Words by Todd Dziadosz and Kay Burk
Photos by Todd Dziadosz
Timing data courtesy www.mirdrag.com

Door Warz at MIR is a special event on the Maryland International Dragway schedule and, despite conflicting events, saw a decent car count in most classes. MIR hosted their bracket classes in the Speed Unlimited Series, with Top ET, Modified, Bike, and Junior Dragster all competed.

As has been the norm for the past few weeks in the Northeast, on Saturday, July 30, temperatures reached the 100-degree mark, with the MIR starting line at 144 degrees. MIR owners/promoters/managers Royce and Jason Miller took turns in the tractor that was used for track prep and had the track sticky all day long. Despite the heat, the racing was close, exciting, and sometimes scary.

During qualifying it was typical to see tire-frying runs, as racers in all classes tested the limits of the track and their combinations.

Winners were: Dean Leyh in Pro Stick, Michael Martin in Outlaw 10.5, Ricky Fox in Outlaw Drag Radial, Andy Manson in x275, Shawn Murphy in x275 Shootout, Bob Fort Jr. in 422 All-Stars Nostalgia Super Stock, Marty Brown II in 8.50 Index, Donna Nelson in Top ET, Adam Douglas in Modified, Camden Brooks in Motorcycle ET, and Brad Keyton in Junior Dragster.

Luckily, the day was marred with only one on-track incident. Don Burton made contact with the retaining wall twice and, simply put, the wall won. Burton was able to walk away from the guardwall-straddling run and drive the rig home to make repairs.