Maryland International Raceway kicked off its ritual of Friday night heads up drag racing this past Friday. On tap was the X275 Drag Radial program which has been put together by John Sears of OutlawRadial.net. A lot of anticipation has been growing as the past few weeks have went by with many cars out testing and others finishing up new combinations in preparation for the first race of the year at MIR. Near picture perfect weather set in as the evening hours were closing in and 21 cars made their way to the staging lanes for the first round of qualifying and eventually would be a record setting evening.
Jason Miller and crew brought the track to life for an evening of competition as the cars of the X275 program readied themselves for competition. Miller has become known for the killer track prep that the racers have come to love at MIR and it surely has led to many record setting performances in the past few years. Most of the focus has been on Chris Evans and his hatchback Mustang that has been nicknamed “Big Green”. In recent weeks Evans and his small block Ford with a F1R have been making some noise during testing. Evans would continue to set the pace for the 275 radial racers with a 5.06@141mph during the first round of qualifying. Daniel Whestine would be coming in a bit off the pace but enough to grab the number two spot for the first qualifier. Many heavy hitters were in the bottom half of the field and would have to step up their game if thet wanted to keep up with Chris Evans. DD Mahoney rounded out the top eight qualifiers with a 5.82@117mph.
Round Two of Qualifying
Round number two of qualifying would be do or die for havey hitters like Al Marlow and Bobby Flippin who all found themselves sitting in the bottom half of the field and out of the big money if they didnt get in the top eight. Marlow and Flippin would both improve with many others as the second round of qualifying got under way. Marlow moved up to the second position with a 5.09@142 with his nitrous powered big block Camaro. Once again Chris Evans stepped up his game and held onto his number one qualifying position with an even better time. Evans and his F1R Procharged Mustang relied on tuning from Matt Butrim and with the momentum they had at this point, the four second zone wasn’t far away. His 5.02@141mph would be a tough number to beat in eliminations.
Eliminations Highlights
As the stage was set, the warriors of X275 were armed and ready for eliminations and everyone was gunning for Chris Evans and “Big Green”. It would be Evans who had to face off against Steve Haun who found himself in the number eight qualifying spot. Evans would get a nice starting line advantage with a .043 reaction time and run an even faster 5.002@142mph to knock off Haun. Bobby Flippin and his red S10 truck are a feared combination in 275 and he would face off with Shawn Murphy in his 1989 Mustang. Flippin had a huge starting line advantage to take the easy win with a 5.61 elapsed time. Al Marlow and Daniel Whestine would both advance into the second round and will face each other in round two.
At MIR they believe in letting in everyone race so when you are not fast enough to get into the top eight of the field they have the shootout for those who are left. Quite often these guys will put on a show and just may steal the show. Tim Savoy and his Mustang would face off with the brain trust behind X275 – John Sears runs his Malibu in the X275 program as well as promoting. Sears would fall to Savoy as Tim would run a 5.63@126mph and would be quickest for the round. The next pairing would be all late model Mustangs with Tony Parson’s 09 Mustang versus Ryan Clark’s 2002 model. Clark was late at the tree but he had the power to pull around Parsons for the win with a 5.77@121mph. Steve Drummond would have troubles as he fell to Clinton Smith and Louis Gross would prevail for the win over D. Mahoney.
As the night wound down it would be Chris Evans once again stepping up his game with the fastest X275 pass at MIR to date. His 4.999@143mph would be enough for the record and to pick up the $5o bonus from FastMover Motorsports but he redlighted away the win. The later rounds go by quick and in the finals of both classes we would have Bobby Flippin facing off against Daniel Whestine and Tim Savoy taking on Ryan Clark in the shootout. Whestine may have been considered the underdog coming into the final against Flippin but he would pull out the win over the little red truck. On the other side of the ladder Tim Savoy was taking on the Mustang of Ryan Clark. Clark in his 2002 Mustang would take the win over Savoy in the finals. A big congratulations to all the racers for putting on a great show for the fans. This program at MIR will continue as each and every race goes by.