While the Ohio winters can potentially be brutal for racing , Tad and Jim ’ s Dragway of Magnolia has been pretty fortunate over the last several years , and a reflection of the 2023 race season proved some of the most cooperative weather in recent memory . In fact , it hardly rained out any events at all this year at this eighth-mile facility located just south of Canton . “ We ’ ve been very fortunate this year with the weather ,” says Jim Rankl , who ’ s co-owned this folksy dragstrip with Tad Ries since 2012 . Rankl , the eldest of the two , first came to Magnolia Dragway more than 60 years ago to race , and he and Ries have both had a stable full of race cars over the years , along with a business partnership that dates back decades , beginning with a successful car dealership . Their core business at Magnolia is bracket racing , and they try to begin each season in
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May , although the weather rarely cooperates as well as it did this year . “ There ’ s been seasons past when it rained the entire month of May and it ’ d be June before we opened !” recalls Rankl .
While the track dates back to 1957 , and is
Tad Ries ( left ) and Jim Rankl have jointly owned Tad and Jim ’ s Dragway of Magnolia since 2012 .
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among the oldest still-active tracks in the state , to Rankl ’ s knowledge the track has never once been sanctioned . “ We ’ ve actually had an IHRA official come out and look the place over , and while it wouldn ’ t take much for the track to become sanctioned , we continue to operate independently .”
Magnolia offers its own points series , and anyone who races here is automatically entered . “ We don ’ t make you sign up and pay a fee to enter our points program , we automatically keep track of your points , and the season lasts from , say , mid-May to early September ,” says Rankl .
Sunday bracket events are contested across three classes : Street , No-Box , and Box , and each weekly winner qualifies for the Dash for Cash run-off at the end of the year , where the winner receives $ 1,000 with $ 300 being awarded to the runner-up . The Dash for Cash has been a very popular attraction for the area
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY VAN ABERNETHY |