When the gates swing open at Cecil County Dragway this Saturday morning, Jim Halsey’s Rising Sun, Maryland quarter-mile will host something it has never seen in the history of the track: a no-prep drag race.
That’s the headline tucked inside Fast Life Fest 2026, the two-day motorsports festival landing at Cecil County on May 16-17. The brainchild of Eat Sleep Race founder Brian Mabutas in partnership with Discovery Channel Street Outlaws stars Farmtruck and AZN, the Fast Kids Club, and Teter Built, Fast Life Fest packs a no-prep program, a kids’ power-wheel drag race, a car show, a burnout contest, vendors, and a Junior Dragster slate into one weekend built for racers and the families they bring with them.
For Mabutas, the whole thing started with a phone call.
“I was talking to Discovery Channel’s Street Outlaws star Jeff ‘AZN’ Bonnett, and he said that him and Farmtruck love seeing the power wheels content, and this was three years ago,” says Mabutas. “I told him with all these millions of views that the kids content is getting, we were considering making it a live event where we could get spectators. Within that same conversation we said, ‘OK, why don’t we actually turn this into an event with real drag racing combined with the kids power-wheel drag racing,’ and then obviously add a car show element to it. Long story short, that’s how the idea of the event came together. Obviously, their background with no prep, we decided to make it no-prep drag racing. Alex took control of promoting and managing the kids portion, and then Eat Sleep Race and Farmtruck and AZN were on the side of promoting and producing the drag racing and the car show.”
The Cecil County booking wasn’t random. Alex Teter of Teter Built had already run kids’ power-wheel races at the track, and the parent base that fuels that grassroots scene lives within a tank of gas of the Maryland strip.
“We chose Cecil County because Alex already hosted a few of these kids power-wheel drag races at other events at the track, so there was a history already there, and because his community of parents that race these cars are local to that track,” says Mabutas. “It’s only two hours away. We have people that could support us within a two-hour radius. The hardest part about this was convincing Farmtruck and AZN to do the event over there because they were 20 hours away, but they believed in the idea, and that’s how we landed on Cecil County. The idea has floated of taking the event over to their area, but the problem is we’re able to draw over 100 parents to this event because Alex has built up this community of kids racers that are very local. There’s a lot of risk if we were to take it out of state, because the largest community is the one he’s built locally.”
The competition slate is intentionally wide. Saturday runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as a test-and-tune and grudge day with a $60 tech card. Sunday is the heads-up payday: Small-Tire 28×10.5 Non-W, Stick Shift H-Pattern, All Motor, Honda FWD, Daily Driver, Junior Dragster, RWD/AWD, 11.50 and 10.50 Index, Test and Tune, and Run What You Brung. Eighth-mile classes share staging lanes with quarter-mile classes. Imports and domestics run the same ladder. The Power Wheels cars get their own program in the lanes, and every kid 10 and under gets through the gate for free.
The sponsor row reflects the build. Summit Racing Equipment, HPS Performance Products, and Exedy Racing Clutch back the event, Peotter’s presents the car show, and Kids Wash Club presents the kids’ car show.
Before the green light drops, Brian wanted to make sure one name landed in print.
“Special recognition would be the partners, Farmtruck and AZN, Eat Sleep Race, Fast Kids Club, and Teter Built, and also a shout-out to Jim Halsey for believing in the idea,” says Mabutas. “This event is actually the first no prep that he’s ever ran at Cecil County in the history of the track, so thanks to him for believing in the idea and allowing a no prep to run at Cecil County Dragway.”
That last line is the real story. A Mid-Atlantic mainstay opening its prepped surface to no-prep racing for the first time, on a weekend built around kids in power wheels, is the kind of crossover the sport keeps needing more of.
Tickets and the full schedule are at fastlifefest.org.
This story was originally published on May 15, 2026. 
The post Eat Sleep Race’s Brian Mabutas Talks Fast Life Fest at Cecil County Dragway first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
