While the NMRA gets credit for getting the 2009 Mustang drag-race season started (the sanction kicked things off last week in Bradenton, Florida), the Pacific Street Car Association and its Ford Racing Mustang Maddness class kept the racing momentum strong one week later. Details after the jump...

A very-impressive total of 31 Ponies converged on Auto Club Dragway (Fontana, California) this weekend, to set things off in the Orme Bros Spring Break Shootout. Ford Racing Mustang Maddness is an Open-Comp-format eliminator that's based on a .400 Pro Tree (qualifying positions are based on reaction time) that was added to the PSCA's lineup last year.

While the class isn't heads-up, (PSCA offers several other categories for 'Stangbangers and drivers of other makes to get their heads-up fix. See www.pscaracing.com for more info), the Open Comp format works very well, as it allows Ford-powered Mustangs across all platforms to compete and race hard on the dragstrip, instead of on the streets.

We didn't get a chance to race any of our West Coast-based project Mustangs at this year's race (Project T-top Coupe and our ProCharged 2V New Edge GT both made their drag-racing debuts in Ford Racing Mustang Maddness, and I even runnered-up in the class driving Jose Ybarra's Mach 1 at a race last summer), but we're hard at work on Project Boss 340 and hope to debut the Pony at a PSCA event later this season.

I didn't get to see every round of racing in Mustang Maddness, as I had crew chief duties to handle for our friend Greg Montoya--who wheeled his 12-second '89 GT (the subject of one of our 5.0 H/C/I projects) to a runner-up finish in "Symbolic Collision Street Challenge," PSCA's newest class, for cars running on a standard P255/60 R15 (or 16-18) "street" radial rear tire (NO drag radials are permitted).

Here are some of the shots I was able to take during the first round of eliminations. Congratulations go to Glen Strelecki of G&S Racing, for defeating defending champion Dan Marciano in the final of Ford Racing Mustang Maddness, and to ALL of the hardcore...and curious 'Stangbangers who came out to give it a try.