By Dave Carlson, nmcadigital.com

What’s better than a good old American Muscle Car? How about a good old American Muscle Car that looks as though it just rolled off the Detroit assembly line but performs like a highly modified race car.

That’s the essence of the F.A.S.T. and Factory Stock classes, which will make their return during the upcoming TorqStorm NMCA/NMRA Power Festival presented by Paul’s High Performance at US 131 Dragway in Martin, Mich., July 20-23.

F.A.S.T., short for Factory Appearing Stock Tire, is a feature class reserved for 1955 to 1979 muscle cars built in United States and Canadian assembly plants. The cars look like concourse restorations, but in this case looks can be a bit deceiving as these vintage machines are capable of 9- and 10-second elapsed times using factory-size bias ply tires! Cars must have been originally equipped with a minimum of four-barrel carburetor, dual exhaust, and other factory installed equipment that promotes high-performance.

Factory Stock is just as competitive as the F.A.S.T. class, but with a stricter rule book. This class is also for 1955 to 1979 muscle cars built in United States and Canadian assembly plants. The key to success in the F.A.S.T. series, and the biggest challenge that competitors face, is not just building horsepower using primarily OEM parts, but the ability to put that power to the track through an original equipment reproduction bias-ply tire, which is mandatory.

No soft compound tires of any kind are allowed, and the same goes for retread tires. Any car is allowed to upgrade to a maximum size tire of G-70 of the correct wheel diameter and all cars that were originally available with a 60-series tire can upgrade to a maximum size of G-60 tire of the correct wheel diameter.

There is also a tremendous rivalry among of variety of competitors within the series. The cars you’ll typically see include vintage Chevy Corvette, Camaro, Chevelle, and Nova entries along with Ford Mustang, Fairlane and Torino models. The Mopar contingent features Dodge Challenger, Plymouth Duster, Road Runner, and ‘Cuda entries.

Terry Pennington of Mishwaka, Ind., is the current F.A.S.T. record holder with a 9.31 elapsed time in his is L88 Chevrolet Corvette, and he is expected to take part in the Martin event along with series founder David Dudek of St. Clair Shores, Mich.

Dudek has compiled more than 40 wins since the start of the series with his Hemi-powered ’69 Plymouth Road Runner and ‘Cuda entries.  Other notable participants often include Jordan Pennington’s ZL1 ’69 Camaro, Lane Carey’s ’71 Ford Mustang SCJ, Don Giannone’s ’66 Chevelle SS, and Scott Tiemann’s ’68 Pontiac Ram Air II Firebird, Bill Atwood Sr.’s Hemi-powered ’69 Road Runner, Ed Cook’s ’63 Plymouth Savoy, Bryan Doyle’s ’71 Dodge Challenger, Bill Atwood Jr.’s ’73 Plymouth GTX, Bill Dicicco’s ’68 Road Runner, Andrew Colling’s ’67 Firebird, and Rhett Moody’s ’68 Barracuda.

The event format will include a Quick 8 in both classes. Thursday is for test and tune runs, qualifying will be held on Friday and Saturday with final eliminations on Sunday.

FULL EVENT SCHEDULEhttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1mkXaZ8Qd1nPWRVZce7YvnJfyAWM_0ODC/edit