6/4/2025
Midwest Drag Racing Series
Summit Racing MWDRS - Shakedown In M-Town Historic Event
There are historic names when it comes to events in drag racing, and then there are those events that become generational. It just so happens that the Mid-West Drag Racing Series was part of one of those generational events over the weekend.
More than 20 years ago a New York based promoter named Dave Hance concocted an idea of gathering the best of the best in drag racing and named it the Shakedown at Etown.What some many not realize is that the one and only Ellen Eschenbacher was heavily involved with the event in the early years. So it's only fitting that the series she is such an integral part of ended up as part of the new Shakedown.
Michigan in May was never the plan for the MWDRS, in fact, Ohio was the original plan, but as they say...plans change. That is exactly what happened when it was announced that Shakedown would be contested on the same weekend of a Mid-West event, yet at a much different facility.
MWDRS founder Keith Haney was in contact with Donald Long, who has since taken over the Shakedown name, along with Eric Dillard, the founder of Pro Line Racing, and discussed a solution to bring our brand of Pro Mod racing to Shakedown. Once the details were figured out, it was time to make the announcement. This was going to be Shakedown and an MWDRS combined event with both points being handed out in the Radial Outlaws series, as well as the MWDRS series.
The MWDRS brought three of it's classes to the event to compete for 2025 series points. Those classes would include Pro Mod, Top Sportsman, and Top Dragster. All three classes vying for coveted series championshipship points.
Weather in Michigan leading into this race was on the iffy side, but the temps were bound to make for some great racing and even better ET's. This was no more apparent than what we saw in the final qualifier Saturday morning. Partly sunny weather, along with temps hovering around 60 or so, we all knew this was going to be the one to let it all hang out.
In a qualifier that will be talked about for years to come, we saw drivers on the outside looking in and proceeded to race their way in, only to get bumped back out later in the round. A prime example of this was Robert Costa. On Friday night Robert was sitting 15 before Q3. After the first few pairs on Saturday morning he was out of the top 16. He managed to rip off a 3.64 Saturday morning.That should be good enough for any 16 car pro mod field in the world, but sadly it was this weekend. When the round was over Robert was on the outside at #17 with a 3.64. It was the slowest of the 3.64 qualifiers and thus, by thousands of a second he was on the outside looking in.
Soon thereafter though, it was discovered that another driver who was in the field was unable to compete due to breakage, so Robert was back in. Yes, after all the back and forth, Robert managed to get back into the field. He was certainly going to take full advantage of that.
As the rounds went on we continued to see neck breaking side by side action in pro mod. Round one we saw the number one qualifier Mike Stawicki taken out by #16 Jim Widener. When I say #16 that's deceiving though, as Jim had qualified with a 3.642 and Mike with a mind boggling 3.566.
Round after round the MWDRS regulars were showing up and showing out. By the time the semi-finals were upon us it was three MWDRS regulars and another driver that had competed in MWDRS previously. The "odd man out" was none other than Indiana based driver Jeff Rudolf with his Procharger powered Camaro.
The semi-finals featured Robert Costa, Pro Mod newcomer Jacob McNeal, Former MWDRS World Champion Aaron Wells, and the aforementioned Jeff Rudolf.
Rudolf would take the victory over Wells, with Costa defeating McNeal in the other matchup.
Coming for the alternate spot after days of hard fought qualifying and eliminations, Robert Costa was set to face off against Jeff Rudolf for the title of Shakedown at M-town Champion. When the dust settled it was Jeff's 3.60 to Robert's 3.61 in the final bout. Crowning Jeff the first ever Shakedown at M-Town Champion along with his first ever MWDRS victory.
Not to be forgotten about was our Slammers class of Pro Mod competitors. This features drivers that either didn't qualify, or lost in the first round of eliminations. The final in this didn't disappoint either. It was going to be two drivers that are about as local to 131 as you get, when the nitrous assisted hot rod of Jackie Sloan was set to take on the lead sled Merc of Craig Sullivan. Jackie in the right lane with Craig in the left. Tree dropped and all jaws dropped!! The boards wit up with Craig laying down a career best 3.57 at 211 to Jackie's 3.69 at 202. Craig walks away the winner of the Slammers class, along with the second quickest Pro Mod pass of the entire weekend.
Top Dragster is always a battle to witness with some of the best driving and reaction times of any class on the property. Shakedown was no different in that aspect of things. When you talk about accomplished young drivers, we saw two of them matchup in the finals at Shakedown. The 2024 MWDRS Top Dragster World Champion Jordan Eperjesi was taking the tree against the 2024 PDRA Top Dragster R/U in points, Lucas Salemi. A battle of two up and coming superstars that we will most likely be seeing a lot of in the future. When the tree dropped and the boards declared a winner, it was Lucas making his way up for Winner Circle photos.
Speaking of up and coming superstars again, we move over to the Top Sportsman final at Shakedown. Another young superstar and previous MWDRS World Champion was taking the tree in this final. In one lane it was going to be Jon Vesper, who previously had a great showing last year at the MWDRS Michigan race, squaring off against a multiple time MWDRS Junior Dragster World Champion Tyler Wells. Tyler managed to get past two of last years top ten in the MWDRS points by beating Mark Griffin & Charley Whittenburg before meeting Jon in the finals. In the end though, it was Jon that took the victory over Tyler. This final for Tyler put the Wells/Cannon team solidly into first place in the points standings though.
Let's just say that the first ever Shakedown at M-Town was a pavement blistering success with not only the MWDRS, but the Radial Outlaws Series as well.
Carrying on the tradition of Shakedown was of the utmost importance to Donald, Eric, Keith, Ellen, and the staff at Radial Outlaws, MWDRS, as well as everyone at US 131 Motorsports Park!!
Now we look forward to our next event at the end of June, where the MWDRS classes roll into Flying H outside Kansas City before a well deserved summer break.
Written & Photos By Damon Steinke
Article Credit: Damon Steinke
Submitted By: Keith Haney
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