Arizona racer Ron Maroney brings home field advantage to Arizona Nitro Jam

Cour­tesy of Feld Motorsports

Wild and dan­ger­ous Fuel Altered divi­sion a high­light attrac­tion at huge Nitro Jam weekend

TUCSON, Ariz. (March 14, 2011) — For any dri­ver, a chance to race at the national level in front of thou­sands of fans at your home track is always a dream come true.

And for Arizona-based racer Ron Maroney, that dream will finally become a real­ity the week­end of March 25–26 as Maroney and his “Super Nanook” Fuel Altered team roll into town as one of the fea­ture classes at the inau­gural Ari­zona Nitro Jam at South­west­ern Inter­na­tional Race­way next week­end in Tucson.

Maroney, a native of Chan­dler, Ariz., has raced at tracks all across the United States, but none more than the track he calls the best in the state at South­west­ern Inter­na­tional Race­way. And after 26 years of rac­ing, Maroney couldn’t be more excited to be a part of Nitro Jam’s inau­gural event in the state of Ari­zona at the track he calls home as the Nitro Jam series brings an absolutely huge show to the
desert March 25–26 in Tucson.

Ron Maroney not only calls Ari­zona home, but he claims the Tucson-basedSIR track is the ‘best track in the state’

“SIR is the best track in Ari­zona and it is the track I like to call home. And it will cer­tainly feel good to return home to com­pete in front of these incred­i­ble fans later this month,” Maroney said. “South­west­ern Inter­na­tional Race­way will be rock­ing when Nitro Jam brings in the most diverse nitro show in the coun­try at the inau­gural event in Ari­zona, includ­ing our crazy Fuel Altered class. Fans haven’t seen any­thing until they see a Fuel Altered wig­gle and wob­ble down the track at speeds over 200 miles per hour.”

Indeed, Maroney sits behind the wheel of one of the most unique and out-of-control classes in all of motor­sports. Once banned by the orga­nized drag rac­ing com­mu­nity years ago, these insane nos­tal­gia cars pro­vide a glimpse of what rac­ing was like in years past while still pro­duc­ing con­sid­er­able horse­power, essen­tially push­ing each car to its limits.

In fact, because of the incred­i­bly short wheel­base of these Nos­tal­gia Fuel Altered machines, the newest addi­tion to the Nitro Jam lineup pro­vides some of the most intense runs of any class due to the poor han­dling and high horsepower.

And, of course, any class that requires the dri­ver to wear a gas­mask because of the over­whelm­ing nitromethane fumes bil­low­ing from the 3,000 horse­power beast known as a Nos­tal­gia Fuel Altered motor is sure to be a fan favorite.

“If there is one thing that can be said about a Fuel Altered it is this — they sure do put on a show,” Maroney said. “I often tell peo­ple that I rarely drive the car, I just hold on for six sec­onds. It is an adren­a­line rush like you wouldn’t believe accel­er­at­ing from zero to 230 miles per hour in the blink of an eye. You have to see it to believe it.”

Maroney is cur­rently sec­ond in the stand­ings with one win com­ing at the sea­son opener in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Maroney is a sec­ond gen­er­a­tion Fuel Altered racer, tak­ing over the fam­ily busi­ness a few years ago after decades help­ing crew his father’s car. After get­ting behind the wheel for the first time him­self in 1985, Maroney now pilots the leg­endary “Super Nanook” machine, a car that Maroney grew up idolizing.

“I actu­ally own my own car called ‘Blind Faith’ which I drive a few times through­out the year. I got to know the ‘Super Nanook’ team after many years on the match rac­ing scene and I told those guys that if they ever needed a dri­ver to occa­sion­ally fill-in I am their guy,” Maroney said. “Then at the begin­ning of last year they asked if I wanted to pilot the car full­time and I sim­ply couldn’t pass that up.

“I grew up watch­ing the ‘Super Nanook’ car dom­i­nate the drag rac­ing scene and now to get a chance to kick every­one else’s butt in the same car is great. It really is a dream come true.”

Now Maroney and the leg­endary “Super Nanook” team will travel to South­west­ern Inter­na­tional Race­way just a few miles from their home base to take part in the inau­gural Nitro Jam event in Arizona.

And “Super Nanook” won’t be the only leg­endary machine on hand for the huge week­end of racing.

Join­ing Maroney will be another Fuel Altered known for its days dom­i­nat­ing the com­pe­ti­tion, the incred­i­ble “Rat Trap” dri­ven by Ron Hope. The pair will also be joined by the wild look­ing “Pure Hell” machine dri­ven by Las Vegas native Jason Richey and points leader and cur­rent class record holder Chris Ben­nett in the “Pure Heaven” car.

Ron Hope’s leg­endary ‘Rat Trap’ and Maroney’s ‘Super Nanook’ are two of the most rec­og­niz­able race machines in the sport

Maroney is cur­rently sec­ond in the Nos­tal­gia Fuel Altered stand­ings with one vic­tory, sit­ting 36 points behind leader Chris Bennett.

The Fuel Altered divi­sion will join three other nitro classes includ­ing 320 mph Top Fuel Drag­sters, the biggest Prostal­gia Nitro Funny Car race of the sea­son and 220 mph Nitro Harley action. Addi­tional race ele­ments will include side-by-side 300 mph jet drag­sters, the “Cool Bus” wheel­stand­ing school bus and the bat­tle of the mon­ster trucks as the leg­endary Grave Dig­ger takes on the 30,000 horse­power Shock­wave jet semi.

Don’t miss a minute of this his­toric event as Nitro Jam comes to South­west­ern Inter­na­tional Race­way for the first time March 25–26 in Tucson.

Tick­ets start at just $25 if pur­chased in advance and park­ing and an all-access pit pass is free with admis­sion. Visit www.nitrojam.com for more details and get your tick­ets today!

About Feld Motor Sports
Feld Motor Sports, Inc. is the world leader in spe­cial­ized arena and stadium-based motor sports enter­tain­ment. Feld Motor Sports, Inc. pro­duc­tions include Mon­ster Jam®, IHRA® Nitro Jam® Mon­ster Energy® Super­cross, AMA Are­nacross Series and Nuclear Cow­boyz.  Feld Motor Sports, Inc. is a divi­sion of Feld Enter­tain­ment, the world’s largest pro­ducer of live fam­ily enter­tain­ment.  For more infor­ma­tion on Feld Enter­tain­ment, visit www.feldentertainment.com