US 131 Motorsports Park hosted its 20th Annual Honor Credit Union Funny Car Nationals along with the Mid-West Drag Racing Series and the Nostalgia Drag Racing League on Sept 6-7. This incredible event saw a slew of Nostalgia Funny Cars, like the Buzzy’s Nitro Bomber, Mad Max, Total Insanity, Tremor, Drastic Plastic, and several others.

The showing of jet cars was next level. Fans were treated to side-by-side passes made by the Florida Tech and House of Kolor jet cars at more than 200 MPH. The Homewrecker jet truck ran both afterburners, and HellFire, the world’s Fastest Freightliner literally shaking the tower with its huge jet engine.

The Mid-West Drag Racing Series racers experienced the best air they had seen this year and took advantage of it. Racers reset ET and MPH in a few classes, while also providing many with a stack of personal bests across the six Classes on site. It’s always great to see the show the NDRL brings, with more than 90 vintage and old-school hot rods on site doing battle for valuable points and round wins.

The Buzzy’s Nitro Bomber started the show on Friday with a huge pass and celebration with their very first trip to 300 MPH. The team has worked tirelessly for years to accomplish this incredible feat. The starting line team, and crowd, erupted when the scoreboards read 300.00 MPH. Sadly, at the end of the run, the driver’s hand slipped on the parachute lever and the car ended up in the sand trap. Thankfully the driver was unharmed, and the car is easily repairable.

Friday Night Qualifying was going to be very fast for each class as the air was as perfect as you could hope for, with low dew points, minimal water grains, and a DA in the range of 1000 feet. The up arrow key was in full effect as Samuel Peterson and Jimmy Bradshaw had the track prepped to take whatever the racers were throwing at it.

Chris Juliano was the first to benefit from the great air and track with a Personal Best of 3.657, a huge leap forward for the car and team. One team member commented earlier in the day they had found a few things and were going to be a player in the class. That would land them in third after Q1, behind Aaron Wells’ 3.62 and Mark Micke’s 3.58. Round two of Pro Mod qualifying would provide fans with a record run from Mark Micke of 3.562, resetting the 2.5-year-old record of 3.568.

Finals:

Stroud Safety Pro Mod: Mark Micke 3.761 over Aaron Wells 5.084

Pro Mod Slammers: Dennis Hagedon 3.755 over Tony Strachan 3.844

J&A Service Funny Car: Jim Whiteley 3.594 over Steven Macklyn 3.865

Performance BearingTop Sportsman: Jim Hayes over Jon Vesper

ICON Pistons Top Dragster: Jared Ledford over Wade Pennington

Zimmerman Sportsman Junior: Lexie Klinger over Ellie Vesper

Race Star Wheels Pro Junior: Evan Muchier over Ethan Klinger

Junior Slammers: Raylin Davis over Kenzie Wells

Racers are returning home and preparing for the biggest race of the year in just 10 days. The Smack Down 2024 at Flying H Drag Strip will be one of the toughest fields of competitors these racers have ever seen. With more than 150 racers signed up, this event will be what legends are made of. With the event providing a base of 50 points to each MWDRS racer, all they need to worry about is taking home their part of more than $300,000 in class payouts over the weekend of Sept 19-21 at Flying H Drag Strip.