I went to Maple Grove on Saturday.

Very fortunate to know the owners of Maple Grove and they hooked me up for Saturday (rounds 3 & 4 of qualifying) which is when I like to go, so I got to attend this one for free thanks to their hospitality.  Thank you very much to the entire Koretsky Family.

Huge crowd, Excellent atmosphere.  Hard to explain the sensory experience when a Nitro Top Fueler or Nitro Funny Car sails by you at around 330mph...  (Can't experience it watching TV!)

It's also good to be able to walk around the pit area and see the teams readying their cars for the next session.  If you watch NHRA on TV, you recognize a lot of familiar faces - drivers and crewchiefs, all just by having a general admission ticket.

I look forward to going to the National event every year at Maple Grove, and now, with no more Englishtown, and Atco recently closing, Maple Grove is my go to dragway.   Might even try to get out there for the No Prep Kings event later this month:  https://www.maplegroveraceway.com/race-schedule/

Very cool. I never went to a nhra national event. I sat in enough Englishtown traffic for swap meets. I couldn't imagine the Nationals. I saw the NPK on the schedule. We may go, too. Gotta check the food truck schedule. 

76er as fan in the stands ($40) with a tailgate and Rich's now famou shoo fly pie from 4-6. Well worth it.  Mods only. 6 meaningful heats. 2 consis,the Minuteman and the feature. Great track and great racing and over by 11.  A must see event. 

You're right Joe, the Top Fuel Nitro stuff is crazy-neat when they fly by. They do cool stuff at 1/4000 of a second in the camera too. Check out the wild tire distortion on Leah Pruitt's racer on Sunday and the awesome heat wave distortion that turns the background into a stained-glass-like effect, from Shawn Langdon's top fueler on Saturday. 

Great photos Jack.  Having never dabled in photography I was wondering how you capture pictures like the top one.  Are you ever surprised by the image you got?  Some of my favorite images of yours were the pictures of the Randy Wolfe flip at Syracuse with the glove flying in the air.  Skill is invloved but how much luck and good timing is involved?  Thanks for the documenting this great sport over the years.  I always look for your credit whenever I am looking at racing pictures.

Thanks, Steve! That first picture was captured at 1/4000 second which froze all that cool tire distortion stuff. And yes I do get surprised a lot when I look at my pictures later because some things your eye just can't see while it's happening in real time--like the glove flying off Randy Wolfe or the tire distortion here. Lots of practice, good gear, skills and doing your homework and trying to improve each time do apply in the equation of getting good images, but yes, for sure luck and good timing do play a big part in this photography stuff-- especially with my nature photography.

Jack - I know this is a racing board, but any chance I could get you to post one of your wildlife shots?  I still have the eagle image as my screen saver.  The detail is amazing. 

Jack- For me, your racing shots have always set the bar high.  But these photos of "grabbing lunch or a snack in the wild" can be described in one word, "WOW"!  Scott Ely

Jack: Were the nature shots taken up at Merrill Creek in Harmony?

Fantastic images, both on the track and in the air! 

Thanks Scott and Greg! No. The eagle was at Conowingo Dam in MD, the Osprey was in south NJ and the Blue Jay was flying over our back yard.

Amazing.  I'd never believe a tire could do that and still stay together.

The Langdon picture is cool too as you can really follow the heat right out of the headers and over the back of the car.

Englishtown- gone.  Atco- gone.  But somehow Island, the backwater blacksheep with its shutdown area bordered by railroad tracks has managed to survive.  Who'd have thunk it.

I was invited to go to Maple Grove last minute by a 3Wider who I consider a dear friend.  Unfortunately, I couldn't go as I had other plans (with the wife and friends).  Looking at the great pics posted I missed a hell of an event.  I kept staring at Jack's photo of those distorted drag slicks and kept thinking, "Maybe I should have cancelled....".  I did had a very good time with the wife and friends on Saturday.  Do I have regrets about turning down Maple Grove?  I think you 3widers know the answer to that.  Scott Ely

Feel free to take as many dam Eagle pics as you like on your dam visit. Seriously, the Conowingo dam is full of eagles. I live in that area and always see them. 

Haha! About the only times of the year that I go to the dam for eagles are in primetime eagle seasons, like in mid November to early/mid December or late March and April, since there are usually so few eagles that are there year round. Spring season is getting better than the fall season now especially during the shad run, I was there years ago when they had 175 eagle counted, but haven't seen that since. The eagle numbers have dropped off a lot in the fall seasons lately--like 25 to 65 eagles on the property. Anywhere else those would be amazing numbers, but at Conowingo 25 is a 'bad day.' We got spoiled there! But even on those so-called bad days with low numbers, I still got very lucky and came home with some wonderful eagle images. Like I always say there--it only takes one or two eagles to make your day at the dam (like if it fishes right in front of you or if they do cool stuff like chase each other).

Where did you go - Maplegrove, as a fan in the stands with VIP tickets thanks to the Koretsky Family and Joe at 3wide. 

This was my first visit there ever! Wow, what an event reminds me of Super Dirt Weeks in the past. Everywhere you looked there were campers, race cars, fans,  food, and souvenir vendors. Sell out crowd on hand. 

Last time I saw Top Fuel and Funny Cars run where back at Englishtown in the 1970’s when we would see guys like Jungle Jim and Dyno Don Nickolson. Gone are the Chevy Monza’s and higher ETs. The 3-second range is so hard to comprehend, from the time the current cars line up till the end of the race. Totally mind-blowing speed! 

If you ever get a chance to see this event Go! Just Go! If ever offered to attend this event again, I will in a New York Second!

What did I watch - NASCAR at Bristol caught the last 100-plus laps. Absolutely boring race, Hamiln just cruised to a win. To much playoff talk about Bubba, Harvick, and Joey L. 

Second race I watched: Maplegrove final round was rescheduled till Monday due to rain. Fox Sports had the event on last night. Doug Kalitta picked up his 50th win in Top Fuel, and Robert Hight in Funny Car, the interviews at the end of each race are very enjoyable. I was rooting for Kyle Koretsky to win in Pro Stocks. However, Kyle was beaten out in the last round by Matt Hartford. Matt had appendix surgery the week before and needed a doctors' permission to race in the event. Then he had electrical problems all week. I definitely would recommend watching the race again if Fox Sports airs later in the week.

Top photo is Kyle Kotertsky (Pro Stock), and the bottom photo is a burn out in process for a Funny car.

NES in the stands, Fonda on Flo.......couldn't make 6er. NES was awesome even with the mods off