MIR kicked off the summer with the opening weekend of the 1/8th mile Speed Unlimited ET Series and their annual Top ET $5K Triple Header. With a threatening forecast for both Friday and Saturday, many racers may have been skeptical that the entire event could be completed, but all racing was completed by 6:30 Sunday evening, even with a rain storm washing out Saturday’s race in 2nd round of Top and Mod. Even though the points races and main event didn’t start until Saturday morning, big money racing got started on Friday night, with the Hi-Roller races held during the test and tune. Four hi-roller races were contested, a Mod ET race, Junior Dragster, and a $100 entry fee Top ET race, and a $200 Top ET race. Featuring up to 16 cars in each field, racers ran for roughly 90% of the entries collected, with a winner take all format. In the Top ET $200 race, Brent Martin took home the top prize. Brent took down Jerry Brewer in round 2 and had to race Kenny Snyder twice in the semifinals to make it to the final. I timing system error during their first run forced a rerun, where Brent was able to overcome a .016 starting line disadvantage, by feeding Snyder the stripe as Snyder broke out .017. In the final he met up with Candi Derry. Candi used two .00x lights to make it to final, and once again she nailed the tree with a .009 to Brent’s .014, but at the stripe, Martin ran .007 closer to his dial, picking up the win by a mere .002. For his 4 rounds of work, Martin took home a sizeable cash prize.
In the other Top ET hi-roller, Jason Kirby survived an extremely close semifinal race with his good friend Robert Jones. Jones left with a .021 bulb to Kirby’s .024 but at the stipe Kirby ran .003 closer to his dial, which resulted in a .000 stripe that went Kirby’s way for the win. In the other semifinal matchup, Robbie Parlett faced off with Matt Hamilton. Hamilton got the starting line advantage in his 4.40’s American dragster with a .010 light to Parlett’s .018, but at the stripe, Hamilton dropped too hard, giving Parlett enough room to stay in front and pick up the win light by .013, while slowing to a 4.670 on a 4.65 dial. Kirby and Parlett who are good friends, opted to not run the final and the split the money. In the Mod ET hi-roller, Tony Mattera took home the winner’s prize. With a first round win over Adam Douglas and a 2nd round bye, where he was .002 on the tree, Mattera found himself paired with the always very tough, Nicole Talbert in the semifinals. They left with nearly identical reaction times, Tony having just a .002 advantage. At the stripe, Nicole got there first by just .001, but broke out .003 more than Mattera to do so, handing him the automatic win. In the final, Mattera would face off with Edward Sigmon who had a semifinal bye run. In the final, Mattera got a big starting line advantage with a .025 light and was easily able to hang on at the finish line to claim the winner’s purse. In the Junior hi-roller, it came down to Logan Hubbell and Brendan Quade. In the semifinals, Hubbell got past last week’s Ironman winner, Robert Estevez on the strength of a holeshot and Brendan took down Jenna Cockrell, also on the strength of a holeshot. In the final, Quade had the better light with a great .012, but at the stripe, he took just a little too much and broke out just .002, handing the win to Hubbell who ran a 7.917 on his 7.91 dial. For all of the night’s winners, especially in Top ET, the cash they took home was just a teaser to what could be collected over the rest of the weekend.