What if somebody hosted a race and nobody showed up?
That’s about what happened to Dave Hance five years ago. He had a grand idea to bring Outlaw-style heads-up drag racing, which flourished throughout the South, to the metropolitan New York area.
So the Long Island businessman arranged what he called The Shakedown at E-Town, and only six drivers turned out in November 2003 at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park to split the $1,500 purse.
Undaunted, Hance stuck with his plan, and the next year 34 entrants joined him for the one-day event. They waited out a rain delay, braved 40-degree temperatures and ultimately gave into a curfew and split the payout. But they saw some smashing performances — records in some cases, in other cases one car launching so abruptly that the rear windshield blew out. This race was developing a reputation.
Eighty-four drivers responded to Hance’s invitation the following October. The weather was much more cooperative at 70 degrees and the money more enticing. But Hance had added bikes and test-and-tune elements to the program, and the action didn’t finish before the local noise curfew shut it down.
He reverted to his original format last year, posted $42,000, and drew 111 cars and so many fans that the local township police called the track and asked why traffic was backed up from the gate for two miles.
Sunday’s Shakedown at E-Town paid out $60,000, offered a new Heavy Street class and again sold more than 100 tech cards. With a stout crowd of about 5,000 watching record-setting runs from Outlaw 10.5 class legend Tim Lynch, IHRA veteran John Nobile, victories by National Street Car Ass’n multi-time Limited Street champion “Mustang Mike” Modeste and NSCA Super Street powerhouse Bill Lutz, the event has hit its stride.
Lynch served notice in Saturday’s unofficial “warm-up” session that the southern contingent hadn’t driven up the Atlantic coast for nothing. He stirred the early buzz with a 6.57-second, 232-mile-per-hour pass, causing Hance literally to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
That run, along with a 20-degree drop in temperatures in the previous two days, was making Hance nearly giddy with joy. Raceway Park had hook, literally and figuratively. Dragstrip manager Eddie Krawiec — the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle rookie sensation who continues his long association with the storied Napp family track — made sure the track was prepped in prime condition.
But Lynch, who already had carved his own Shakedown legend by becoming the first Outlaw driver to dip below seven seconds on the quarter-mile, reeled off three consecutive 6.5-second elapsed times Sunday to dominate the Outlaw 10.5 division. In a $10,00-to-win, curfew-challenging rematch of the 2006 final round, Lynch defeated defending champion Chuck Ulsch with a 6.534-second e.t. that was the quickest in 10.5 history (at 220.84 mph).
Nobile, winner of IHRA’s recent Pro Stock Showdown bonus race at Maryland Int’l Raceway, continued his momentum with a $10,000 victory over Jim Kane in the Pro Outlaw final round. His 6.278-second pass in the final round topped Brian Gahm’s two-week-old IHRA national-record 6.281. And his 223.28-mph speed (and his 223.43 in the semifinals) in his nitrous-injected Mustang were only slightly off Gahm’s record 223.95 mph.
 Modeste, slapping on radials for the first time, rebounded from a frustrating 15th-place start in the 16-car field to win the Drag Radial crown and $5,000 with a 7.970/177.23 effort as opponent Chris Little’s Mustang broke.
Lutz had told Hance before he even arrived here to put his name on the inaugural $5,000 Heavy Street class check. And sure enough, the Ohioan who has earned the on-track title “King of Columbus,” picked it up at the payout window after overtaking Jorge Rodriguez and winning handily with a 6.868-second e.t. at 209.26 mph. So Hance, an aspiring nitro Funny Car driver, has established himself as promoter extraordinaire.
“What we saw this weekend was never seen before. Every year we reset the bar,” Hance said. “I’m happy that they’re walking away with money.”