By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher Atco, N.J. — Atco Dragway had its annual Thrill Show on Wednesday night. Normally, this event would happen on the first Saturday in June. However, due to several days of forecasted rain, the event was postponed to Wednesday night. Due to the scheduling conflict, some acts, who were scheduled to be at the Saturday event, were not able to make it. Buckshot and Bad News Travels were the two Monster Trucks at the event. Buckshot replaced a Monster Truck, who was scheduled for Saturday’s event. During freestyle, Buckshot had trouble and was leaking fluid. He was not able to give a full freestyle effort, like Bad News Travels, who did multiple freestyle attempts, crashing the cars that were in his way. Mike Kunz, the NHRA licensed Wheelstander from Canada, put on a show. He did wheelies from the starting line through the end of the track with fire coming out of the engine. Kunz is a Guinness World Record Holder for the longest Wheelie, which was set on August 12, 2012, in Earlton, Ontario, Canada. Ken Hall, the pilot of the Top Secret Eastern Raider Jet Funny Car, defeated his teammate Rich Hanna twice. Hanna was piloting the First Strike Jet Funny Car. Sarah Edwards, their Hanna Motorsports teammate, also won both of her races against Ernie Bogue. The Beast of the East Jet Dragster was no match for Edwards in her Queen of Diamonds II Dragster. Bogue had problems in his first pass. Then, he was able to make it down the track in his second pass. The show also featured Top Alcohol Funny Car driver John Headley, along with Top Alcohol Dragster Tom Fox, who traveled a short distance from Shamong, N.J. to race. The first time, these two made separate solo passes, before racing each other in the second pass. Robin “Robinator” Stambaugh, the driver of the Generation X Nostalgia Funny Car, who is the brother of Bunny Burkett’s driver Matt Stambaugh, faced Chris Massarella twice in his Total Insanity Nostalgia Funny Car. Rick Kopp, also a Canadian, like Kunz, was debuting a new truck called Boneshaker at this facility. However, he was not able to go down the track in either attempt, as he had electrical problems. Kopp did some additions to the truck after making his debut with Pyro at the drag strip last year. Louis “Rocket” Re also did a specialty act, as he rode through the wood that was placed on fire near the grandstands. His act was very quick. Doug Danger completed his successful jump over three Monster Trucks. However, after his successful jump, as he attempted to do a celebratory trick for the fans, his back wheel went out underneath him, as he was in the air, causing his face and body to go into his landing. Paramedics were called to the scene after Danger was injured after being placed into an ambulance. There was no update on his condition and the belief is that he was transported to a local hospital.
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