Rob Keister Drag Racing Action Online

Images: Phil Hutchison

Vineland, NJ – The Mid Atlantic Super Series is gearing up for an exciting 2026 season that will see the series expand over the East Coast for the first time years. The series which is a smaller version of a Lucas Oil Divisional Race hosts the classes of Junior Dragsters, Super Street, Super Gas, Super Comp, Stock / SS Combo, Top Sportsman, Top Dragster and new for 2026 is the addition of Junior Street. This gives racers an opportunity to hone their skills during the off season from the NHRA / IHRA events and a chance to take home some cash along the way. 

With the schedule being announced during the Thursday of PRI in December the challenging work of the Mid Atlantic Team was pressed into action as we all know the landscape of racing on the East Coast has changed over the past few months. With Maple Grove & VMP both switching sanctioning bodies in the off-season it left racers all around and especially in the Junior program at both tracks not fielding a team for the ECJF in Bristol, with the hard work of Jim Halsey, Chad Porter and VP Dana Nahill the three were able to put together 2 special Junior only events on April 4th & May 30that Cecil so the Junior Racers had a team to represent at Bristol in July under the Mid Atlantic Junior / Cecil County Dragway Banner. 

The rest of the racers kick things off at Maple Grove Raceway on May 16th & 17th for Race # 1 & 2 of the season, this is a return to Maple Grove after a few years away since the Dave Stine events were held there from 2021 to 2023. This will be a great warm-up for those racers looking to dust off the cobwebs & rust of the off-season before heading to Cecil County for the Chesapeake Sportsnationals & LODRS on Memorial Day weekend. As the NHRA National Event schedule warms up with events at MIR, Epping & Bristol the series will visit Elmer and crew at Mason Dixon Dragway on June 13th & 14th. This will be the third year that the series will visit Mason Dixon and the first time the series will feature all 8 classes along with a Super Pro & Pro program for an action-packed weekend of racing for the facility. 

A month break will welcome the racers to pick up hitting the NHRA / IHRA tour before the series visits a new track to the schedule and MIR on July 11th & 12th. The Mid Atlantic Super Gas series visited the facility in 2009 as a single series, but the track has never hosted all 8 of the classes at once. The series will also be joined by the newly formed East Coast Index Series which highlights index racing that you normally see at Cecil County Dragway Streetcar Shootout events, they will run on a 1/8-mile format of 4.50, 5.00. 5.50 & 6.00 index format for full bodied race cars. Royce & his team are pumped up and excited to host 2 brand new series to the Maryland track.

As the series hits the home stretch, they visit “the House of Halsey” and Cecil County Dragway for the world-famous Uncle Buck Pig Roast on August 8th & 9th. The Uncle Buck is always a crowd favorite as it enters it’s 33rd year in memory of George Donhausers long time crew chief and cook Ronnie “Uncle Buck” Harple. The world-famous Pig Trophies will be handed out to the event winners in each class along with the custom cutting boards. 

The series then closes things out back at Mason Dixon Dragway on September 12th & 13th for the season finale, with the NHRA LODRS ending in August and no NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove this is a perfect opportunity for racers to go after one more trophy in the 2026 season and Elmer & Rob are working on making that race special once again as they did in 2025. 

President Rob Keister had to say “with the loss of Atco 3 years ago, it put a damper on a lot of peoples racing programs and we saw series end after many years of existence. We understand the landscape of the Mid Atlantic Series might have changed and for some they have decided to hang up the gloves or go in another direction, we also know a lot of the regulars wish we could go back to a 2-3 class format but these tracks really don’t want that anymore because the expenses to run these facilities are so much anymore. I understand to some Mason Dixon / MIR might be too far, but all need to embrace that track managers / owners like Royce, Jim, Elmer & Shane are welcoming us into their facility for a weekend, without them we could see the series fade off into the sunset”. 

For more information, please visit www.midatlanticsuperseries.net.