This event is actually called the “Mid Atlantic Car Show and Nostalgia Drags”. I’ve heard of the event but not really what it’s all about. Some of my racer friends would go but I never heard the who, what, where, when, and why of the it, that is until Bruce Larson’s Dragfest in early November of last year. I met the event promoter, John Presley and we got to talking about the nostalgia scene and I told him that I wrote and shot for NDW. He invited me to attend this year’s edition (the 11^th annual) so I went.

            What a show! Where to begin? We (Alan Aug and I) inadvertently entered through the pit gate. We slowly looked for a place to park. There wasn’t a free space to be seen until we were way past the scoreboards. The pits were that packed! Any space seemed to be at a premium and the cars were packed tight. Some of the racers were pitted by the staging lanes clearly indicating an overflow of entries. Most pit spots looked like there was very little space for the racers to prepare their cars.

Packed pits made for tight quarters for the Massarella Monzas.

Groups in attendance were NETO, MANDRA, East Coast Gassers, East Coast Fuelers, two nostalgia S/S groups, 3 alky fuel altereds, 15 funny cars, and 1 nitro fuel altered. So in fact, this event now becomes (to this writer) another nostalgia event to rival the Dover Drags at Lebanon Valley NY and the Glory Daze event at Maple Grove Pa. A must attend event! Kudos goes to the Cecil County Dragway staff for pulling off the seemingly impossible task of getting all these cars down the track efficiently and safely. Outside of a Vega losing a hood in the traps, it was a very smooth event. Oh yeah, there’s a car show with a vendor area going on at the spectator side top end at the same time. To be quite honest, it was too much walking for me to peruse the cars so I pretty much stayed where the action was. Perhaps if this was a two day event there would be more time to see everything.

Wilko Brothers NETO Comp Corvette starts a burnout. Car sports one of the first Whipple Chargers.

The funnies in attendance in no particular order were in the blown category; Chris Massarella’s Total Insanity Monza, Rocky Pirrone’s 1970 Mustang Mach 1 Frantic Ford, Drew Sweetman in the 1974 Frantic Ford Mustang II tribute, the Time Bomb Vega, John Cerchio’s War Path Sommerset, Bunny Burkett’s Corvette, Robin Stambaugh’s Gen-X Corvette, the Nightmare Arrow, Excalibur Corvette, Funny Farmer Pinto, and the Super Camaro. In the injected category we saw Krista Massarella’s Temporary Insanity Monza, Bob Daly’s War Horse Mustang II, Frank Barnard’s Poison Arrow, and Willie Johnson’s No Money No Funny Nova.

Matt Stambaugh puts forth a smog bank in Bunny Burkett’s Corvette for Old Glory.

Krista Massarella’s Temporary Insanity Monza at the hit.

Rocky Pirrone lifts the rear slicks as he pops the chutes.

Robin Stambaugh wrinkles the slicks at the green.

Rocky Pirrone in the 70 Mustang Frantic Ford lines up against Drew Sweetman in the 74 Mustang II Frantic Ford .

Jack “Jack Approved” Redd and “Jungle” Pam Hardy were out and about.

Event winners were based on the lowest E T during 2 rounds of racing. Brian Gawlik piloting the Super Camaro recorded a pretty stout 6.18@226mph to take the blown portion and Frank Barnard ran a 7.85 to take the injected category.

Frank Barnard’s better half backs him up to an eventual winning pass of 7.85. 

Jim Cummings had his East Coast Fuelers group attending with 7 front engine alky dragsters and Ray Urban’s alky fuel altered filling in the 8^th spot. Top dog was Charlie Benson in his yellow screamer with a sizzling 6.52/208mph pass.

Charlie Benson’s round 2 burnout on his way to a winning 6.52/206mph for the East Coast Fuelers title.

 
(L) East Coast Fueler member Ed Bliss with a slight wheelie off the line.
(R) Ray Urban’s alky fuel altered filled the 8^th spot in the East Coast Fuelers line up.

Ted Brine’s 34 Ford AA/FA, the 134 coupe made a nitro guzzling (85% I’m told) pass after a pretty stout burnout. Pilot Joe Morrison clicked it off at the 1000’ mark too. The coupe came back for a second pass but after another fog bank burnout developed an oil leak and had to shut off.

Ted Brine’s 134 Coupe AA/FA on 85% of the yellow stuff and ably handled by journeyman pilot
Joe Morrison ran a stout shut off pass of 7.04@186mph. People are covering their ears for good reason.

Ted Brine’s 134 Coupe gets “Jack Approved” as Jack Redd looks on. 

The sheer number of gassers, S/S, A/FX, and everything in between plus great weather made for a very enjoyable day.