Cecil County Dragway – Rising Sun, MD – The event simply known as the “Uncle Buck” celebrated it’s 28th year this past weekend at the newly resurfaced Cecil County Dragway in Rising Sun, Md. As the sun rose on Saturday, the pits looked like a mini-divisional with over 90 total entries shooting to take home a “Piggy” by days end.

In VP Racing Fuels Super Comp, a record 41 cars took to the track for Q1, and it was recent Race # 3 winner Don Bangs taking home the #1 qualifier points. As the eliminations moved into the later rounds it was one veteran and two newcomers to the series making the semi-finals. That round featured 2016 MASCA Champ, Chase Fahnestock and two newcomers with the series, Brian Gauntt & John Bruzzo. Bruzzo has been around NHRA for years but, this was his first year running the series and Gauntt, who was a local bracket racer from the Atco, NJ area, wanted to branch out and try something different. In the semi’s Bruzzo earned the laddered bye-run while Fahnestock and Gauntt lined up. After the burnouts Gauntt developed a fuel leak and was shut off giving Fahnestock a bye. In the finals, Fahnestock and Bruzzo had lights that neither were proud of (.045 to .047 in favor of Fahnestock) but Chase edged out Bruzzo for his first victory of the season on a wire to wire 8.910 to 8.914 win and a big jump to 2nd in points behind Bangs.

In VP Racing Fuels Super Gas, points leader Paul Laino raced to a 9.901 to claim the #1 qualifying spot in the 30-car field and the point bonus adding to his lead. As the semi-finals rolled into the water box, it was New York’s Frank Volpe Jr. and his Mustang against Jay Cepelka and his Omni. Jay got the jump on the line by 0.001 (.037 to .038), but fell off in performance to a 10.111 to allow Volpe to go around for a 9.979 victory and a trip to the finals. On the other side of the ladder was Rick Homan and Rich Price, Homan had been having issues all day but, found himself in the semis after 2 red-lights and a broke bye run. At the green, Price took a significant lead (.012 to .039) but couldn’t run the number to allow Homan to sneak by for a 9.953 to 9.984 victory. In the finals Homan’s luck ran out as he went -.042 red handing the victory to Volpe for his first victory of the year and a berth into the Top 10 in points for the first time this season.

The final class of the day was VP Racing Fuels Super Street. NHRA A/Fuel dragster standout Earl Nichols Jr. had the weekend off and decided to bring out one of his first race cars, his 1976 Chevette. Earl didn’t miss a beat as he rocketed to the #1 qualifying spot with a perfect 10.900. In the semi-finals Race # 4 winner Wes Siegel matched up with Ryan Roberts, Siegel who was only in his 4th race running Super Street already had one victory at Race # 4 and was looking for his 2nd in a short period of time. Siegel got the jump (.015 to .039) and never looked back as he won on a double breakout 10.885 to 10.845.

Siegel was to match-up with Keith Mayers in the finals but, on his bye-run in the semi-finals Mayer’s rolled the beams before the tree was activated and per .90 Association rules resulted in an automatic disqualification. Siegel then idled his Camaro up to the line to take the tree and was declared the winner.

Once the finalist were crowned and the smoke cleared for the day, almost 300 people came to celebrate at the Uncle Buck Pig Roast, which was a record count. Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t play nice on Sunday, forcing a cancelation for Sunday’s activities.

The next event for the series is at Atco Dragway for Race # 6 & 7 on August 14th & 15th as the points battles get a little tighter as we get ready to crown the 2021 champions in early October at Maple Grove. For more info you can visit the series on Facebook, Classracer or www.midatlantic90.org.