Dover Drags Pulls Vintage Racers Together
Lebanon Valley Dragway drifted back in time and space as the 10th annual Dover Drags ran as a drag racing tribute to the gone but not forgotten Dover Dragstrip. The former track’s central location between New York, NY, the greater New England area and Upstate New York made the dragstrip a racing nexus from its inception in 1961 until the last cars launched down the quarter mile in 1976.
Racers, fans and longtime Dover Dragstrip announcer Dino “Weirdo” Lawrence are the driving forces behind the Dover Drags event. Nostalgia drag racing was in plentiful supply from a collection of vintage racing clubs and organizations who converged at Lebanon Valley Dragway to team up for a weekend of racing action.
The trip back in time brought vintage racers together from all points with a mix of everything from tire smoking door slammers to fearsome altereds. Northeast Timing Organization members were out in force and brought their NETO style vintage drag racing to the event. The East Coast Gassers delivered their always awesome wheelstanding coalition of period-perfect gassers for drag racing like it used to be and the East Coast Fuelers rolled in with some front-engine diggers. Muscle Cars from American Musclecar Racing looked stock and cleaned up the clocks during the Supercar Shootout. Racing was joined by live rock and/or roll on Saturday, a car corral and midway, vintage swap meet, and a Sunday rod and custom show.
Big guns fired multiple salvos as the as the quickest, fastest and loudest Dover Drags racers unleashed rounds of stand-shaking drag racing mayhem. A collection of fearsome AA/Gassers brought supercharged Gasser action and Funny Cars that looked like they rolled off the trailer from a mid-70s wormhole did big burnouts, dry hopped into the beams and tossed it up down the 1320.
Gnarly Altered heavyweights thundered down the track to complete the trip back into the past. The racers who hammered their machines were met with thunderous applause from the fans who packed the stands on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.
The Dover Dragstrip might have closed decades ago but the Dover Drags opens the gates back up and carries on its enduring drag racing spirit into the future.
