It was a beautiful day in the Northeast corner of Maryland for the NA Shootout’s season opening event at Cecil County Dragway. The original season opener, scheduled at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania, was cancelled due to inclement weather, but a great bunch of racers brought out their best for this NA Clash. The 10.5 and Drag Radial heads up classes were contested as well as the All Motor Index (AMI) class.

The track surface was a little tricky on this day and that made it somewhat challenging for the competitors. The cars in G-Force 10.5 are making around 1,000 horsepower with many cars weighing in at over 3,000 pounds. That, combined with the small true 10.5 slick make tuning these cars to get down any track almost an art form. The same goes for the high powered Goodyear 275 Drag Radial class, where these guys are trying to put it down on an even smaller street radial tire.

In G-Force N/A 10.5, six hundredths of a second separated the top three qualifiers. John Langer took the top spot with an 8.45 followed by Leonard Long at 8.50, Jay Schonberger with an 8.51, Henry Jackson at 8.93, and Marc McCloud’s 11.88. In round one Langer got the bye run, and Long advanced with an 8.647 when McCloud had traction problems. Schonberger ran an 8.52 to advance over Jackson’s 8.70. In round two Schonberger faced Langer, and Schonberger had the advantage on the tree (.047 to .089) and ran quicker than Langer (8.52 to 8.55) to advance to the final. Long had the bye run into the final.  In the final round, Long couldn’t make the call and Schonberger drove down the track for his first event win.

The Goodyear 275 Drag Radial class has been drawing numbers of racers and this race was no exception. Neil Owens led the field with a 9.25 followed by Dave Mizell’s 9.27, Jeff Kinsler at 9.29, Anthony Manizza with a 9.67, Dave Shakespeare at 9.95, Joe Boywitt at 10.52, and Eric Hirt anchoring the field with a 12.29. In round one, Owens got the bye run and ran it out to the tune of a 9.26, while Kinsler ran 9.04 to take out Boywitt’s 10.52. Mizell ran 9.26 to advance over Hirt’s 11.93, and Shakespeare 9.64 was enough to drive around Manizza’s 9.82. In round two Ownes’ 9.73 took out Shakespeare’s 9.86, and Kinsler broke into the eights with an 8.98 to advance over Mizell’s 9.21. Mizell had the starting line advantage (.082 to .135) but it wasn’t enough to stay ahead of the hard charging Kinsler. In the final round Kinsler’s classic muscle car faced the late model muscle of Owens. Owens’ Trans Am left first (.081 to .141) but Kinsler drove around him with a 9.02 to take the win, besting Ownes’ 9.23.

The Autofab AMI (All Motor Index) class has got a nice chunk of change in it for this season and some great racers showed up with their eyes on that $1000 prize. Mike “Ten Oh” Romeo led the field in qualifying with a 10.011 on his 10.00 index followed by 20 other racers. In round one, it was Marc Marsico over Peter Huff, Ralph Seran over Justin Rowe, Brian Cantrell over Andrew Valponi, Bruce Wilson over Lee Grinnell, John Stankunas over John B, Nicole Worthington over Ronald Harrison, Frank Garbaez over Jim Hostler, Jeff Hughes over Bob Hare, Dan Walleigh over Carlos Artson, Mark Plucinski over Dave Hess, and Mike Romeo with the bye. Round two Garbaez, Romeo, Hughes, Seran, and Wilson advanced. In round three Romeo, Hughes and Garbaez were victorious and moved on to the semi-finals. There Garbaez received the bye run and Hughes faced Romeo. Hughes had the better light (.008 to .015) and ran dead on with a six to beat Romeo’s dead on with a five run. The margin of victory was just six thousands of a second. In the final, Hughes jumped the tree with a red light, giving the win to Garaez.

The next event is scheduled for July 10th at Maple Grove Raceway, where we hope to see even more racers show up to compete.