An amazing weekend of drag racing recap

The Memorial Day weekend is normally a time for remembrance as well as a weekend the usher in the summertime for most people. This Memorial Day weekend was also filled with some amazing drag racing action, as people left their homes and headed to the race tracks in droves.

Personally for me, I was in Huntsville Alabama over the weekend to cover Zach Jones’ presentation of Radial Fest. This was really the first event that has happened in Alabama since the virus took over the nation, and I will tell you that the fans had no interest in staying home. Over the three days that I was there, the stands were filled up, the pits were flowing with smiles and cheers, and the racing action was pretty damn solid. A few drivers from the wildly popular Street Outlaws series were on hand to run some heads up class racing as well. Ryan Martin and Fireball Camaro was in attendance on radials competing in RvW, Chuck was there to try his hand in X275 again, and Shawn Ellington, aka Murder Nova (The OG Car) was there to compete in LDR.

While Radial Fest, unfortunately, lost the battle with mother nature over the weekend, it was obvious to me that racing was a priority to the people in Alabama and I don’t think that anyone was overly worried about anything except who ran what and who won each round. After getting cut short on Friday night and Saturday night due to rain, Zach had to make the call to pull the plug as Sunday didn’t look much better for racing.

About ten hours away in Ennis Texas, the Mid-West Pro Mod Series rolled into the Texas Motorplex for their second event of the season. MWPMS had just had an event in Tulsa a couple of weeks prior that was a huge success, and based on all the information I was receiving from E3xtreme Co-Founder, and MWPMS Marketing Director Ellen Eschenbacher, Ennis was going to be amazing as well. In fact, things went so well earlier in the week on Thursday and Friday that it was announced they could have fans on Saturday. For those of you that think nitrous powered pro mods can’t complete with the screw blower cars, look no further than the finals in Ennis where there were two nitrous cars facing off. The Purple Gorilla of Ron Muenks took the win. Another big storyline coming from Ennis was that of Scottie Taylor, son of legendary pro mod driver Frankie Taylor. Scottie took home the win in his last race in a junior dragster, along with a beautiful Wally.

Heading south over to Florida, Orlando to be more specific was none other than Donald Long’s Duck X Productions Covid-8 race. This was a race to showcase the best of the best in the RvW and Pro275 arena. While there were some that couldn’t make it because of travel restrictions, this still was a who’s who in the radial world. The top 8 in RvW were all in the 3.60’s or quicker, we saw a new competition record ET set by Mark Micke in Pro275 and a new MPH record set by the Woodruff/Sullivan camp. When it came time to crown the winners of the event, it was none other than the quickest driver in nitrous door car history, Marcus Birt who would be standing tall in RvW, and Roger Holder taking the Pro275 victory. This was a great chance for the drivers of both classes to get in some much needed and deserved track time, along with attending a spectacular event.

Lastly, I want to express how amazing it was to see so many people start returning to what is OUR normal. I am well aware that everyone has a differing opinion on what has been going on, but to see everyone coming together as a family does and enjoying our sport is a thing of beauty. There are a lot of tracks that have started to open their doors as well. Battlefield Dragstrip, Holly Springs, and so many others that are welcoming back the family to our place of happiness. Please make sure that if your local track is open and you feel comfortable that you are out there supporting them.