MAGNOLIA DRAGWAY
DIALED IN considering he already had the bustling car business with Reis , plus a stable full of race cars that he and sons Ty and Jon enjoyed racing together , but then sometime between Christmas and New Year ’ s , Rankl began warming up to the idea and needless to say , Reis was very much on onboard as well .
So , a deal was reached with McCreary and the dragstrip opened in 2012 with brand-new owners . Among the first things the long-time friends and business partners did was book in a nitro Funny Car match race ... just because they could ! Cars of that caliber had never been to Magnolia and at the end of the day , Reis and Rankl love a good whiff of nitro as much the next gearhead . To Rankl ’ s knowledge Magnolia has never been sanctioned in its entire history , so there were plenty of locals who ’ d never even witnessed nitro cars , especially at their hometown dragstrip .
Shortly after the nitro presentation , Reis and Rankl decided to offer a $ 2,000 bounty to the first driver to dip into the 3-second zone , which had never been done on Magnolia ’ s eighth mile . Plenty of cars capable of achieving the feat showed up to collect the bounty in 2012 , but no one was able to do it until the following year when Dave Koffel towed his “ Lake Erie Monster ” alcohol dragster down from the northern tip of the state and along with his driver , Keith Mclennen , scorched the pavement to the tune of 3.92 at 192 mph , which still stands as the track record to this day .
After a few years of bringing in various neverbefore-seen attractions to Magnolia , Reis and Rankl began concentrating on their tried and true bracket program . Even though Magnolia has always operated as an independent track , they ’ ve always offered their own in-house bracket points program and crowned a season champion .
However , the tumultuous year of 2020 forced them to change up a few things , namely the decision to forgo the normal points program . “ We weren ’ t even able to open until June because of coronavirus and many of our locals were afraid we weren ’ t even going to open at all , so they ’ re just happy to have a place to race ,” Rankl says .
Despite the delayed opening , Rankl says 2020 was actually the best year since he and Reis bought the track . Sunday brackets were well attended , along with test-and-tune sessions held every other week , which also feature a gambler ’ s race . The popular “ Dash for Cash Run-Off ” at the end of the year was still on the table , much to the delight of the local racers who look forward to this season finale event .
Magnolia also holds several track rental events , including no-prep races , which completely pack the place . In late August , the United Manual Transmission Racers ( UMTR ) was a featured attraction along with the normal bracket program . The racer participation was among the best events of the season . The current offering of weekly brackets and test and tune events are Magnolia ’ s core business and it consistently brings in solid results .
Rankl says the goal each year is to be in operation from May 1 to October 31 , and if racer attendance is anything like the previous year , the 2021 race season should be a banner year for Magnolia ’ s treasured dragstrip . DI
58 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated . com Issue 164