Dirt
Keith Haney Reflects on Throwdown in T-Town Success Following Rain-Soaked MWDRS Season Start
By Nate Van Wagnen
Now a few days removed from the first race of the Summit Racing Equipment Mid-West Drag Racing Series presented by J & A Service season – a full two months after the scheduled season opener – Keith Haney can finally take a breath . The MWDRS series founder , reigning Stroud Safety Pro Mod season champion , and co-owner of Osage Casino & Hotel Tulsa Raceway Park just completed a spring Throwdown in T-Town that was successful both on track and off track . Haney picked up the win while racing in front of thousands of fans , including local family , friends , and employees .
The MWDRS season opener at Xtreme Raceway Park was first postponed from mid-March to late April , then canceled entirely , both due to rain . The second race of the season at Pine Valley Raceway was scheduled for the weekend before the XRP makeup date , but it too was postponed to October 4-5 due to rain .
The week before the Throwdown , six and a half inches of rain soaked the grounds at Tulsa , flooding the pits and turning the place into a muddy mess . The track crew cleaned up the facility , but the area was hit with tornadoes and more rain Monday night , adding to the mess . A team of volunteers got to work and spent the next couple days cleaning up and completing a variety of newseason projects to prepare for the coming crowd .
Haney was admittedly feeling the weight of it all , but when the forecast cleared up for the rest of the week , he knew his team could pull off the event .
“ I was stressed because I ’ m a race car driver , I ’ m a track owner , and I ’ m a series owner ,” Haney says . “ I have family and friends and it ’ s my local home track , so it was nice to know that we got it off . We had a little rocky start on Friday , just not racing for however long it ’ s been , seven months , as far as the series goes , but we ended up pulling it together and having an absolutely outstanding live-streaming event with a lot of in-pit interviews . The fan interaction was unbelievable . We were shooting T-shirt cannons and Frisbees like we always do , and two-for-one beers , and all kinds of cool stuff that we ’ ve always done . But what ’ s different is this was our best Throwdown since 2015 .”
Haney says the track went back to marketing the event the way they did early on in its history . A jet truck added to the MWDRS lineup of Pro Mod , Alcohol Funny Car , Pro 4.20 , Top Sportsman , Top Dragster , and Jr . Dragsters . It was a free ticket event with a paid parking pass , and once fans have that parking pass , they ’ re free to come and go as they please . Over the course of the weekend , Haney says around 27,000 people between spectators , racers , and crew members came through the gates .
“ All the bad of having rainouts and all that all went away ,” Haney says of the positives of the weekend . “ Our sponsors seen it and loved it , our fans seen it and loved it , and our signups on Flo-
PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEVEN WILSON AND DAMON STEINKE
24 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated . com Issue 189