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Nitro Cars, Jet Semis and a weekend of Great Racing at US 131

Nitro Cars, Jet Semis and a weekend of Great Racing

US 131 Motorsports Park hosted their 20th Annual Honor Credit Union Funny Car Nationals along with 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’s and first 300 MPH Run, Mad Max and Mad Maxine, Total Insanity, Tremor, Drastic Plastic and a bunch more! The showing of jet cars was next level, with side by side passes made by the Florida Tech and House of Kolor jet cars to more than 200 MPH, the Homewrecker jet truck running both afterburners and HellFire, the world’s Fastest Freightliner literally shaking the building with his huge jet engine! The Mid-West Drag Racing Series racers saw the best air they had seen this year and took advantage, resetting ET and MPH in a few classes, while also providing many with a stack of Personal Bests across the 6 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 drivers 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 and will be out providing spectators with a great show very soon!

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 commenting earlier in the day that 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.

Top Three Qualifiers for each class:
Stroud Safety Pro Mod: Mark Micke, for the fourth time this year, at 3.562 (Q2), Aaron Wells as #2 Qualifier, with his second best pass of the weekend, at 3.620 (Q1), and Keith Haney as #3, with his best pass of the weekend, at 3.633 (Q2).
J&A Service LLC Funny Car: MWDRS new-comer Brian Hough, with his quickest pass of the weekend at 3.577 (Q2), followed by Class Points Leader Steve Macklyn with a 3.582 (Q2) and Jim Whiteley’s best pass of the weekend in Q2 of 3.613.
Icon Forged Piston/Race Star Wheels Top Dragster would once again see Anita Strasburg prove the speed of that car with a 3.657 ET (Q2), with Dylan Hough’s 3.89, and Wade Pennington (3.91) rounding out the Top 3.
Performance Bearing Top Sportsman: Tim Paap would show the red Corvette to be the Quickest with his 3.84, with Michael Chitty in a new car (4.18) and Rod Oxford (4.22) for the Top 3. Zimmerman Sportsman Jr Top 3 Qualifiers (Based on Reaction Time) were Lucas Ramsey (0.0048), Elle Vesper (0.0296) and Aspen Kaupa (0.0348).
Race Star Wheels Pro Jr Top 3 Qualifiers were Class Points Leader Tyler Wells (0.0089), Keaton Couturier (0.0308) and Ean Guenthardt (0.0316).

Eliminations:
Round One of Eliminations were interesting to say the least. Many racers struggled to stay in competition, with two Pro Mod racers swapping engines to make E1. Racers like Wayne Roberts and his team swapping to a backup overnight, earning them the Rocycle Hardest Working Team Award! Aaron Wells and team would swap engines between Q3 and Round 1 of Eliminations, barely making it to the lanes in time to race Wayne Roberts!
Pro Mod E1 would see four Competition Bye’s as racers struggled to make the lanes.
Funny Car E1 moved Brian Hough, Jim Whiteley and Steve Macklyn on with wins.
Top Dragster E1 saw #9 Qualifier Kati Laughter move past #1 Qualifier Anita Strasburg after Anita redlit by just 0.0189. Another upset was Treyton Parker grabbing th holeshot win on #2 in Points Jordan Eperjesi. Jeremy Maples would take a much needed win, over Michael Howard, to extend his Series Points Lead.
Top Sportsman E1 provided the upset of the year for the class with Rod Moore being taken down by Jon Vesper. This was Rod’s first loss of the year, he still has a commanding lead over the field in the Series Points.

Finals:
As the atmosphere created an incredible mixture of the lowest DA our racers had seen all year, Samuel Peterson and Jimmy Bradshaw had the track prepped to see the best ETs of the year for many racers!
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 (Kenzie’s 3rd time to Runner-Up this season)

Notable Achievements during the event:
Mark Micke resetting the MWDRS Pro Mod ET and MPH Record to 3.556 at 229.94 MPH
Chris Juliano setting a Personal Best and first trip to the 3.60s with his 3.657 in Q1
Aaron Wells set many PBs: 60’ at 0.898, 330’ at 2.420, 660’ at 3.620 (E3) and then resetting 660’ PB at 3.616
Kati Laughter setting a New PB at 4.37, getting her First Round One Win and also her First Second Round Win
Steve Macklyn (Funny Car) with a slew of personal best 3.582 and 3.581 ET’s and a few personal best MPH 211.47 and 211.07

What’s Next?
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.

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