vreeland goes from numidia dragway to nhrA star

storY: GENE OSTROWSKI, FOR INSIDE MOTORSPORTS

for the 16th straight season, Brooklyn native and businessman Bob DiMino is the man behind the controls of Numidia Dragway, near Catawissa. Dubbed as “Home of the Guaranteed Payout,” Numidia Dragway has hosted some of the most spectacular shows and in turn, helped develop some of the most spectacular racers.

That holds true with Rich vreeland, who isn’t just the owner of Vreeland’s Harley Davidson in Bloomsburg. He’s also a fellow Numidia drag racer, preacher of the gospel and now an official National Hot Rod Association event qualifier.

In mid-March, vreeland, his crew and family hit the road and headed to Gainesville, Fla., for the 52nd annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Camping World Gaternationals, which were held at Gainesville Raceway. He has looked forward to the event for months and when it was time to make the haul south, vreeland had his 2020 Top Fuel Harley Davidson Sportster prepped and ready to race.

To the surprise of many, including himself, he secured the number one spot in first-round qualifying, with a speed of 191 miles per hour (6.638 ET). Without a doubt, he was a bit ecstatic and became a hot topic and the talk of the NHRA for the weekend. vreeland went back to the lanes the following days for the next round. Although he ran his best time ever with a 6.50 ET (208 MPH), he lost by eight one hundredths of a second to NHRA National Champion Radel Andres.

Nonetheless, vreeland and his team headed back home, smiling from ear to ear. Even though he’s been riding for years, Vreeland figured that he’d try his hand with the bike drags on Friday nights at Numidia and credits the track and people at the track for being a part of his success.

“I learned to drag race on Friday nights at Numidia Dragway,’’ Vreeland said.

He enjoyed those nights, which were also enjoyed by many of the people who frequented Vreeland’s Harley Davidson.

“Racing Friday nights at Numidia was always an event for our customers. Everyone would come out and cheer me on. We would grill burgers and have a great time,” he said.

The DiMino family has been known to help out a variety of racers in many ways. Being drag racers themselves, they respect the hard work that teams put into their racing efforts. They recognized this with vreeland and jumped on board as one of the first sponsors of his career.

“The DiMino family (is) the first real sponsor that I ever had. It started when I was running Nitro (division) ten years ago and they have been great supporters ever since,” vreeland said.

He plans to get back to the track for competition with the All Harley Drag Racing Association at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga., on April 17-18. vreeland has been frequenting Numidia Dragway for many years and said that he has noticed the resurgence of the track since it was purchased by DiMino 16 years ago.

The entire jam-packed weekend schedule for Numidia Dragway from April through October can be seen by visiting www.numidiadragway. com. They also have an informative Facebook page.