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Mid-West Drag Racing Series Night of Fire & Thunder Recap

The Summit Racing Mid-West Drag Racing Series presented by J&A Service LLC descended on St Louis’ World Wide Technology Raceway over the weekend of June 28th for the KSHE 95 Night of Fire & Thunder!

Stroud Safety Pro Mods
The Stroud Safety Pro Mod class hosted 21 cars, with a great mix of power adders! Nearly half the field [10 cars] came equipped with screw blowers, six with nitrous, turbos accounting for two and Procharger powering the final three.
Mark Micke’s turbo car took the #1 Qualifier spot, for the third consecutive event, with a 3.636 at 215.10, the quickest and fastest pass of the event. Brandon Snider’s Screw Blown ‘63 Corvette was Second Qualifier, and quickest Screw Blown car, with a 3.667 at 202.15. Keith Haney was the Quickest Nitrous car, qualifying fourth with a 3.700 at 202.45. Todd Bennett’s Procharged C7 Corvette held the 13th Qualifier spot with a 3.791 for the Quickest Procharger car.
Round One of Eliminations was an all out assault by the screw blower cars, with five cars moving on. Mark Micke and Ed Thornton’s turbo cars made it past Round One and Keith Haney was the lone nitrous racer to make Round Two. The Quickest Pass of Round One went to Mark Micke with a 3.654. We also saw Ryan Bush make his debut in Pro Mod Eliminations as an alternate after Keith Goolsby failed to make E1.
Turbo cars did well in Round Two with Ed moving past Keith and Mark over Tommy Cunnignham. Brandon outran Aaron Wells and Ron Muenks was quicker than Robert Costa. This setup a Turbo VS Turbo and Screw VS Screw Round Three. Ed and Mark ran side by side for maybe the best pass of the Pro Mod Class! Ed ran a possible PB with his 3.668 to Mark’s 3.658. Mark cut a huge 0.004 light, the best reaction time of the class. Snider would move past Muenks with a 3.655 for the quickest pass of the Round.
Sadly, the rain would make it’s way on track before the Finals could be run. Mark and Brandon elected to run the Finals in Q2 of our next race at Martin, MI.

The Pro Mod Slammers class was split between Widener and Yeoman because of the weather.

In other Pro Mod news, we saw three cars make their debut in the class! Ryan Bush, who is campaigning in the Pro 4.20 Class moved up to Pro Mod in his nitrous First Gen Camaro, increasing to 4 stages and running a best of 4.059 in Qualifying. Robert Costa took delivery of his Brand-New ‘23 Mustang from Larry Jeffers Race Cars. Robert has experience in a Pro Mod, but this is his first Screw Blower. His first pass in the car, during testing, he ran a 4.01 and that set the tone for the weekend! Robert would qualify 6th with a 3.716! And the heart warming story of the weekend was Frankie Radake taking delivery of his first Pro Mod, also from Larry Jeffers Race Cars. Frankie’s excitement was contagious and each time he came to the line became a first for him. We caught up with him after his first burnout and you couldn’t contain the level of enthusiasm he has for this new chapter in a long time dream to own one of these cars. With parts purchased from Brad at WYO, Jay Cox and many other racers, he is set to make a hard run at the class. He said he expects to be a force at the Smackdown in September at Flying H Dragstrip. Frankie used the race this weekend as his opportunity for licensing passes and seat time.

J&A Service Top Alcohol Funny Car
J&A Service Top Alcohol Funny Car racers on site included Points Leader and 2023 Champion Steve Macklyn, plus Lance Van Hauen and Mark Billington. The #1 Qualifier for TAFC, with a 3.663, was Steve Macklyn.
Round One of Eliminations would see Mark and Lance race, with Lance moving to the Finals for the second consecutive event with a 3.786 over Mark’s 3.782, with the holeshot making all the difference! Lance would turn a .096 RT to Mark’s .134.
For the Finals, Steve would backup his #1 Qualifying run with a 3.668 to Lance’s 3.838.

Performance Bearing Top Sportsman
The Performance Bearing Top Sportsman class had nine cars on property with Kasey Kroeker taking the #1 Qualifier spot with a 4.267 ET.
Round One, Michael Chitty had the closest spread with a 0.01 to move on to Round Two. Defending Two-Time Champion and current Points Leader Rod Moore would move past his engine builder Doug Woody after Doug redlit. Tim Cunningham moved on after a redlight from Macy Higgins. With Tina Pierce moving on after a redlight from Mark Griffin.
Round Two would see #1 Qualifier Kasey break, giving Tina Pierce the Round Win. Rod would overtake Tim and Michael Chitty would take a Bye.
At the stripe for the Round Three run of Michael Chitty and Tina Pierce, Chitty would sadly crash the car. With racers and safety crew racing to the car, pulling him from the car before a fire engulfed the cabin and underhood area. With Mike safely away getting looked at by paramedics, the team was able to extinguish the fire. Mike would later talk to Daniel Green and say that he will evaluate the car once home.
With that, Rod Moore would again need to break the beams under power to win another round of the Series and extend his points lead even further.

Icon Forged Pistons/Race Star Wheels Top Dragster
The Icon Forged Pistons/Race Star Wheels Top Dragster would again see Anita Strasburg as the #1 Qualifier with her 3.719 ET. With 14 cars on property, the stage was set for a great day of racing.
Jeremy Maples, current Points Leader and winner of the first two events, would debut his new car with a new power adder. His first pass in the car would be Q3, resulting in a 13th place Qualifier spot with a 4.506.
Round One would see Jordan Eperjesi move past Anita Strasburg after a redlight, Bryce Micke passed Calvin Minnick, Maples over Rice, Kammler over Matt Moore, Long over Laughter, Cody Moore over Timmerman and Pennington past Watkins.
For Round Two, Bryce Micke would fall to Maples, Kammler would overtake Long and Defending Champion Cody Moore would move past Pennington.
This would setup a race between the Points Leader Maples and Second Place Jordan Eperjesi. With 30 points separating the two spots, this race was vitally important for both racers. Jordan would come out on top with Maples running too quick by just 0.001! Kammler would also take out Cody Moore.
The Final Round was delayed by the weather, with the teams deciding to run the Finals during Q2 of the Smackdown at Flying H in September.

Race Star Wheels Pro Junior
Race Star Wheels Pro Junior had 14 competitors for this race with Kennedy Hale taking the #1 Qualifier spot with a 0.014 Reaction Time.
Tyler Wells would overtake all competitors to win the event.
In other news, Olivia Mayer would bring her own car to race for this event after being surprised at the last race with an opportunity to drive one of the Wells Motorsports racecars. Also, the Reed sisters returned and ended up facing each other in the first round of the Slammers class.

Zimmerman Properties Sportsman Junior
Zimmerman Properties Sportsman Junior had four racers on site with Cayden Duell taking the #1 Qualifier Spot with a 0.034 reaction.
Cayden would go on to win the event after a first round bye and a redlight by Jacob Phillips in the Finals.

Summer Break
The series will take the next 11 weeks as a Summer Break, returning to US 131 in Martin, MI the first weekend of September. With all the cars and racers fresh and ready, we look forward to this race being one for the record books. US 131 is a beautiful facility and consistently has a huge crowd for our racers!

To see all of the coverage of the race at World Wide Technology Raceway, visit midwestdragracingseries.com

For Media Inquiries, please contact Keith Haney

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