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For many years, a mid-week match race at the local track featuring a couple of wheelstanders, jet cars, fast doorslammers and a couple of fuel cars was something that drag racing junkies could look forward to a couple of times a year. Usually the mid-week match race featured the above-mentioned cars plus a few "circus acts" and a reduced price of admission. Like the drive-in theater, drive-in beer joint and 35 cent a gallon gas, the Wednesday night match race has all but disappeared from the American scene...unless you happen to be lucky enough to live close to Old Bridge Township Raceway Park (or E-town) if you live in Jersey. The Knapp family still puts on at least one of these Wednesday night Gonzo deals a year. This year’s event featured a Top Fuel match race between Shirley Muldowney and Doug Herbert, a Fuel Coupe race between NHRA/ESPN announcer and sometime racer Cruz Pedregon and Terry Haddock, four jets including jet funny car racer Rich Hanna, a couple of East Coast Pro Streeters, and a couple of bikes thrown in for good measure. All in all about as much entertainment as can be absorbed on a Wednesday night in Jersey. Shirley and Herbert ran two races. Herbert got the best of Ms Muldowney twice, running a best of 4.662/299.33. The best E.T. Shirley could get was a 4.720 but she did set Top Speed for the night at 314.75.
The fuel coupes had less success than the dragsters, hooking up but the "Cruzer" did manage a respectable 5.22/231 shutoff pass in his "Flamin' Frank" tribute car while his opponent Terry Haddock broke once and then smoked the hides, managing a best elapsed time of 18.61 at just 72-mph.
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