(Photos by Dave Nutting) – It was the most attended drag race in the 52 year history of New England Dragway and the fans on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday got one heck of a show. From wheels up super stockers to a wild day in pro stock on Sunday with Chris McGaha taking the win to flying funny cars with Matt Hagan going back to back at Epping and on the season, to the thundering top fuel dragsters that saw the not so timid Texan Steve Torrance grabbing the Wally when the dust settled at the end of the event. The track was packed on Friday and undeniably sold out on Saturday and Sunday. The old and much loved spectator hill was packed, there was not a seat to be found and the fans were five deep at the fence.
When the NHRA announced a schedule change for the 2018 season, many people were fearful that the Epping event would suffer. Thankfully those fears were proven to be unfounded with beautiful weather after some junk on the first half of Friday and beautiful weather on both Saturday and Sunday. Local racers went deep into the rounds against some of the country’s best and New Hampshire’s seacoast region proved once again that it is a great host to a big event with racers and crew members from around the country enjoying their time there.
The photos below are the first of a few galleries we have from the talented lens of Dave Nutting. Enjoy these photos and our continuing coverage this week!
Blast the photos below with a click to expand them and then scroll on to see them all –
I was there on Sunday — it was a great show, beautiful sunshine, big crowd. The track does a super job and now that Englishtown is closed, it’s the only venue left within a reasonable distance for me. Track staff was nice too. Would love to see the Pro Mods be part of this show. In fact, I’d be happy if Pro Mods replaced Pro Stock on the tour as a whole.
Got to see BL while he was about to do a TV segment, heard him on the PA much of the day, and woke up Monday to find a bunch of new articles on BS. When does the dude sleep?