4/9/2026
Mid Atlantic Super Series
Paone & Novitsky lead winners at Cecil Junior Shootout
Paone & Novitsky lead winners at Cecil Junior Shootout
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Cecil County Dragway, Rising Sun, Md – The Mid Atlantic Super Series held a special Junior Only event at Cecil County Dragway to kick off their 2026 season on Easter weekend. This event and another special one in May will help form the Mid Atlantic Junior / Team Cecil County team for the ECJF Bristol Finals. The series saw a split in age groups for the season and will produce two champions in the 6-12 & 13-up age groups, an abnormal 80 degree Saturday welcomed racers to the Northeast Maryland Facility.
In the 6–12-year-old age group a small group showed up and after a tough 4 round race two new finalist emerged as the last two standing. Abby Novitsky out of Slatington, Pa took down Kole Paone, Evan Stack and Chase Ferguson on her way to match up in an all-girl final against Hanover, Pa Lydia Shipley who took down Kenneth Brooks Jr, Aaron Finkbiner and a bye run in the semis to match up against Novitsky.
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In the finals Novitsky played it safe with a .066 light to Shipley’s .111 light and paced her way to go 2 over her 8.90 dial in to take her first win as Shipley fell off her 8.93 dial in with an 8.981 run. Novitsky claims her first win with the series and an early points lead. Novitsky would like to thank her mom and Dad for all the challenging work and traveling as this is her first victory in Juniors all together and one, she will not soon to forget.
In the older age group saw a much larger group of kids and a tough 6 round shootout for the trophy. Kaden Paone out of Millville, NJ joined Novitsky as first time winners with the series to kick off the 2026 season. Paone started his march to the finals by taking down Nick Raffaele, Abby Martin, Anna Willing, Emily Stalba to get a bye run in the semis to match up with 2025 Rookie of the year Bella Casteel in the finals. Casteel made it to the finals with wins over Hailey Ludwig, Alfonse Magliocco, James Stack Jr, a bye run and finally Eli Stack in the semis. In the finals Casteel took a significant lead at the start (.020 to .062) but couldn’t run on her 7.94 dial with an off-the-pace 8.013, Paone on the other hand went dead on the dial with an 8.040 on his predicted 8.04 to claim his first victory with the series.
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Paone thanks his mom Ashley, dad Jon, and Team ATI / Paone / Kubicke Racing for their support with his new car. Winning Race #1 shows enormous potential for the 2026 season.
Next up for the series is a trip to Maple Grove Raceway on May 16th & 17th for Race & 3 for Juniors and the mix of the rest of the Big Cars joining the series for their first crack at glory.
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