NATIONAL MUSCLE CAR ASSOCIATION
TeamWORK
The formula behind NMCA’ s rise to success
By Ainsley Jacobs
Photographs By Kevin DiOssi
O ne person can only accomplish so much on their own, but if they surround themselves with a team of other talented, competent, and motivated individuals, together the group can achieve greatness. Steve Wolcott, president and CEO of the National Mustang Racers Association( NMRA) and the National Muscle Car Association( NMCA) is a prime example of how one can make a big impact simply by focusing on the value of teamwork as his organizations have had a dramatically positive influence on the sport of drag racing.
Growing up in northern Hollywood, right down the street from NHRA’ s former headquarters, Wolcott, now 50, always had an interest in cars.“ I bought an’ 85 Mustang GT when I turned 19 and kept it for about 10 years,” he shares. Originally, he didn’ t set out to change the world. Instead, he studied history at UC Santa Barbara in his home state of California. Wolcott graduated in 1990 and wound up getting into advertising sales with
Petersen Publishing selling small ads in the backs of magazines like Hot Rod, Car Craft and more.“ I had a lot of great mentors like John Cobb, Ralph Panico, and John Diana, and was able to grow as a result of their help.”
Around 1998, Wolcott was promoted to publisher of 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords and Max Speed magazines and traveled to lots of races and events as a result, including the Holcomb Motorsports 5.0 Civil Wars at Rockingham Dragway in North Carolina, and the first World Ford Challenge at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
“ Those events are really what got me interested,” Wolcott recalls.“ James Lawrence [ current owner of Power Automedia ] was the associate editor and helped me get in tune with who racers are. We got to talking about events and came up with the idea for the NMRA. There was this movement going on surrounding late model Mustangs, and no association for them.” Wolcott and Lawrence saw the opportunity to create one and believed from what they saw with the magazines that there would be a lot of support from racers and the community as a whole – they were right.
Towards the end of 1998, the two men quit their jobs to focus solely on their new idea. The NMRA’ s inaugural season in 1999 included events in Phoenix, Arizona, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and, incredibly, the Ford Motorsports Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania thanks to an invite from George Case, who believed in what Wolcott and Lawrence were trying to do.“ The 1999 NMRA Ford Motorsports Nationals was a huge hit. Billy Glidden raced Pro 5.0 and won, and guys like Don Walsh Jr, Joe DaSilva, Job Spetter Jr, and more came out to support us,” Wolcott proudly remembers of the year that started it all. Additionally, Race Pages magazine was also launched that year to provide coverage for the series and its participants.
Amazingly, NMRA’ s initial success was so huge that the following year, the schedule had grown from three races to five, and a championship series with a contingency program was added for the 2000 season.“ The racers really responded to what we were doing. They wanted something different, something more professional, and we were able to provide that,” adds Wolcott. Early on, the organization gained attention from big-
84 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 132