Dean Marinis Takes the Win at Cecil County Dragways Shootout by Strange Engineering

Hi All,

The Covid -19, economic crisis, horrific job market and civil unrest is hurting almost everyone. Cecil County Dragway and the NEOPMA partially overcame these major obstacles and had a wonderful opening 2020 day. The only thing we were missing was our fans and spectators due to the Pandemic.

Welcome back and thanks to all our long term NEOPMA members / brothers for their loyalty. A special Welcome and thanks to our new members including Mike Achenbach (Mountain Man), John Cozzalli, Adam Cohen, Derrick Ford, Matt Guenther, Larry Higginbotham (Higg), Mike Lubniewski. Thanks to Jim Halsey for giving us a great track and prep.

Many thanks to our NEOPMA hard working team …Dennis Quitoni, Mark Tinari, Mel Jones, Donna/Jimmy Curci (our new female voice of the club), Rockin Rob and our new Video / Live feed specialist Shawn Pass. Additional thanks to our sponsors and supporters Star Transporters, USA Auto Products, VP Racing Fuels, ATI Performance Products, Ram Clutches, Bickel Race Cars and our club member partners.

Here’s a brief summary of what happened with the NEOPMA.  REMEMBER, THIS RACE IS OUR MAIDEN VOYAGE INTO  1/8 MILE and 8 MONTHS SINCE OUR LAST RACE. LIVE FEED AND VIDEO WAS ANOTHER FIRST.

Thursday, June 4, 2020 several cars came to test and get the cobwebs out.

Friday, June 5, 2020 Nineteen PM cars were on the premises ready to test and qualify. Two broke in testing (Bersani and Courtier). Remaining 17 cars were getting ready for battle in qualifying but then the rains came.

QUALIFYING, Saturday, June 6, 2020 first day blues hit some cars while others thrived on the challenges and laid down some great ETs.  Sixteen cars qualified with 4 going in the 3.60s range in the blistering heat.

ELIMINATIONS, Saturday, June 6, 2020:

Round one

Dean Marinis / Harry Pappas (number 1 qualifier 3.66) ran a 3.73 to beat Adam Cohen’s tire shaking 9.96.

Tyler Hard lifted and ran 3.91 eliminating Derrick Ford’s tire shaking / lifting 4.74 ET.

Matt Guenther   ran a 3.80 eliminating Larry Higginbotham (Higg) who took out some cones.

Dave Norris tire shake 4.40 lost to Mike Lubniewski 4.22.

Mountain Man Mike Achenbach’s 3.73 put down Matt Dietsch Juniors tire shaking pass. Matt later ran a 3.78.

Andy Jensen (struggling all day) ran a great 3.74 beat Derrick Ward who broke a rear but still ran a 4.14.

John Cozzalli 4.47 lost to Kevin McCurdy’s super and consistent 3.70.

Fred Scriba crazy tire shaking 4.58 lost to Alan Juhasz who ran a 4.21.

Round two

Dean Marinis ran a 3.69 ET beating Tyler Hard’s tire shaking 4.350

Matt Guenther laid down a 3.78 ET just beating Mike Lubniewski 4.18. Mike had a super hole shot (.005)

Andy Jensen destroyed his clutch losing to Mountain Man Mike Achenbach’s 3.68

Kevin McCurdy ran an easy 3.94 ET to put Alan Juhasz (4.20) on the trailer.

Round three (semis)

Marinis 4.00 ET beat Guenther’s 4.33. Lots of stabbing and steering.

Mountain Man broke a trans the round before and the new trans adjustment caused him to foul. McCurdy took and easy pass running 3.80.

Round four (finals) 

Kevin McCurdy spun the tires to run a 5.60 losing to Dean Marinis 3.95 @ 192.

The racing was great, the daytime heat was tough, and the track was fun. To all that came …thank you. To all who couldn’t make it …you lost out on a great race. Hope to see you at Maple grove on July 10 -12.

Regards, John