(Words and photos by Joe Grippo) -The Rumble at the Grove means one thing…..Doorslammers! Not a dragster or altered in sight. The Northeast Outlaw Pro Mods came to Maple Grove with a variety of turbo’d and supercharged entries. But in the end it was two huge cubic inches engines ingesting copious amounts of nitrous oxide that comprised the final round. Freddie Scriba and his Corvette had the field covered all day until he took an ill-timed final round nap at the tree and let Long Island’s Gary Courtier slide by him with a killer hole shot win. It was an awesome sight, a humid Saturday night under the Maple Grove lights with huge plumes of nitrous shooting ten feet in the air then watching both racers blast down track with header flames lit past the finish line stripe. I love Drag Racing.
Rounding out the Rumble were a bunch of other classes featuring more Door Car hijinks. Bracket Racing? Yup, a no electronics footbrake eliminator paid a healthy 1200 bucks to the winner. The Grove’s own Boninfonte B1 Index series was showcased with heads-up 8.50, 10.00 and 11.50 classes. The insanity continued with a strong contingent of wild Pro Import cars with their ear piercing turbo rotaries singing to what seemed like 20,000 rpm. It sounded like total end of the world chaos as these dudes loudly spooled up the turbos and then let them fly as they nearly hop of the track surface while banging shifts with the Lencos and G-Forces in their short wheel-base vintage Mazdas and Corollas. It was quite a sight to behold. Add in a bunch of NHRA Top Sportsman competitors cutting double 00 lights and driving the stripe in the 6’s at 200mph….it was Doorslammer Nirvana!
Did mention I love Drag Racing…..
Winners by class….
Northeast Outlaw Pro Mods: Gary Courtier
Footbrake: Marty Flegal
Import: Alex Ortiz
Top Sportsman: Steve Carper
8.50 Index: Mike Pyott
10.0 Index: Keith Reis Jr.
11.50 Index: Cliff Sebring
the 69 buick, hell yeah