The thriving NMCA racing circuit is a cool place to be for sure. While all events are presently exclusively held within the USA, Canadian participation does exist in the series with Ontario’s Mike Konigshofer being part of that.
During the 2014 racing season Mike Konigshofer made what could be considered a comeback. He returned to the NMCA circuit racing a vastly rekindled and updated 1989 version Ford Mustang. Mike, who is son to Frank Konigshofer (one of the three Brothers responsible for Canada’s longest running Pro Stock team) has been charting a course forward with his race car since first debuting it back in 2005.
Before coming back out in the summer of 2014, Mike had last raced his car in the NMCA and OSCA back in 2009 and 2010. But after that the travel demands at his work (then CN Railway) combined with his desire to upgrade his car, caused a step back from the sport for a time.
“We used to run in a Street Car racing Pro Stock class,” Mike revealed. “But we decided to go a different direction and our new target class was the NMCA’s 10.5 tire N/A (normally aspirated class).So I took some time off to gather all the right components and to reconfigure things.”
The car was first sent to Windsor Ontario where Brad Gibbs did a number of modifications including lowering it, installing new ladder bars and shortening the rear end.
During this time the team also imported some Australia racing technology too. They acquired a 397 CID motor (block, heads and manifold) from an Australian Pro Stock team (Anthony Selva & John Barbagello) and sent that unique configuration off to New York state where Jeremy Coons (at Extreme Engine) put it together and then on a dyno.
After that Mike’s team, which also includes Bill Griffin, Jeff Konigshofer and Lee Poetter, installed the motor and headed back out to Cayuga Dragway for testing – last May.
“We went through everything,” Mike continued. “This was basically an all new Mustang compared to what it was back in 2010. It used to be an automatic but now it has a clutch and Liberty 5-speed.”
Performance wise the car has been impressive to date too. That includes a best ET of 8.11 secs at 173 mph with a 1.19 secs 60 foot time at their legal class weight of 2860 lbs. But in good air Mike admits the car is fully capable of running in the 7.8 secs zone.
“The combination we are running is very unique — there’s nothing else out there close to it. Right now we’re tuning by the seat of our pants a bit — without a computer. I’d like to resolve that for this season.”
“But we also really like where this car fits and where our class is headed,” he added. “This naturally aspirated class is building some steam – I know of a number of new cars being built for it. It’s a place where our small block Ford can run competitively against much bigger CID (Chevy) competitors. There’s great parity in the rules and it’s set up so that the drivers make the difference — that’s what I like about it.”
Mike, who’s deep family history in Canadian drag racing and passion for Ford products precedes him, is very clear on carrying forward that tradition too.
“If you are a Konigshofer – you run a Ford,” he affirmed. “I grew up bleeding blue and my Uncle (John) probably wouldn’t allow me to do anything else. Our route may not be the easiest — but we like the challenge and it’s very rewarding.”
For Mike, who is now the General Manager at On-Time Precision Components (Delhi ON) — the priority for his 2015 racing campaign will be all six of the scheduled NMCA circuit events.
Thank you to our media partners, Drag Race Canada for this story.
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