Richie Stine and his Camaro has wrapped up the championship the past two years. He won the first with his Chevelle.

Some may refer to MIR as the “House that Stine built” when it comes to their Real Street class. Maryland’s own Richie Stine has campaigned two different cars over the past three years to three consecutive championships. His nitrous combination has proven to be consistent but with plenty of power on tap when it was needed. The class started out as a quarter mile program and ran that way up until 2009 when they turned to eighth mile. The class has underwent a major transformation over the past few years with an insurgence of turbo power coming to play.

Sal Patel and his Drummond Race Cars prepared Viper will be a force to reckon with in Outlaw Drag Radial.

It was just that turbo power that rekindled a battle for the radial cars when the Corupt Motorsports crew rolled in with Alex Vrettos at the wheel and reset the world record on a radial tire. His 7.38 second elapsed time sparked a wildfire for fellow competitors to step up their game to keep up. From that point on Maryland International Raceway has had some of the fastest passes on a radial tire grace their racing surface. Paul Major, Alex Vrettos, Kevin Fiscus and Dave Hance have all graced the six second club at MIR with Hance’s pass being the current record of 6.869@215mph.

With safety at the forefront of the sport the choice was made to make the change to eighth mile racing by Jason Miller who operates the MIR facility with his father Royce. 2010 has brought even more changes to the rules and opened the ballpark for all the heavy hitters to compete for the money. Outlaw Drag Radial at MIR will be interesting for sure when the tree drops for the first time. Changes were made across the board on weights per a certain combination and most notably the option for aftermarket rear suspensions and torque arm setups in a vehicle that was not originally equipped with a weight penalty of adding 100lbs.

Randy Lambert came back to the scene in his wicked twin turbo Chevelle in late 2009.

We will only have to wait till Friday April 9th to see just who will start the trek to be the man to beat in 2010. Will it be the king Richie Stine and his Camaro with a new engine combination or will the turbo insurgence return with the likes of Paul Major, Alex Vrettos and Randy Lambert trying to dethrone Stine. Put it on your calenders as it is one of the very best shows on the east coast!