World Street Nationals - Orlando, FL Courtesy of Todd Ryden

When you mention Orlando, Florida, most people instantly think about big mouse ears and a duck that wears a shirt but no pants. But if you're a street racing enthusiast, the only thing that comes to mind are the World Street Nationals!

This once a year event brings out the fastest cars from all corners of North America and even as far as Sweden! With the regular season points chases already decided, everyone sets their cars on kill to give it one last go for the year. Here's a quick run down on the show:

Four classes; Super Pro Street (Pro Street and Outlaw cars), Heavy Street (3,500 pounds!), 10.5 Outlaw and a Radial class. Each class is a 32 car field and in Radial there were over 70 cars vying for a spot on the ladder. Number one went to Mike Dees with an 8.29 at 174 mph - on a radial! In fact, the top 20 cars were in the 8-second range! 10.5 Outlaws had over 60 cars going at it but it was Dan Millen on the top with a 7.24 at 199 mph, while the bump was set at 7.732. Heavy Street was dominated by the Nostalgia Pro Street racers from the NMCA but only after strapping a few hundred pounds in the car. John Schroder tripped the lights at 7.72 at 182 to secure top qualifier and in SPS, it was Tony Gillig at 6.671 at 212 mph.

With fields like that, the racing was amazing! This is an event you should plan to attend. Pack up the family and send them off to Disney and all that Epcot stuff while you take in a full day or two of hardcore street racing action.

Oh yea, the winners: SPS was Tony Gillig (red Mustang below) over Tony Christian (driving Musi's Green '69 Camaro Popeye), Steve Kirk Jr. over Mike Hill in 10.5, John Schroder over Robbie Hudlow in Heavy, and in Radial it was Bobby Frye (all the way from California) over Scott Hodges.

Here's a few pics from the big show...

email :
robert martin