NSCRA Interviews Chris at MIR

Jessica Barton of the NSCRA met up with Chris in between rounds at NSCRA Round 1 at MIR on June 13 to speak to him about his number 1 qualifying position and what we can expect throughout the season. Chris is a bit tired from the heat and the excitement of the weekend! As always, Jessica is a great host and NSCRA put on a entertaining and exciting event. Thanks again to MIR, NSCRA and everyone who came out to support the event.

Import Face-Off - July 11, 2010

This past weekend we had the pleasure of participating in the Import Face-Off Series at Capital Raceway in Maryland. This was Chris' first time racing an IFO event and we are all looking forward to competing in more of their races. The event had a fun, laid-back atmosphere and was staffed by helpful and knowledgeable people. Capital is a great track and we look forward to visiting it again. The locals are die-hard drag race fans which is always a plus when going to any event.

Along with Chris, Kevin Van Natten and Jose "Pepsi" Bello made the trip for the NRG Tech Team. Unfortunately, Kevin once again had driveline issues that plagued him throughout the event. He was due to line up with Chris in second round eliminations, however, the team decided not to kill themselves with taking on the task of swapping out his transmission at the track between rounds. Kevin's car is presently back at the shop and the trans will be coming out Wednesday and hopefully back together by the end of the week to allow some testing before the event next weekend.

Chris went into first round eliminations in the number one qualifier spot. Throughout each round Chris' car showed the consistency that it has become known for by laying down passes in the 8.7x's - 8.80's all day. Chris met Rick Everley in the final round. Rick knew he had to get Chris on the tree, however he pushed it a bit too much and went red. Chris' final time was 8.89 @ 165, getting out of it a bit early due to the car getting out of the groove a little around 1100 ft.

Pepsi continued to be a force within the All Motor class by taking the number one spot in qualifying. He continued to show his consistency round by round, picking off each competitor one by one. With a best of the weekend of 10.47 @ 132, Pepsi proved it doesn't take the perfect conditions to run great times. Pepsi was able to cinch the win in the finals when competitor Randy's H2B powered civic went red in an attempt to chop the tree down on Pepsi.

The event promotor Cliff did a great job making sure that everything ran smoothly and that racers had adequate time to go over our cars and to cool them done between rounds. We will for sure be attending future IFO events.

As always we would like to thank AEM, DriveShaft Shop, Precision Turbo, EFI Wizard, Spec Clutch, all of our loyal customers, the staff at Capital Raceway, the staff of IFO. Last but not least, thanks to our great and dedicated crew Greg, Paul and Gio.

Continue to check our event gallery page at www.nrgtechracing.com for additional pics from this event.

We encourage all racers to come out and race the IFO events - collect the bounty that's been placed on Chris and Pepsi's heads!!!

NSCRA NorthEast Round 1

This weekend we trekked down to Maryland International Raceway for Round 1 of the NSCRA at MIR. The weather was a HUGE factor this weekend. The heat was almost unbearable, which led to extremely high track temperatures. Along with the heat we had a few rain showers that delayed things for a bit. As always, the MIR track officials were on their A-game and the track prep was top-notch.

Going into first round Chris had the number 1 qualifying position. He wound up having a bye run, so he took a nice and easy stroll down the track. Second round Chris was up against Cesar Olin. Chris won the round with a 8.89 @ 171.


After a bit of a rain delay, Chris pulled into the final run against the TD Autowerks car driven by Josue Echevarria. The TD car had recently broken into the 8s and had an 8 second pass in qualifying rounds. We were eager to see a close race and possibly the first side by side 8 second pass. Although we didn't get to see two 8 second passes at once, it was a great run for both teams, with Chris taking the win with a 8.61 @ 172.


We would like to thank John Brown and the NSCRA along with Jason Miller and the entire staff of Maryland International Raceway for putting on a great event. As always we would like to thank Drive Shaft Shop, Precision Turbo, Spec Clutch, AEM, AVID and our crew (Paul, Greg, Ehren and Tom). Also, big thanks to GRS-motorsports for the excellent and quick coverage. We'd like to extend a big congratulations to all the winners in the classes.

And on a bit more serious note, we know the weather probably kept many people away, but in order for our sport to really thrive we need people in the stands and racers in the lanes! SUPPORT OUR SPORT! Come to the events!

Xtreme Imports Spring Kickoff

After some hard work and long nights we were able to iron out the issues we were having with the trans and clutch. Last week we trekked down to Maryland to visit with our friends at Charm City Tuning and to attend a track rental at MIR with them. We were psyched to get to Maryland on Sunday and be greeted with gorgeous weather! After lots of rain in New York we were very pleased to get to sunny, dry Maryland. We were also very excited to share some Maryland crabs with the Charm City crew!

Sadly, Monday did not greet us with the same weather as Sunday did! Luckily, Jason Miller of Maryland International Raceway was gracious enough to allow us to hang out in the tower and of course some friendly competition on the tree followed! Chris actually had some great reaction times on the tree practice! Now let's get him to harness that in at the actual events!

So we left Maryland with no testing having been done and no true insight as to wether or not our trans/clutch issues were truly a thing of the past.

This brings us to this past weekend, where we attended the Xtreme Imports Spring Kickoff at Atco Raceway in New Jersey. Team Puerto Rico came up to battle against Team USA.

Saturday began qualifying rounds. We had two great passes in qualifying! First round qualifying was 8.72 @ 171 and second round qualifying was 8.74 @ 176. Chris was able to nab top qualifier for both rounds and, more importantly, he finally had the seat time he had been waiting for all week. The trans and clutch issues seemed to be non-existent and both passes were clean and sharp.

Sunday came and so did the rain. The rain finally did clear up but not in time - the event was called due to weather. While it was very disappointing, safety is always a top priority and unfortunately the weather left much to be desired in terms of track safety and conditions.

The upside to this event, aside from getting in some great passes, was meeting many of the members of Team Puerto Rico. These guys are true racers! They love the sport and are great guys. We cannot wait to have another event with them and get to race with them.

In addition to meeting the racers of Team Puerto Rico, we have found yet another great racing forum! Too bad we don't speak Spanish but for now we will have to just look at the pics!! If you haven't already, check out our friends over at www.SpeedClubPR.com! Also, check out the great pics they took of Chris' car at Xtreme Imports - http://www.speedclubpr.com/scforum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8270

Become A Fan On Facebook!

Many of you are already "friends" with us on Facebook and we truly appreciate your support of our business and race team. Unfortunately, Facebook has a 5,000 friend limit and we have recently hit that mark. We are unable to accept anymore friend requests. With that in mind we have setup a Fan Page for NRG Tech Racing. We will still be using the original account until we feel that we have made a seamless transition to the fan page.

The Fan Page is a great way to really get in touch with our supporters, customers and fellow race enthusiasts. There is a discussion board we will be posting on in the near future. We would love to hear any questions you may have or topics for debate that you would like to discuss.

Additionally, there is also a "fan picture" feature. This allows you to upload pics onto our page. We really enjoy seeing pictures and videos of the events we attend. Due to the craziness at events we rarely get a chance to walk away from our pits, so to see the events through your eyes is lots of fun.

Finally, this new fan page is yet another way for us to inform you on specials, sales, new products and events that are coming up. Become a fan today! http://www.facebook.com/pages/West-Babylon-NY/NRG-Tech-Racing/118826068139200?ref=ts

REconstructing Chris' Motor - Part 3

Yesterday and today have been two crazy days, so here's a quick update on where we are at with Chris' car!

Chris, Pepsi and Gio are currently going on about 36 hours of straight working. There were two scheduled tunes today for customers so we lost some time on Chris' car there. The last tune of the day is pulling off the dyno as I type this and now it's right back to Chris' car.

He says the car is about 80% done and should fire up early this evening. A few last minute issues came up last night that made it not possible to finish. Now that the rest of the world is back open he can get the parts he needs. The car still needs about 2 hours of assembly, a tune and, last but not least, a scale and align. Ohhhh, a new windshield may be helpful as well!


We are all keeping our fingers crossed that he can get the car up and running tonight in time to head out to Spring Nationals tomorrow.

REconstructing Chris' Motor - Part 2

Last night was a late one and Chris is back at it again, working on the engine. All the machine work is done on the shortblock and everything is balanced and blueprinted as well. The final steps of the shortblock build should take place this evening and into tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly, as we are set to leave for Englishtown late Friday night!


Next up on the agenda we have one final check of all measurements and clearances along with a final cleaning. Then we will proceed onto the assembly of the shortblock.



We have been in time crunches before but these past two weeks have been super hectic! With the ENTIRE motor going we were basically starting from scratch. Add to that some collateral damage and we had a pretty big up-hill battle against time. Late nights, persistence and skill played a part in the reconstruction, however without the help we have received from some people this reconstruction would still be at stage 1!

We would like to thank the following people who allowed this rebuild to be possible:
-John & Ron from Race Engineering
- Vince Tiaga for the Arias Pistons on super short notice!
- Zeek from Ferrea
- Chris Harris from Xenocron for coming through with the head studs a few other much needed miscellaneous items
-And last but not least, Lars from Scorpion Race for being the baddest f*cker around!

HOPEFULLY (!) by this time tomorrow, in between the general work schedule, Chris should be degreeing the engine and getting it ready to be dressed.