Friday — June 21st
This was a Test & Tune event getting underway at 5 pm running til 10 pm. Quite a few racers where on the property camping out for the next days big event, the 11th Annual Rocking Chair Nationals. Not a lot of the early arrivals actually raced tonight but those that did made plenty of passes. We finished up right at 10 pm.
Saturday — June 22nd The 11th Annual Rock Chair Nationals
Very early the show cars rolled in and vendors also got set up for the event. At 9:30 am the awards portion of the program got underway with Bill Pratt, long time MIR announcer along with Gary Gore track owner of Eastside Dragway performed the MCing. Lots of former NHRA and IHRA past champions received real nice plaques for their past accomplishments in our sport. Once we wrapped that up at 11:30 am we went drag racing. All classes made two time runs and then went went to Round one. Outlaw Pontiacs had 16 cars, Ryan Ely drove dad Chad Ely’s GTO Judge for the win over Geoff Sotak, Shawn Miller and Jeff Raff were the semi racers. Foot Brake was won by Joey Harrison in Ed Talbert’s deadly S-10 truck over Christian Kelican. Super was won by Kaleb Kline over Pat Hahn. Nostalgia Eliminator was won by Joey Harrison over Jeff McMillen. MANDRA had Larry Wittig over Anthony Picone. The 409 class was won by Robert Walker Jr. over Mike Steele. Pro Stick was won by Howie Reath over Art Rhodes. Lastly the Vintage Eliminator was won by Brian McNeil over Brian Ketterer.
Ok…..final thoughts. The weather, it hit 96 degrees on Friday but later after the sun got behind the trees and we had some shade it was much better. Now on Saturday it was just plainly a scorcher, blazing sun and temps hit the upper 90’s. There is no doubt this kept some away for this big event, still we had over 125 show cars and 170 race cars and good turnout of our loyal hardcore race fans. Not bad all things considered. The racing was great, period. The track itself stayed excellent all day long, I’ve worked big events elsewhere on blazing hot days cars flatly would not hook, we had NONE of that. The track staff hung in there all day long and did a great job keeping event running smoothly. Just a shout out to many…..Gary Gore, Hayne Dominick, Bill Pratt, Denny Cooper, Mt. Aetna Fire Co. food stand staff, Royce Miller, Steve Dickey, E J Kowalski, Meritt Snyder, Steve Dress, Eric Kitchen, Linda Cline, Elmer and Cathy Wachter, Jake and Cheryl Landes and all the track staff that keep Mason Dixon Dragway going! And lastly a huge thank you to our racers, show car people and our great, loyal race fans! See you Saturday and Sunday at Mason Dixon Dragway!
A Note From Elmer: Thank all the Staff and Racers that did a great Job in the intense Heat and Helping Maker A Great Show.
