Story and Images Courtesy of Rob Keister

Maple Grove Raceway – Mohnton, Pa – When COVID-19 hit worldwide in 2020, many racetracks were forced to cancel many profit-making events. One of those events was the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals or for many “The Keystones” to be held at Maple Grove Raceway. On a weekend that over 30,000 fans on the Northeast would come to get their Nitro fix, the track was going to sit dormant with no profit coming in, that is until Mid Atlantic .90 President Rob Keister met with AGM Betsy Witmer and produced a plan for the sportsman racers to get their fix at the Mohnton, Pa facility. With over 160 NHRA sportsman looking for a place to race on that weekend the .90 Nationals & Top Shootout was created for those racers to get a chance to race and the track to make a little cash on an off weekend.

As we fast forward to 2021 and the world slowly getting back to a somewhat normal, with the help of POR15, Keister once again will host the 2021 event at Maple Grove Raceway. The original date scheduled for this year was to be August 27thto 29thbut, was pushed back a week when the Lucas Oil Series event scheduled in May was rained out. The event is to be now held on September 3rdto 5th. With the changes in the date, came some addition and subtraction of classes for the event. The ever-popular Top Dragster & Sportsman classes will be skipped this season due to the Yellow Bullet Nationals taking place at Cecil County and of course Indianapolis hosting the US Nationals and JEGS All-Star events. In place of the two Top classes will be 2 Bracket series events on Saturday & Sunday and the popular Pro-Dial series on Saturday. Racers will be permitted to keep their rigs at the track following the Lucas Race for the following weekends .90 Nationals to save on travel costs.

The unfortunate part of the date change meant a change in the festivities to be held at the track also, a Racers BBQ, live Band, Corn hole Tournament, Practice Tree event and Movie Night for the kids all had to be cancelled due to unavailability & time constraints but, Keister said these events will make a strong return in 2022 as treating sportsman racer as guests and showing them an experience is #1 in his book.

On Friday, September 3rdMaple Grove will open their gates at 9am for racers to park and get ready for the track operated test & tune for $40.00. The test & tune is to start at 12pm and go till 8pm with gates closing at 10pm. To keep the test & tune to just those running on the weekend, you must purchase a tech card for either Saturday or Sunday’s event to be able to partake in the T&T. On Saturday, September 4than action-packed day awaits racers at the Grove as Race # 10 of the Maple Grove Bracket Series takes place featuring Super Pro, Pro, Sportsman, Juniors and many more. The .90 crews get their chance at Day #1 of big money with the sixty-four cars High Roller Shootout. For $120 the first sixty-four drivers per class who come to the base of the tower to sign up will get the chance at a nice payday to start off the event. With sixty-four cars entered the winner could take home a nice $4,500 & Runner-Up $2,000 for a low entry fee. Racing will begin at 8:45am sharp and there will be one time run each day for racers. On Sunday, September 5ththe schedule is pretty much the same as the final Maple Grove Bracket event takes place to set their teams for the bracket finals in October. The .90 crews will duke it out for even a bigger cash purse that day as for $200 entry and based on 70 Cars per class the winner could clear $6,000 to win and as a bonus, title sponsor POR15 is throwing up an additional $500 to the winner and $200 to the runner-up on top of the purse already being paid out.

If that was not enough the winners of all classes on both days will receive a one-of-a-kind custom-made trophy done by Travis Theobald and a big check done up by Nitro Graphics, which is owned by Pro Stock racer Kyle Koretsky. Even if you do not hit it big at either event, companies like JEGS, VP Racing Fuels, Brodix, Melling, Richmond Gear, Cal Car Cover and Comp Cams has all supplied products and gift certificates to be handed out to random racers throughout the weekend. Wayne’s Auto Body out of NJ will sponsor the MVP award and a cool $250 to the racer who goes the most rounds, J.A. Pest Control Service will put up a total of $500 for best overall winning package and losing packages and Hook Daddy Motorsports will put $50 up on the 2020 .90 Nationals winners as a bounty. This event will also have t-shirts for sale and ever racer will receive an event sticker done up by the Design Joint to put on their car as a way of saying you were there!

For more info, you can visit the Facebook site (Search 2ndAnnual .90 Nationals and Top Shootout) or contact Rob Keister at 856-332-2851 or BKSG1198@gmail.com. We hope to see you all there for the race that is for the Sportsman racer!