Blistering track temps, the sun hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement in the pits, and a crowd as excited as I have seen in a while. Oh, and let’s not forget about the insane drag racing action as well. All of this made for one hell of a good time in Ferris, TX over the weekend with the Mid-West Drag Racing Series.

Most of you know by now that the Mid-West Pro Mod Series has had to rebrand itself to the Mid-West Drag Racing Series in an attempt to better represent their product. Well, this was the first stop for the new branding, along with the first stop that included Top Alcohol Funny Cars. In fact, the TAFC were racing for what appears to the be the biggest purse in that classes history…TWENTY LARGE!

I don’t want anyone to think that TAFC is trying to steal the Pro Mod thunder of the series though. The Pro Mod racers were out in full force at the event and we had a first time winner in the series over the weekend there too. There were so many exciting story lines from this event that it’s difficult to cram them all in to a single write up regarding the event, but I will certainly try.

Rollin’ into Ferris, TX from Tennessee is no easy task. It’s about an 11+ hour drive for me to get there, but I was bound and determined to be on property Thursday evening for some testing. As usual, the XRP staff is top notch from the owner Clyde, all the way down the ladder. The facility is a great one to be at and work out of. So Thursday evening there were a few cars testing, but the one that most wanted to see was the Camaro owned by Fletcher Cox and driven by Shawn Ayers. Unfortunately, during testing there was a mishap of sorts that ended up sending the car into both walls. Shawn walked away unscathed, but the car was going to have to head to Bickels for some repairs.

Friday during the day was reserved for testing, but with track temps near or above 140 degrees there were very few that planned to take advantage of that time. Most of us tried to find AC to stay cool in throughout the day, as we were moving into qualifying on Friday night. Friday night was go time, and the drivers did not disappoint. Whether it was the TAFC, Pro Mod, Top Sportsman, Top Dragster, Juniors, Big Tire Shootout, or X275, they were all there to entertain us with great racing.

The trick in this business is to sometimes race the track that you are given and not always expect it to be like flypaper. This caused some tire frying in X275 by some during the first couple rounds of qualifying. While the big tire cars and dragsters had much less of an issue, the radial cars really had to work for it. Names like Shane Heckel, Kenny Hubbard, J.D. Campbell, Michelle Kato, Mike Buttafuoco, and more were all vying to get down the track and collect data for Saturday nights eliminations.

For the first time at a MWDRS event in competition we got to see and hear the beautiful sounds of the Alcohol Funny Cars. If you have never heard and seen them in person before, I seriously suggest that you do immediately. J&A Service, along with the Bartone Brothers, and more, really stepped up to make this entire TAFC program a part of the Mid-West Drag Racing Series. It’s another class that separates MWDRS from other series around the country. The enthusiasm from the TAFC was great to witness as well. The overwhelming theme in the pits from those teams is that they finally felt they had a place to compete where they were actually appreciated and welcomed.

PRO MOD PRO MOD PRO MOD…the class that you can’t not love. The characters, the cars, the different power adders, etc. This weekend was no different either, but this time we saw not only a first time MWDRS winner, we also say a first time power adder winner in the class. Say what you will about pro mod rules, weights, and all that other bullshit. Fact of the matter is that you either show up and race your damn car or you don’t. Well that is exactly what Clint Satterfield and Bob Gardner did over the weekend, as they brought their NHRA LEGAL trimmed Camaro that is powered by an XRE engine with a Procharger centrifugal supercharger on board. The team was pretty damn consistent in that heat too, with a string of mid 3.70 passes. In the finals they were pitted against Jim Sackuvich’s nitrous powered Camaro. It turned into a peddle fest, with Clint getting the best of it and heading to the Winner Circle. It also marks the third different combination to take home a Pro Mod trophy in the MWDRS this season, as we have had winners with a screw blower, nitrous, and now centrifugal supercharger. Tell me again why you can’t run all these combos in the same class.

Top Alcohol Funny Car (TAFC) is the new kid on the block in the MWDRS and yet they seemed to fit right in like they had been there since the start. Names like Whiteley, Bellemeur, McCosh, Gordan, and more all battling it out for the largest ever payday in their class. It’s not everyday that these men and women get to run for $20k, in fact it’s never, so the anticipation surrounding this class with at a fever pitch. Sean Bellemeur, out of the Bartone Brothers racing camp led the way after 4 rounds of qualifying with a 3.64. That number one qualifier also pocketed him and his team a cool thousand dollars. Sean made his way through the field, where he would find himself facing off against the #3 qualified Doug Gordon and his Beta Motorcycles backed hotrod. That finals would see Sean drop the hammer and run a 3.63 side by side to Doug’s 3.68. An amazing final round for both teams, and a great race for the fans.

Top Dragster saw the family of Steve McDermott Sr. and Jr. take home another win in the MWDRS. This is a tough class to say the least, and the McDermott’s were certainly on their game at XRP. There were certainly no “gimme me’s” in eliminations either. Steve Sr. had to be on his toes at all times. Looking at the numbers, Steve’s worst light in eliminations was an .018 in the finals, where he went a .915 on a .90 dial. This was also the first race for T/D and T/S where the ET was lowered from a 4.99 to a 4.49.

Something that you don’t see everyday is two cars from the bottom half of the qualifying sheet face off against each other in the finals. Well folks, that is exactly what happened at XRP. The number ten qualified car took on the number twelve qualified car. Kirk Piepke and his beautiful Pontiac GTO were set to face off against Kelvin Brown and his #12 qualified Firebird. When the boards lit up and we had a winner, it was Kelvin Brown taking that W home, along with the trophy and check.

X gonna give it to ya. And that is exactly what the TRE powered nitrous cars did over the weekend. Took on all comers, only to have to face off against each other in the final round of competition. This was certainly a weekend for the nitrous powered radial monsters. Justin Curry, who has arguably one of the most beautiful cars in the class, was consistent all weekend and the finals is exactly where he expected to be. He was going to be facing off against fellow Texan, J.D. Campbell, who is another heavy hitter with a beautiful old school car. On this day though, it was all Justin, who took home the win in Ferris, over J.D.

Another personal highlight for me was someone that runner’ed up in the Sportsman Junior class. That being Shaddrick Cox Jr. better known to his family and friends as Tjai. This was his first time in competition, and he went all the way to the finals in his first event. Now you may ask why that was a big deal. Well, if you look at his last name and you put two and two together, you’ll realized that he is the nephew of NFL Superstar Fletcher Cox. The dragster is painted the same scheme as Fletcher’s X275 Goldust. It was so much fun to watch the reactions of Fletcher, Shawn, and Mark Savage, every time that Tjai would come up to the line. Congratulations to Tjai and the entire Cox family on an amazing performance.

I certainly don’t want to leave out the other Junior competitors either though. Tjai faced off against Tyler Janousek in the finals of Sportsman Juniors. While I don’t know the final numbers, it appeared to be a pretty tight race from what I could see at the starting line. In the Top Juniors it was Chloe Scott, who was victorious on Saturday night and took home the trophy and check. A huge congratulations to all the winners and runner ups in the Junior classes at XRP.

Big Tire…the smack down continues. Landon Hobbs and the Texas Rattlesnake truck absolutely dominated the field over the weekend. Now I will say that I have a fond place in my heart for trucks in drag racing, as I was a huge fan of NHRA Pro Stock Truck class back in the day. When I tell you that this kid can wheel that beast and make some steam, it’s no joke folks. That truck is feared and I can see exactly why. Congratulations to Landon on the victory!!

That’s a wrap folks. A huge shoutout to Ellen Eschenbacher, Randy Hancock, Jimmy Boles, Cale Hancock, Lonnie Grim, and Paige Chandler for doing such a great job and making everything happen. From tech, to payouts, to organization, to apparel, you guys ran this event better than any other MWDRS series event in the history of the organization. I look forward to the next event in St. Louis.