NOPI Atco (and Atlanta Re-run)

It was a busy and blustery weekend in Atco, New Jersey for the NOPI Drag Race event. It’s not easy to keep everything straight when you’re essentially running two events in one, but I’ll do my best to summarize everything for you.

Saturday’s qualifying doubled as elimination rounds to make up for the rained-out Atlanta event. It was a good day for Hot Rod Chevy Cobalt driver Bryan Jimenez, who wound-up with the Atlanta win. Saturday also resulted in a hard-fought win for Gary Gardella in Pro FWD, who laid-down an impressive run of 7.27 seconds at 214mph. Later in the weekend, Gary was able to back-up this run, setting both elapsed time and speed records. Saturday resulted in runner-up Atlanta finishes for Chevy drivers Brian Ballard in Turbo Street, Marty Ladwig in Pro FWD, and Grace Howell in All Motor. It was not such a good day for Don Nase Jr., driving the ECOtec-powered Extreme dragster. He got out of the groove and, through a series of moves, wound-up hooking a tire and flipping over. Luckily, Donnie was OK and his dragster suffered only minor damage to the main hoop and wing. read more...