12th annual Funny Car Reunion and Old Time Drags from Englishtown

Words and photos by Geoff Stunkard

Don’t let anybody kid you; north Jersey is hot in the summer. Once again, the hard work and persistence allowed the seasoned crew at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ, to complete their annual nostalgia race. While our travelin’ man, Geoff Stunkard, was only there for Sunday’s finale, the weekend included a very successful Long Island Dragway Reunion and evening car show at a local Quaker Steak & Lube on Saturday, July 26.

Sunday dawned with predictions of showers, but as the images show, other than a little overcast light and a slight shower in the morning, it was a great day to be a race fan. Perhaps you were one of the few who braved the Weather Channel to enjoy one of the East Coast’s brightest days in nostalgia racing.

The event had been modified from what it once was. The field consists of two types of alcohol cars – blown and injected running Chicago style, with the two low-ET round-one cars coming to race in the final, plus exhibition runs and a program of handicapped brackets. Not a true nitro show to be sure; the only two nitro cars on hand were Brian Beattie with the ex-Jim and Allison Lee ‘Great Expectations’ once driven by Tom Riley, and Bruce Larson’s old ‘Three Mile Island’ Corvette, both of which were cackled to start things off.

The alcohol cars did put on a show, with lots of smoke and runs in the 6-second bracket. We will give you a quick look at the event’s happenings in the next few pages…

The Screamin’ Insanity mini-Challenger of Dave Sano again cranked off LOW ETs to take home the title from Englishtown; Sano cranked off a best-of the-event 6.45 in the blower class final.

In the injected classes, Willie Johnson and is No Money No Funny ’68 Nova again gave the fans of ‘unswooped’ nostalgia funny cars something cheer about when he took home yet another victory at the event.