Cecil County Dragway – Rising Sun, Md – The event simply known as the “Uncle Buck” celebrated it’s 28th year this past weekend at the newly resurfaced Cecil County Dragway in Rising Sun, Md. As the sun rose on Saturday, the pits looked like a mini-divisional with over 90 total entries shooting to take home a “Piggy” by days end. In VP Racing Fuels Super Comp, a record 41 cars took to the track for Q1, and it was recent Race # 3 winner Don Bangs taking home the #1 qualifier points. As the eliminations moved into the later rounds it was one veteran and two newcomers to the series making the semi-finals. That round featured the 2016 MASCA Champ Chase Fahnestock and two newcomers with the series Brian Gauntt & John Bruzzo. Now, Bruzzo has been around NHRA for years but, this was his first year running with the series and Gauntt was a local bracket racer from Atco who wanted to try something different. In the semi’s Bruzzo earned the laddered bye-run while Fahnestock and Gauntt lined up, after the burnouts Gauntt developed a fuel leak and was shut off giving Fahnestock a bye to the finals. In the finals, Fahnestock and Bruzzo had lights that neither was proud of (.045 to .047 in favor of Fahnestock) but Chase edged out Bruzzo for his first victory of the season on a wire to wire 8.910 to 8.914 win and a big jump to 2nd in points.
In VP Racing Fuels Super Gas, point leader Paul Laino raced to a 9.901 to claim the #1 qualifying spot in the 30-car field and the point bonus to add to his lead. As the semi-finals rolled into the water box, it was New York’s Frank Volpe Jr. and his Mustang against Jay Cepelka and his Omni. Jay got the jump on the line by 1 thousandth (.037 to .038) but, fell off in performance to a 10.111 to allow Volpe to go around for a 9.979 victory and a trip to the finals. On the other side of the ladder was Rick Homan and Rich Price, Homan had been having issues but, had found himself in the semis after 2 red-lights and a broke bye run. At the green, Price took a significant lead (.012 to .039) but, couldn’t run the number to allow Homan to sneak by for a 9.953 to 9.984 victory. In the finals Homan’s luck ran out as he went -.042 red handing the victory to Volpe and his 2000 Mustang in which vaulted him up into the Top 10 in points for the first time this season.
The final class of the day was VP Racing Fuels Super Street. A/Fuel standout Earl Nichols Jr. had the weekend off and decided to bring out one of his first race cars and his 1976 Chevette. Earl didn’t miss a beat as he rocketed to the #1 qualifying spot with a perfect 10.900. In the semi-finals Race # 4 winner Wes Siegel matched up with Ryan Roberts, Siegel who is only in his 4th race running Super Street already had one victory and was looking for his 2nd. Siegel got the jump (.015 to .039) and never looked back as he won on a double breakout 10.885 to 10.845. Siegel was the match-up with Keith Mayers in the finals but, on his bye-run in the semi-finals Mayer’s rolled the beams before the tree was activated and per .90 Association rules resulted in an automatic disqualification. Siegel then idled his Camaro up to the line to take the tree and was declared the winner.
Once the finalist crowned and the smoke cleared for the day, almost 300 people came to celebrate at the Uncle Buck Pig Roast which was a record count. The next event for the series is in 2 weeks at Atco Dragway for Race # 6 & 7 of the 2021 season as the points battles get a little tighter as we get ready to crown the 2021 champions in early October at Maple Grove.