Drag Racing Action Online

Story Phil Hutchison and John McCartney

Images John McCartney and Phil Hutchison and Courtesy Rocky Pirrone

The 2026 Nostalgia Drag Race, Car Show, and Swap Meet had something for everyone

For the 17th Annual Nostalgia Drags Car Show and Swap Meet Funny Car star Rocky Pirone arranged for a group of East Coast Nostalgia Funny Cars to put on a show including a match race between Rocky and his son Joey in their two Funny Cars.

Also on hand were Dan Woods and Lance Keen’s United Nostalgia Stock/Super Stock series joined by the East Coast Gassers and NETO.

A huge custom car show along with a swap meet was one of the highlights of the day with the

Fans could check out the action on the drag strip. Take a walk though the car show, or go to the swap meet where you can pick up that part for your project that you are finishing or starting.

The North East Timing Organization (NETO) held another stop on the year long racing tour. At this event in NETO Comp. Jeff Donnelly took home the win over Christian Huebner.

The best reaction time award in NETO Comp. Went to Vinny Laurita with a great .005 light.

Moving over to NETO nostalgia Frank Paradiso got the victory over Bill Krause. Roger Wright who recorded a .003 light and got the award for best reaction time in NETO nostalgia.

If you loved old school dragster then the field of classic dragsters of the Backseat Drivers was for you. But the field of cars that made of the field at this event was balanced with dragsters and altered. When the finals rolled around it was two altered in the final.

The Hilltown Shaker altered owned by Josh and Paul Nevells returned to the action with the Backseat Drivers for the first time in some time, his return must be the lucky charm as he got the win. In the runner up spot was another altered called California Dreamin of the Spencer Brothers making for a classic altered final round battle.

East Coast Gassers took part in the racing action in their own class. A field complete with crazy Willys, Anglia, classic Chevys the final came down to cars from each part of the spectrum. Peter Boyer in his Untouchable which is a 1930’s Chevy two door Sedan who got the win over another Chevy. That Chevy came in the form of Mike Wheeler’s wild 1955 Chevy Pick Up truck.

Rocky Pirrone said after the meet,” Shout out to Jim Halsey and the Cecil County crew for giving us a awesome track and venue! The weather was perfect, and the stands were packed!”

“The eight nostalgia funny cars in attendance all did a spectacular job entertaining the fans! We had a special match up with me in the Super Camaro racing my son Joey in the Screamin Eagle. In the first heat Joey took the win light with a blistering 6.05 at 228 mph to my 6.33 a 223 mph. In the final match, the Super Camaro singled to a 6.28 at a whopping 230 mph after the Screamin Eagle had a fuel line come loose in the burnout and had to shut off.”

“Joeys 6.05 stood for low ET of the meet, and my 230 mph stood as top speed of the meet.”

“A couple of teams also took advantage of the great bite and set personal bests. Both Chris Masserella and Jim Gloyd recorded runs in the 6.50 range and Frank Bernard set his personal best run ever with a 6.75 at over 200 mph! Congrats to all the teams that were there for putting on a awesome show!

Massarella who ran his best ever at Cecil added, “You know going into Cecil you’re going to have one of the best prepared surfaces on the east coast and one of the smoothest running, best organized, events we go to.”

“With a previous rained out event on our schedule, this ended up being our first event of the year. With a bunch of new parts and new tune in the car, we were cautiously optimistic rolling in the gate. Jim Halsey and his team had the track on point as usual.

“First run out we ran within .06 of our career best with a 6.52 and backed it up later in the day in the heat, with a 6.59. Cecil County has grown this event into one of the premier, must attend Nostalgia events on the east coast.”

Making Test and Tune passes were three Mountain Motor Pro Stock cars. Pennsylvania racer Lenny Lottig had a pair of cars running. One a Mustang and the other, aCamaro. Both were powered by John Kasse Ford motors. Also making test passes was another PA racer, Dave Hughes in his Camaro. Hughes ran a low four second pass as both teams were getting ready for the IHRA event in Columbus

Scott Wegner had his “Grumpy Toy” Camaro out for some test passes as was Bob Malloy in his Top Fuel Harley bike. 

PHOTO GALLERY