ejones

After sitting through the winter, Maple Grove Raceway will soon be back to racing.

Maple Grove will open its 51st season on Saturday, April 6 with a test and tune. An E.T. Warmup bracket race will be held on Sunday, April 7.

Gates open for the test and tune at 9 a.m. with racing beginning at 10 and running until 4 p.m. It will be $25 for towed entries and $20 for drive-ups. Crewmembers and spectators are $10 each while children 12 and under are free with a paid adult.

The bracket race will feature the classes that compete in the Sunoco Race Fuels Money Trail E.T. series. Cars from Super, Pro, Street, Top Bike, Trophy and Junior Dragster classes will be running for the first time.

Gates open on Sunday at 8 a.m. with two rounds of time trials beginning at 9.

The Money Trail season will get underway on Saturday, April 27.

One reason the Super Chevy Show at Maple Grove Raceway is the biggest in the world is the car show.

Sure, The Grove gets hundreds of racers ready to launch their cars down the quarter-mile dragstrip during the summer weekend, but hundreds more love the fact they can show off their pride and joy to their fellow Chevy enthusiasts.

When the show returns on July 19-21, car show participants will have a new group of judges.

Previously, the running of the car show part of Super Chevy has been left to judges from the ISCA (the indoor show circuit). In 2013, a local company, Full House Motorsports LLC of Lansdale, Pa., will take over the car show.

It will mean some small modifications to the check-in process, small changes to the awards and small changes to the awards ceremony. It will also mean a more streamlined event.

“As far as judging, yes, the normal faces that you are used to seeing judge vehicles won’t be there,” said Brian Lutz of Full House Motorsports, “but rest assured that the judges that Full House Motorsports uses know what they are doing. More >

Kenny Koretsky hopes lightning will strike twice for the 2010 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion LE Tonglet when he is reunited with Koretsky’s Nitro Fish Gear for NHRA’s 2013 Mello Yello season.

“I am happy to be working with the Tonglets again,” said Koretsky after revealing that Nitro Fish will sponsor the Tonglet Racing team’s effort to reach the coveted goal.  “This is a major sponsorship.  We all want to win another championship.”

The outcome will officially be decided after 15 races over the next ninth months.  There is little doubt however that the determined Tonglet will be among the two-wheel contenders when the season starts Friday at Gainesville, Fla.

Koretsky also said his company will be an associate sponsor for the motorcycles of Matt and Angie Smith. More >

The first two races of the 2013 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season has been filled with excitement and nothing short of some wild finishes. One driver who’s looking to improve on his first two starts of the season and make a splash at the 44th annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals, March 14-17, is Top Fuel pilot David Grubnic.

After opening the season with a pair of quarterfinal efforts, native Australian Grubnic is hoping to pull from his past successes at the Gatornationals to kick his 2013 season into high gear and improve on his sixth place points position.

Grubnic says the annual East Coast NHRA opener is one of his favorite events on the circuit.

“It’s one of our greatest races on the tour,” Grubnic said. “It’s like our Daytona 500. It has a diversified fan base that comes from all over the country to enjoy watching NHRA drag racing at its best.” More >

Four-time NHRA Pro Stock world champion Greg Anderson is hoping a trip to a track where he and his team have had great success in the past will provide a nice jumpstart to his 2013 season, and put his Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro back at the top of the points order.

After a first round loss to Greg Stanfield at the season-opening O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals at Pomona and a semifinal exit at the NHRA Arizona Nationals in Phoenix, Anderson says his team is getting closer to returning to the top form that led the Ken Black owned unit to claim six of the last 10 world championship titles in the 200-mph factory hot rod category.

Anderson says he’s more determined than ever to win the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals, March 14-17 at historic Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville. Morgan Lucas (Top Fuel), Robert Hight (Funny Car), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are the defending event winners at the NHRA Mello Yello Series event, which will be televised on ESPN2HD.

Anderson, who was the runner-up to Edwards at last year’s event in the Swamp is a two-time winner at the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals with his last victory there coming in 2007. He says the overall competition level in the category has become very stout in recent seasons. The uptick in performance by other teams has put a high premium on the driver, he says. More >

Index racing has always been a fan favorite because it puts grass roots racers on the track competing in a head’s up format. There are no handicaps here; both cars leave the starting line at the same time.

Those who want to see this thrilling type of drag racing during the 2013 season are in luck. The Boninfante Friction B1 Index Series will run three races at Maple Grove Raceway this summer.

“The Boninfante/Maple Grove relationship goes beyond business,” said company CEO Rob Boninfante. “Maple Grove is our home track as a racing company and was the home track for our father ‘Nitro Nick’ Boninfante since he started his career in 1958!

“We are very excited to work together in 2013 and feel blessed to be in the position to give back to the industry we love so much.”

Cars will run in three classes: 8.50, 10.00 and 11.50 and will run on three dates this summer:

• May 5
• June 29 as part of Rumble at The Grove
• July 7

Class entry and payout are as follows:

• 8.50: $75 entry free with $1,000 to the winner; $500 to the runner-up; $200 to semifinalists; and $75 to quarterfinalists.
• 10.00 and 11.50: $55 entry fee with $450 to the winner; $150 to the runner up; and $100 to semifinalists.

The payouts are based on a 16-car qualified field.

The 11.50 index winner and runner up at our May race will be part of a special 8-car showcase eliminator at the Toyota Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey, May 30 – June 1.

The two Maple Grove entrants will be joined by two cars from the following tracks: Atco, Cecil County and Old Bridge Raceway Park.

For more information, click here.