Joe Grippo killed it on the Dutch Classic photos! We shared one gallery already, but have a bunch more coming. Plus we’ve got car show photos and more to share this week! Check out the second gallery of Dutch Classic drag racing photos right here and if you missed the first one you can use the link below to see them as well. And as always, if you click on a photo it will get bigger and allow you to quickly scroll through all the photos in the gallery.
(Words and Photos by Joe Grippo) When the rains washed away the final NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Virginia Motorsports Park, the Division 1 staff were sent scrambling for a new date and venue. This race was needed to finalize the all-important divisional and national point standings for the sportsman racers who chased them all season. Enter the House of Chaos, Maple Grove Raceway. Track owner Kyle Koretsky and manager Shane Swiegart stepped up and said to the D1 faithful, “Let’s do it at the Dutch”! The Dutch Classic is a long-standing late season race that racers love attending due to the sticky surface and go fast weather that is tradition at the Grove in late October. So, a hybrid LODRS/Nation Open event was held. Over 650 tech cards proved it to be a popular decision.
For Stock and Super Stock competitors, qualifying and record runs were held Thursday and class eliminations followed on Friday. As Stock and Super Stock are my absolute favorite classes in Drag Racing, it was a glorious sight to see almost 250 class cars filling the lanes and dragging bumpers. Many out of division cars made the trip, which made my camera very happy. A five car Hemi Challenge for SS/AH Darts and Barracudas was run on Saturday. It may have been a short field, but it culminated in a highly dramatic final round, pitting the tow quickest AH cars in the world in Chuck Comella’s camo’d stick shift Cuda against Bucky Hess gorgeous multi-hued Psycho Cuda. Bucky turned it red by 8 thousandths handing the bespoke Hemi trophy and 5 grand check to Comella, but he hammered through the lights with the quickest SS/AH pass in history a stout 8.200 at over 160mph! This left no doubt that the baddest true Hemi car in the world live in Bunker Hill, West Virginia…for now.
A full gamut of sportsman drag racing was on track for 4 full days. A stout field of Competition Eliminator, Top Dragster and Top Sportsman, all the .90 stuff plus a handful of Top Alcohol Funny Cars and Dragsters made qualifying and eliminations exciting and fun to watch. An added bonus was the addition of the Northeast Index Series, featuring 8.50, 10.00, 11.50 heads up breakout classes. Even ET Motorcycles got in on the action.
In the end it was 5 days of a fantastic, well run event with a decent amount of hardcore drag fans watching it unfold. It was one for the ages and I can’t wait for 2025 NHRA season!
Click below for a full list of class winners:
https://www.maplegroveraceway.com/weekend-recap-results-lucas-oil-divisional-october-23-27th/
CLICK HERE IF YOU MISSED THE PREVIOUS DUTCH CLASSIC PHOTOS
