Dirt
Bill Lutz
Radial vs. The World
runner-up Shawn Ayers
“The” Kevin Mullins
Outlaw 10.5 runner-up
Mike Decker Jr.
MDIR DOOR WARS
to square off with Decker, Jr. in the finals. Carinci
would take the trophy and oversized winner’s
check back home to Canada as he used a .098
reaction time and a 4.048 E.T. to take out Decker
Jr. who ran a 3.971.
Radial vs. the World made a historic first visit
to MDIR for the Door Wars event. Barry Mitchell
of Hamptonville, North Carolina would be the
surprise class winner taking out Fletcher Cox’s
’90 Mustang with Shawn Ayers from Corinth,
Mississippi behind with wheel in the final with
this ’02 Camaro. Ayers did establish a first-time
track record with a pass of 194.94 mph in the first
round of eliminations as he took out “The” Kevin
Mullins of High Point, North Carolina. Mullins
established the track E.T. mark at 3.996 during
Saturday’s qualifying rounds.
Ron Rhodes of Townsend, Delaware, became
a back-to-back Door Wars X275 winner on this
weekend. The 2015 MDIR class track champion
continued his 2016 domination, as he took out
new national ET record holder Rich Bruder in
the class finals in his shiny red, nitrous-infused
’68 Camaro. Rhodes beat Jason Eberle of Chalfont, Pennsylvania in round one, Dean Marinis
of Whitestone, New York in the semis before
meeting up with Bruder in the final. Rhodes will
look for an event “three-peat” in ’17.
In a fun story line, the Rhodes ad ded another winner trophy to the family inventory over
the weekend as Ronny Rhodes claimed a class
win with his ’68 Camaro in Ultra Street as well.
Rhodes used a .068 light and a 4.920 E.T. effort
to top John Albrecht Jr. and his ’85 Monte Carlo
in the finals. It was all smiles in the winner circle
on this day for the Rhodes family.
Limited Drag Radial made its maiden voyage
to MDIR for the Haltech Door Wars presented
by Winegardner Auto Group. While it was a different event and eighth-mile vs. quarter-mile,
Steve Drummond would take his ’69 Laurel,
Delaware-based Camaro to the winner’s circle in
two consecutive competitions at MDIR when he
beat Don Burton of Glen Allen, Maryland, in the
finals. In his last trip to MDIR, Drummond won
the Radial vs. Modified class at the epic World
Cup Finals event last November.
The Nitrous X class made its first visit to
MDIR as well thanks to Mr. John Sears. This
class provides fans with exciting wheels up, close
competition and shows promise of great things
to come moving forward. Shawn Pevlor of Cincinnati, Ohio, with his ’93 Mustang would edge
Tim Knieriem’s of Shepherdsville, Kentucky’s
‘95 Mustang with a 4.727 E.T. over Knieriem’s
4.781 E.T. effort.
In Index competition, Louis Schalow of Chesterfield, Virginia, claimed the 8.50 weekend title,
MDIR track regular Pat Estevez of White Plains,
Maryland took a win in 10.00, and Keith Mayers
of Middletown, Delaware, did the same in 11.50.
“The 2016 Door Wars event was a success and
MDIR looks forward to continuing the growth
of the event and further it on the national landscape,” said Rick Lindner, Director of Marketing
and Public Relations at Maryland International
Raceway. “I would like to personally thank all the
great first- time sponsors of the event this year as
well as the racers and fans. Bigger things are yet
to come for this spring-time classic.”
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34 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
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Issue 112
PHOTOS: TARA BOWKER
Camp Stanley lines up his
tuning client, Scott Kline