Friday — July 19th
This was a well attended Friday night Test & Tune event with our usual excellent racers along with some of Rob Keister’s Mid Atlantic .90 and Top Dragster Top Sportsman drivers making passes. Everyone was fast, cars hooked hard and went straight. Many of the .90 cars were really close to their indexes right out of the trailer, the second pass was usually dead on or really close. We also had a good many race fans tonight, with the recent scorching hot days it was nice to see a big turnout. We finished up right a 10 pm.
Saturday — July 20th
A fairly cool day, cloudy and barely above 80 degrees, a welcome change for sure. We got underway right at noon. I’ll list the racers in the order they were run. First the 10.90 Super Street cars. Dave Enama won out over Neal Vaccaro. The 8.90 Super Comp cars had Chase Fahnestock over Don Bangs. These cars are fast, many running close to 180 mph at the finish line. Now Pro. Bruce Suders won out over Bernie Staub, these two have raced each other many times over the last 45 years or so. Super had Chelsea Spence over Todd Welzel. Top Sportsman had John Moton over Dave Muller. These cars were rocket fast, Ronnie Proctor was low E.T. with a 4.35 @ 163 mph. Super Gas was won by Jeff Fisher over George Donhauser. Lastly Top Dragster was won by Candi Derry over Mike Shoop. We finished up about 8:30 pm.
Sunday — July 21st
It was warmer today, sunny and temps hit low 90’s but not real humid. We got started an hour earlier at 11 am and with only one time run. Super Street was won by Jeremy Stoker over Dave Cimba. Super Comp was won by yesterday’s runner up Don Bangs over Kathy Smulligan. Pro had Caleb Peddicord over Tom Dunham. Super had Mark Decker over Laury McGowin Jr. Top Sportsman was won by Doug Farace over Mike Daymude. Super Gas winner was Keith Mayers over Mike Lang. Top Dragster was won by Laury McGowin Sr. over his son Larry McGowin Jr. Top Sportsman Top Dragster run off had Laury McGowin Sr. winning over Doug Farace. We finished up about 5 pm.
Thoughts on this event. This was fun, the Mid Atlantic .90 Top Sportsman Top Dragster racers were great, they came to the lanes when called, the racing in most match ups were dead close, triple zip lights and dead on on passes were common, and talk about fast, many cars in the mid 4 second zone, speeds over 160 mph. Well done! Now a little about Mason Dixon Dragway. What a great race track we had, super hard launches and cars that ran straight and hit the number over and over. A lot of effort has been put into the racing surface back in the Spring and great track prep / maintenance all weekend long. Sixty foot times as quick as 1.00 to 1.02 on both Door cars and Dragsters. Hats off also to Rob Keister and his team, they helped us run a fun event, well organized. We have a great staff, from our on track people to everyone in our food stands, Shirt Shack, fuel trailer, front gate, EMTs, tower staff, tech, announcers, time slip booth, timing specialists and office and payout staff and lastly the track owners / management. A special acknowledgement to Steve Dickey who did a good bit of announcing Saturday, he is recovering from major shoulder replacement surgery, great having him with us, never a dull moment when Steve’s with us. Ok, that’s enough! Thanks to all that were with us this weekend! Racing Saturday and Sunday, Summit ET series racing, see you at Mason Dixon Dragway!
Mike Bassin, Track announcer