qualifies for all three events, the championship will go to the racer with the lowest average E/T who made two events.
Now that the Norwalk event is in the books, here are the top four qualifiers in the running to win the TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout Championship Ring:
- Kyle Miller – 9.3195 average E/T
- Dannie Addair – 9.3285 average E/T
- Jeff Smith – 9.746 average E/T
- Chris Rusch – 10.423 average E/T
Nothing is ever assured in drag racing, and all four racers have a legit shot at earning the ring. And the racing at the last TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout of the year will be even more spectacular as eliminations will return to a heads up format. That means no staggered starts and no holding back during True Street time trials. All-out racing to become the first ever TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout NMRA champion.
All-Female True Street
In TREMEC All-Female True Street, it looked to be a battle of 8- and 9-second cars between Kimberly Walter, Kimberly Wood and Gabby Lujan. Lujan won all three TREMEC All-Female True Street competitions in 2023, but at the first 2024 event in Gainesville a bad transmission ended her day early and Kimberly Walter raced to the win. Things look to be set for a rematch, as Walter and Lujan faced off in the third round of All-Female True Street time trials. But just off the line, Lujan’s blower belt broke and left her unable to complete her third run while Walter ran to victory with a 8.769 average E/T.
Here’s the full list TREMEC All-Female True Street Winners:
Kimberly Walter – Overall 8.769 average E/T
Kimberly Wood – Runner-Up 9.810 average E/T
Autumn Schwalbe – 11-second class 11.093 average E/T
Andrea Woolard – 12-second class 12.047 average E/T
Sabrina Wright – 13-second class 13.100 average E/T
Heather Flanagan – 14-second class 14.130 average E/T
Dani Lee – 15-second class 15.044 average E/T
Kimberly Walter took home her first TREMEC All-Female True Street title after winning the 10-second class at the 2024 NMRA Spring Break Shootout. During the first two runs of time trials it looked like we’d have a battle between her and the other 8-second competitor and three-time All-Female True Street winner Gabby Lujan. For the final time trial run Kimberly and Gabby lined up against each other. But just off the line, Gabby’s Mustang snapped its blower belt and prevented her from completing her third run. Kimberly ran a 8.560 on top of her 9.218 and 8.528 runs for a final E/T average of 8.769.
Kimberly Wood won her second runner-up in TREMEC All-Female True Street after doing the same at the 2024 NMRA Spring Break Shootout. She posted runs of 9.759, 9.951 and 9.719 in her 2014 Mustang GT during time trials for a 9.810 average elapsed time.
The TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout takes the eight quickest H-pattern manual transmission cars (plus two alternates) from the NMRA True Street class. Eliminations are run on Sunday. First and second round pairings are determined by random chip draw, with eliminations run on a pro tree.
The first pairing of round one was a battle of the four-eye Fox Body Mustangs with 2023 NMRA Ford Homecoming TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout winner Scott Triolo (10.942 avg. E/T) in his 1985 Mustang versus Eric Mcnu*tt (11.558 avg. E/T) in a 1986 Mustang. Even though Mcnu*tt had a big head start of 0.61 seconds, his .449 reaction time (R/T) virtually erased the large advantage. Triolo easily made up the ground and by the 1,000 foot mark had passed Mcnu*tt on his way to a winning pass of 10.583 at 106.41 mph to Mcnu*tt’s 12.442 at 118.75.
Next up was Curtis Pontones in his 2003 Cobra (10.659 avg. E/T) vs Cyrus Hutchinson in the 2014 Mustang GT (10.416 avg. E/T) for a closely matched pairing. Hutchinson had a slight head start of two-tenths off the line, but was caught sleeping with a .613 R/T while Pontones cut a .142 light. This left Pontones with a lot of ground to make up to have a shot at making round two. When the boards lit up, Pontones took the win with a 10.322 at 141.80 to Pontones 10.726 at 136.14 pass.
They call it luck of the draw, but unfortunately the draw didn’t give any luck to TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout low qualifier Kyle Miller (9.109 avg. E/T). Osworth’s 11.734 E/T average gave him a massive 2.6-second head start over Miller, and he didn’t waste any of it with an .080 R/T. When Miller finally got green light, but didn’t have enough track to reel in Osworth. Despite Miller running a 9.479 at 154.78 the win light went to Osworth and his 11.135 at 126.33 pass.
The final pairing of round one was 2024 NMRA Spring Break Shootout TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout winner Jeff Smith (9.780 avg. E/T) versus Chris Rusch (10.476 avg. E/T) who he faced in round two in Gainesville. Rusch had a .700-second advantage off the line, and his R/T of .258 left him with half a second to get down the track before Smith got the green. After cutting a .328 light, Smith rocketed down the track and sped past Rusch on the way to the win with a 9.231 at 157.14 pass against Rusch’s 10.136 at 141.68
The round of eliminations were also paird by random chip draw. This time Jeff Smith (9.780) ran against Scott Triolo (10.942). Both drivers nailed the tree with good reaction times in this nitrous versus supercharger battle. Triolo got his green first with the 1.12-second advantage and cut a .176 light. Smith left on green with a .190 R/T to start reeling Triolo in.
At the top end Smith had pulled up to Triolo but came up just a bit short, with Triolo getting the win light and 10.100 at 135.97 to Smith’s 9.297 at 158.86 , putting the orange 2004 Cobra on the trailer and giving Triolo a spot in the TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout final for the second year in a row at this event.
The other semi-final round pitted Dennis Osworth in his 2008 GT500 against Curtis Pontones in the 2014 Mustang GT. Osworth had a just over one second advantage on the starting line and Pontones knew he’d have to be quick on the tree for any chance to win. But Osworth didn’t need the advantage, with Pontones illuminating the red bulb with a -.351 R/T that punched Osworth’s ticket to a final round matchup against Triolo.
it was going to take a great pass from start to finish for Triolo to win the TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout for the second year in a row at Summit Motorsports Park. Osworth’s dial-in of 11.734 gave him a 0.79-second head start over Triolo’s 10.942 dial-in. Osworth surrendered a large piece of that head start with a .463 R/T, while Triolo left on a .271 light. Neither car had issues off the line and the race was on.
Scott Triolo had been running half to nine-tenths of a second under his dial-in, and he’d need all of it to catch Osworth before the finish line. The 1985 Mustang was on a rail with its TREMEC Magnum six-speed shifting perfectly as the gap between it and the black 2008 GT500 closed fast.
Osworth had also been running below his dial-in the first two rounds by almost three-quarters of a second. His slow R/T at the starting line proved to be a crucial factor, and despite running a clean 11.022 at 127.13 pass, Triolo caught and passed him just before the lights, posting a 10.140 at 134.77 that won round two of the TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout at the 2024 NMRA Homecoming event. For the victory Triolo took home a new McLeod NXT clutch package and the TREMEC/McLeod $2,000 bonus money thanks to having a TREMEC Magnum six-speed in his car along with a McLeod clutch.
