2010 Hall of Fame


 

Tod Mack & Larry Clayton
Track Owners/Promoters

Tod Mack & Larry Clayton were visionary owners of MIR who took the track from its humble beginnings as St. Mary’s Dragway to the trend setting, internationally recognized Maryland International Raceway. In addition to crowning MIR with its new name, Mack and Clayton introduced an explosion of innovations and promotions that changed the face of MIR and drag racing. The US Pro Stock Open in 1975 provided Pro Stock racers a place to race for big bucks as the star attraction. A few years later, the Mountain Motor Nationals not only gave big cubic inch, low weight “outlaw” Pro Stock racers their own event, it provided the name of the category of Pro Stock racing that is still enjoyed to this day.

Tod and Larry were at the forefront of many drag racing advancements that today are taken for granted. Mack was the first to use a pairings ladder based on qualifying times for the nitro cars when he ran the NASCAR Drag Race Division in the 1960s. Tod and Larry, along with Lex Dudas and Mike Lewis, created the ET Bracket Finals program in the early 1970s, which the group finally turned over to NHRA after a few years. MIR was the winner of the Inaugural event held at York US 30 Dragway! All in all, Tod Mack owned or operated six tracks over his career, and MIR fans benefited from his decades of experience.

In addition to the more successful promotions, Tod and Larry introduced the world to the first four wide fuel Funny Car match (almost four decades before Bruton Smith did the same thing in Charlotte), and the wacky “Dragzacta,” which allowed fans to take part in pari-mutuel betting on weekly bracket races as they would at a horse track.

Tod and Larry were continually pushing the envelope of promotion, and their endeavors drew hundreds of thousands of mid Atlantic race fans to Southern Maryland. Tod was the partner most in the spotlight, as a competitive Top Alcohol funny car on the NHRA Division 1 points circuit, as a fine announcer in his own right, and even as the creator and distributor of the popular DynaBite traction compound. Larry, who worked mostly behind the scenes, ensured that the finances were always in place, that all the racers and fans were treated fairly, and that every move the track made was backed up with solid counsel and business acumen. Tod Mack and Larry Clayton’s leadership made MIR one of the top drag strips in the world during one of drag racing’s most fondly remembered eras.