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The 2009 home page is here with all 09 links Sept 1, 2010 Three Bill Jeffery gallerys are posted. CW Doorslammer gallery is here. Smoke Fire and Thunder gallery is here. Mission Raceway bracket gallery is here. Final rounds results with photos (Robert Hunter photos) are posted. Joe Delehay comes form third place in the WC Pro Mod standings, heads to Spokane, wins the race and his fourth series championship. Press release is here. This weekend is the Division 6 Summit ET finals at Mission Raceway. Over 500 cars are expected. SpeedZone will have full coverage all weekend starting Thursday night. August 29, 2010 A real good weekend on the North Left coast. Mission Raceway held their Fire, Smoke and Thunder event and is was a great success. A couple 312 mph Jet runs, a couple more 280 mph Jet runs, and side by side 250-260 Jet funny car runs. Ed Jones and Rick Marcum did their usual show in their wheelstanders as well. The NW BBFC's cars kicked butt with a bunch of 6.60-6.80 laps (even a 6.49). Randy Parker won over Matt Driskoll despite Matt getting to the finish line first, (6.81 - 6.82). Trevor Lowe flat out destroyed the field in Pro Street. Runs of 6.18, 6.16, 6.15, 6.19, 6.17 (at speeds in the 227-229 range) and an easy final round run of a 6.32/189). He clicked it early when Barry Daniluk went way red. Daniluk ran great throughout the weekend as well, going a best of 6.49/214. Garrett Richards ran a career best 6.39, but lost to Lowe in the semis. Rob Charlton won Doorslammers (make the battle for second a tight one with him and Terry Langdon Davies within 5 points of each other. "Kaos" Clarke has it sowed up (unofficially). A few of the other winners (from memory, left the sheet in the tower), Martin Rachel over Jim Behnke, Dylan Smith over birthday boy Darian Provost (in JR. Th., with his new car), Trevor Hinton over Taylor Vogel (JR. L), Bill Clifford (HR) over George Criddle, Kevin Brennan over Keith Newport in Motorcycle, Otto Schulte over Tom Brown (S. Combo) and Gerald Patzer in Sport Compact over Shawn Kvaas. Sorry, don't have the winners from Pro (B. Flodin was R/U), Sportsman and Open Comp. August 27, 2010 This weekend at Mission Raceway will see the return of Fire, Smoke and Thunder. Four Jet Cars, Wheelstanders, Pro Street, Blown Alky Funny Cars and the Canada West Doorslammers. It should be a huge weekend. The feature cars are running in the evening and under the lights on Saturday. 2011 NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series Schedule 1. 51st annual Kragen
O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals Feb. 24-27 Pomona, Calif.
17. Fourth annual
O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals Sept. 15-18 Concord, N.C. (PSM) A change in that the US Nationals is not the start of the countdown in 2011. It is the last race to determine the countdown participants. Seattle is now the final race in the Western swing. Phoenix is now at the end of the year instead of race two. Chicago's event is now in July instead of in early June, and no St. Louis (at this time) August 24, 2010 A bit of an update from Seattle's Saturday show. The nitro coupes made a couple laps and it was lead by Bucky Austin and the Pisano tribute car. Mark Hentges the pilot of the car is loving the nitro right now, as the Austin tuned Arrow ripped off one of the quickest laps in NFC history with a 5.69/248. He went 5.86 in the second run. Sanders went 5.90 and was second quick in the two run chicago shootout. Tom Padilla was crowned the burnout champ. Sanders is going to work with the Pacific brass to try and put together a huge race next year. Will it be 16 cars or 32 cars. It depends a lot on the amount of cash thrown at the deal. Will have photos posted in the next couple days. Shawn Cowie blog is updated. August 22, 2010 Seattle final results are posted. Talked to Bill Moore (Cowie CC) and he said their car had issues after the burnout in the final. #7 hole was dead and the car shut down at 5.00 seconds. Ignition issues as well. The bad lights in the final (both drivers were late) was a real quick green. Hough wanted to thank that team (Cowie's) for their help through the night Friday after his car grenaded in their final qualifier. August 21, 2010 9:00pm update Cowie loses in the final against Mike Austin. A uncharacteristic late light and the car fell off (maybe a wheelstand, will wait for the report). Brian Hough wins TAFC over Steve Gasparelli. Bob Marshall goes red in the 1/4's, Terry Spargo rattles the tires in round one. Harrison loses to Marshall in round two. Kondolay loses before the semis in both TD and TS. Jim Isherwood goes to the final in Super Stock, but has his worst light of the weekend and falls by .03. Al Omond goes to the semis in Motorcycle (should have won too, but took too much stripe by .002) Other winners include Aaron Strong (Comp), Mike Shannon (Super Gas), Brian Phillips (TD), Darryn O'Connor doubles up in TS with a win on Thursday and as well as today. Way to go to the Prince George based team (as well as CWDS competitor). Mike Dalrymple in Super Comp, Dallas Glenn in Stock, and Jeff Havens in Motorcycle. A pretty good car count at Seattle with 325 class cars (not counting brackets). (noon update) Seattle update: Comp eliminator: Marshall runs 7.009/195, Spargo goes 6.579/@211.00 (shatters the MPH record but is .01 off the ET record so he gets neither). Brandon Huhtala sets the record in C/A in his brand new car (7.27/186.74). First run on the new car (GPX) after his crash a month ago. Robbie Harrison goes 7.66/175. August 21, 2010 Seven nitro cars are at Seattle for their 50th deal tonight. With the threatening weather forecast this evening, they are going to try and get the Lucas Oil event completed today and run the nitro floppers. Mark Sanders, Austin/Hengtes, Clint Thompson, Tom Padilla/Benjamin, two Plueger cars and Derek Snelson will run. Jay Mageau was gracious enough to head to Ashcroft on short notice this weekend for their "Thunder in the Desert" event. Jay and the "Prospector" team will make a couple runs as well as light the car Saturday night with a special 'cackle fest'. The blown Alky series and the Outlaw Doorslammers are also featured. Should be a cool event for sure.
A short report from Paul Grant at Pacific for the completion of the Mission LODRS and Friday qualifying for thie own Lucas Oil event. An unbelievably low number of TA cars from the event. Three dragsters and five funny cars. That is not good. THere was four TAD's but Bill Edwards JR. broke on Thursday and is done for the weekend. From Paul. (Grant photos) "Friday at
PR was a great day to be at a Divisional drag race. The weather
was perfect, Pacific Raceway and the NHRA had the track in great
shape and today's action went off with no issues. Yes the car count
was down, but the cars that did show were all good quality machines
and it didn't seem to be such a big issue.
Brian did some
masterful driving to get the car stopped in a sideways slide and
apart from some parts and invoices everybody was fine. And kudos
must go to the NHRA safety guys for a great response and cleanup
afterwards.
Full Friday qualifying is here. August 19, 2010 Seattle is busy this weekend with their divisonal event and the completion of the rained out Mission Divisonal event from back in May. Today saw the completion of most classes from the Mission race, except TAD (TAFC was completed at the Seattle National a month ago, with Brian Hough defeating John Evanchuk). The TAD final to be run Friday will see Shawn Cowie take on Mike Austin. Comp Eliminator winner was Rob Harrison, who got a lucky single when Bob Marshall broke after the burnout. Darryn O'Connor defeated Spencer Martin (TS), Anthony Castillo defeated Marion Hurst (SC), Wayne Linder Jr got the win over Jim Ellingson (SST), Chris Cannon defeated Dave Kelly (SG), Sean Cour got the win over a red lighting Jim Boyce (Stock), Norm Lapointe defeated Rodney Stults, and John Chitwood got his first win over Marc Heritage in Top Comp. August 16, 2010 Kondolay wins two
5K races (Friday & Sunday) and the overall title at Boise. Three
big Big Buck wins this year. Went .004 at the tree in the final
for a 22 thou package, He is peaking at the right time (actually
he is almost always in peak form). Tim Boychuk gets another win
in Nost./FC. He defeats Mark Hentges on a hole Shot. Hentges goes
5.77/247 (track record) to Boychuk's 5.81/241. 20 Cars in total.
Semi final losers included Leah Pruett and Paul Romine. Pro Mod
fnal saw: AA/FD Brett Harris, .112,
5.839, 247.45 defeat Floppers quicker than
the dragsters, bet the skinny guys are happy.
August 15, 2010 A quick note from Stefan Kondolay, who won the Friday Bracketeer, at the Nightfires. A 5K win. The kid can drive for sure! But he likely will say he got a 1/thou lucky break when his opponent had him covered by .02 at the stripe, but broke out by that thou. Sometimes your reputation is enough to give your opponent too much to think about. Saturday final qualifying and bracket results are posted. IHRA Martin 131 Motorsport Park results are posted. Friday IHRA gallery is here Saturday IHRA gallery is here August 14, 2010 Brainerd Minn Full Throttle results are here. Martin Mich IHRA Nitro Jam results are posted here. Boise Nightfire Results are here. A few words from Jay Mageau from the Hot August Nights Nitro Funny Car portion. Hi Gang.. a short
update Nathan Sitko ran well defeated both John Evanchuk and Ken Webster in his two runs, gving him the edge overall in TAFC. Corey went 7.04, to mark it as the closest to the 6.99 idex. Ron S. went 199 for the fastest speed. Six Jets performed as well and wheelstanders. August 12, 2010 Brainerd (NHRA Full Throttle) is up this weekend and we will have photos and results from the fan favorite Minnesota event. Ashcroft's second to last race is this weekend and they should have a great weekend, good weather, Jet Cars and a cool team race. Add in their "Christmas in August" theme and fun will be had by all. Mission Raceway's last big Spectaor event is two weeks away. Four Jets and two Wheelstanders as well as Doorslammers and the NW BB/FC group. Also the CPSA return. Can they top their race from three weeks ago? MRP also has the ET FInals the Labour day long weekend. That event is huge for one main reason. THe race sees the largest car count in Division six every ear. Anywhere from 425 - 600 race cars will compete for the chance to represent Div Six, as well as compete against every other NHRA track in the NW in a team event. 17 tracks will converge that weekend. It is a very cool event and one that spectators should consider. Hot August Night in Edmonton was held Wednesday night and it was a huge success. Here is a link to photos from good friend and SpeedZone contributor Sheryl Ogonoski. Paul Grant has a bunch of great galleries from the Mission National Open: 1, 2, 3. This weekend Mission
Raceway will see noise from something other than Motorsports. "Rockin
on the River" music fest is up. August 11, 2010 Port Alberni "Thunder in the Valley" update: Saturday afternoon brought out the good weather a couple hours after noon. Sunday was without any delays and the event did get completed. A huge crowd was out on Sunday to see Doorslammers, Twig Zeigler's "Pizza Haven" Nitro Funny Car, Brent Harris and Duane Grosart as well as Brent Murray in the Flopper and TAD. Here is a short recap courtesy Dyan Lover (Island resident and regular at Mission Raceway). Terry Langdon Davis
won CW Doorslammer, Howard Hilborn took Super Pro, Wayne Darby won
Pro and Ron Clark won Street "A". Sorry do not have the
results for Mod or Street "B" Thanks Dyan! August 7, 2010 The First day at Port Alberni's " Thunder in the Valley" was NOT washed out. This the 10th anniversary is a huge event. Hopefully Sunday gets off the tarmac. Two Langley Loafers gallerys are posted. The first is Feature classes. The second is the Bracket classes. August 5, 2010 A Langley Loafers gallery is posted (courtesy Bill Jeffery) A gallery from Medicine Hat's National Open (Blair Alderton photos) August 4, 2010 The Canada West Doorslammer story for the Loafers race is posted on their site. August 3, 2010 Results are posted from the Loafers event including photos. August 2, 2010 Took most of the day off to spend with the family on this BC day holiday Monday. Loafers coverage is almost complete. Will post the story first (posted) and then add the photos tomorrow. Had a long talk Sunday evening with Jay Livingston with regards to the Spokane Division event schedule. He picked the date back at the time of the Div 6 Year end meeting back in December. He made the schedule on behalf of the County, even though he did not have any type of contract to run the place. He did it knowing that Medicine Hat usually schedules their National Open that same weekend. At the time he though, he thought that he would be the person who would be the operator. He felt his bid was the better of the two. When he picked that date it was picked for a couple reasons. Woodburn lost their date due to the switch in the National Event schedule. It was a date that they held for close to three decades. I can imagine how they felt. There was no other date in July for Woodburn (July long weekend, the first weekend) is not an option for a drag race in the USA. So they picked a date in June. They did not want an early June date since Mission's was the end of May. Jay did not pick an early June date for the same reasons. Since Woodburn got the date they had in 2009, he had to find another date. He did not want to have the race next weekend (Aug 6-8) because Boise is very vocal about tracks scheduling a large event the weekend prior to the "Nightfire Nationals". Boise appears to wield way too much power in this division. Do they reciprocate favors back to other tracks? Following that event Seattle's Divisional is two weeks later, so basically August is out. September early is the ET Finals and then there is the Medford event. That is why it was that particular weekend (as per Jay's reasoning). Jay also said there is an unspoken pecking order for the NHRA: Nationals, Divisional and then National Opens as far as the scheduling order. He unfortunately is right about that. He as well as myself feel the issue of the conflict could have been alleviated simply by communication. He stated that Jonathan Adams should have let the "Hat" executive know from the get go that there could be a conflict if Spokane is back in the NHRA fold. And if there is, what would their second choice for a date be. It was never done. It really compounded itself when it took so long for Spokane to get the necessary paperwork signed with the NHRA. Unfortunately Jonathan dragged it out too long. Medicine Hat had their advertising done in "ND" before Spokane was officially announced. Through all this, Cindy Gibbs Arias should have made note or paid attention to the scheduling for the Opens and Divisionals in Div 6 and rescheduled the date, since it was being announced so late. What will the end result be in this? Both events went off, Medicine Hat's was relatively successful (down by 15-20%) and Spokane's numbers were down 30%, but their attendance was very good. The 'Hat' was likely not charged for hosting the event so that eases some of the costs. I hope in the future communication is a priority. The economy is dealing enough of a blow right now without other avoidable issues. Shawn Cowie blog is
posted. A huge thank you goes out to all the racers fans and teams who donated to the fund set up by Zach Wells, son of Tyson Wells (2009 DS champion). Zach put it upon himself to raise money for 11 yr old Joshua who is going through cancer treatment. His hope was to raise a few hundred dollars this weekend collecting bottles and maybe a few donations. Well word got around the pits throughout the weekend, partly due to the announcers (Myself and John Tabak) putting it out there all weekend long. The racers, fans, teams and car clubs came through BIG TIME. The Langley Loafers themselves donated $500.00 to the cause. Zach was speechless! The beverage money taken in (by donation) at the Doorlsammer BBQ brought in over $100.00. Teams (the Dykstra's I remember) donated their prize money won. In total close to $2,000.00 was raised. Thank you to all that gave, and way to go Zach for your efforts. I am sure Joshua's family will be shocked!
August 1, 2010 Sunday night update. Mission's Langley Loafers event went off without too much of a hitch Sunday, other than yours truly falling off a ladder and smashing my new camera, not good!. Howard Anderson won the AA/Supercharged race, Zak "Kid Kaos" won Doorslammer (with a little help from his team mate). Full results and photos Monday. Spokane saw Clint Thompson take TAFC, Mike Austin win TAD, Jeff Lane win Comp, Jim Glenn win Super Comp, Jody Lang won Stock, Mike Ferderer took the Super Gas title, Randy Pressel won Top Dragster, Larry Miner won Super Street, Mark Faul won Super Stock, Randy Johnson won Top Sportsman, Buff Cobs won Motorcycle. Corrected car count was around 195 Class cars (including Motorcycle). I forgot Super Comp in my earlier report No word yet from the "Hat's" final count, but I did talk to Jay Livingston about the scheduling deal (IE: Spokane and Medicine Hat) and I will enlightened my readers about that Monday. Forgot the Combo winner from the National Open last week at Mission. Gary Howe defeated Andrew Wiebe. Sorry guys.
August 1, 2010 Mission Raceway Loafers event sees a great car count the largest RH Race Cars Canada West Doorslammer field (28) cars. The AA/Supercharged class has seven cars in the field and three are in the six second zone. Howard Andersen leads followed by "Mad" Mike Molea and Troy Owen. Disappointing to see less than a full field, but it show the economy has even hit this class of drag racers. Spokane final qualifying in TAD sees Joey Severance get the #1 spot with a 6.48. Mike Austin is #2 with a 5.52. Only four cars in total. In TAFC Clint Thompson switched gears and got back into his Top Alky Flopper. He sits #1 with a 5.61 and Brian Hough (who missed Friday's qualifying attending Mark Niver's Memorial) is # 2 with a 5.80. Only five cars in this class. An estimated 150-160 class cars are at Spokane. No results yet from day one at Medicine Hat other than local driver Jason Gibson broke his motor Saturday after winning the 5K Friday. Guess we know where that purse is going to. Justin Bond went to the final in Top Comp Saturday night. He finished as the Runner up against a doorcar. Full info when we get it. July 31, 2010 Medicine Hat Big buck winner Friday was Jason Gibson. He took home 5K. Mission's Justin Bond went four rounds. The "Hat" paid out full purses for both electonics and non electronics Friday night. Counts for both the classes were down slighly from what they hoped, but they still paid out full like there was 100 cars in each. There were around 160 cars in the shootouts. Around 200-220 cars in total. A decent car count according to Mike Williams, but down from last year. Overlapping the two events (Medicine Hat and Spokane) cost both tracks. Is it a leason learned, we will see? July 30, 2010 Loafers event at Mission Raceway looks to be huge this weekend as the pits are jammed already. AA/Supercharged, Claude Lavoie's Nitro Funny Car and four Blown Altereds, and the Canada West Doorslammers are the feature classes. Spokane on the other hand looks to be very light on the car count. Only four TAD's and four TAFC's made a run today. A couple of local teams are not in attendance. The Cowie team has a family wedding and Hugh Ridley's car is parked unless more money is found to finish the season. John Evanchuk and the Sitko family are not at Spokane as well. Top Sportsman has only a dozen cars and Top Dragster has 21, 16 in Super Stock and 19 in Stock. In you take similar number for the three Super classes and around 10 for Bike you have only 150 race cars before the brackets. Based on the late announcement for the event and the fact it is this particular weekend, the SAME weekend at the Medicine Hat National Open 450 miles away and you have a recipe for awful car count at two events. Plus when you have had three weeks of racing back to back to back in Seattle and then Sonoma, teams on the divisional and National level are burnt out and moneyed (is that a word) out. Part attrition also plays into the scenario. The National Open event at Medicine Hat has been on that date for a number of years and attracts local racers and a few traveling sportsman teams, while Spokane is the next level up in participation. Bottom line is whoever planned the Spokane divisional for this particular weekend should be out of a job. It is THE worst planned date I have ever seen in Division Six. Jonathan Adams should not have allowed it period. Jay Livingston, if he was the one that scheduled it, before the change of management made a pi.. poor mistake and/or if Cindy Gibbs Arias made the final decision in this she should be ashamed of overlapping with Medicine Hat. Finally did the new operator himself: ie Ron Hodgson make the final decision? If so why would he agree to a race on that date when his is from the province of Alberta. Yes it has me wound up, because it is just a plain bad deal all around.
July 29, 2010 A Friday and Saturday Mission Open gallery is here. A Sunday Mission Gallery is here. Both gallerys are sponsored by Joey's Place. Photos are added for the National Open Story. The complete Mission National Open story is posted. Photos are now added. This weekend's Langley Loafers Race is up this weekend. The coverage here at SpeedZone is available for sponsorship. Contact us if your business is looking for exposure in front of 35,000 viewers in the next two weeks. The site will get over 150,00 page views in the next month as well. July 27, 2010 Sorry for the issues in the last 24 hrs. Never expected to use as much space as the site has exceeded expectations to the tenth degree. Am working on the weekend's update and will have much of it up later today. July 25th update. Great final day at Mission Raceway as..... ......Tim Boychuk rips off a new Canadian record in nitro funny car. 5.70/253. Won in the final. Leong can tune for sure. They almost made amends for not running the second qualifier Saturday. Other winners at Mission included Ron Sekura in the Rocky Mountain flopper class, Royce Taylor in BB/FC, Darryl Stone in Pro Street, Rob Harrison in Comp and Mike Pelrine in Nitro Harley. Full results including a huge gallery with some unreal sequences from the finish line final rounds and from a crash in Outlaw 10.5. At Sonoma, Shawn Cowie goes 5.275 and loses to Jim Whiteley (he went 5.288) in the TAD final. More on that Monday or Tuesday. July 25, 2010
The Saturday Night Special at Mission Raceway! Saturday night at Mission Raceway for the Canadian National Open has seen its fair share of ups and downs in the last few years, and most were no fault of the race track. The endings were mostly downs. But this year it was.... (more) JULY 24, 2010
A very stout test day at Mission Raceway for the National Open Friday....(more). Sanders in Force fashion.......... July 23, 2010 The pits are getting full at Mission Raceway for this weekend's National Open. Over half the feature cars were already there Thursday night. I will say this, Pro Street appears to be alive and well. It is not very often if ever I have said that about the North West Pro Street scene. There are already 10 cars at the track and based on the others that are supposed to be here, there could be as many as 16 (more that likely 14-15). July 21, 2010 The Eagle Motorplex looks to be onto a great idea for their August 14-15 race. A team type of concept along the lines of the ET finals, check out the forum....and get involved! A real storm is brewing in the NHRA Pro Stock Motrocycle class. Racial overtones are part of it.....(more here) Great weather is forecasted for this weekend's National Open at MRP. At least one Pro Street car will be out testing on Thursday. That class will see one of the toughest ever fields in CPSA history.
This weekend's coverage of the Canadian National Open at Mission Raceway is presented by Joey's Place paint and restoration. Go here for the entry lists. A huge thank you from Mission Raceway and Speedzone Magazine goes to Jet Equipment for sponsoring the #1 qualifier bonus for all three Funny Car classes as well as the Comp Eliminator class. Both the Comp Field and the Pro Street field for Mission's Open are both growing with over a dozen cars in each class. It will be good! THE best Pro Street field in the NW's history in my opinion. July 19, 2010 West Coast Pro Mods at Medicine Hat got rained out Sunday unfortunately. Delehay was #1 qualifier with Tom Johanns #2. After much deliberation taking place after the AHRA event at the 'Plex 10 days ago, the AHRA has canceled the rest of their events for 2010. Way too big of dreams, without the backing to make it happen (that is the PC version). The guy behind the AHRA in Canada, Brad Janishewski will bring his Jet Cars out to Ashcroft the weekend of August 14 & 15 to put on a show. His way of doing what's right, good on ya Brad. I know you did what you could. The end result is the current management of the AHRA south of the border will likely fold up tent. Hopefully all those who got screwed by Moe, Saint and the others will have recourse to get what's owed. In the meantime, the Eagle Motorplex is going to put on their own race August 14&15, it likely will be a night race (hence the jets appearing). The Outlaw Doorslammers, a double header for the brackets are part of the program. Maybe the Loafers will consider another event this year. That would be great. The Mission race is really shaping up this weekend. Beside the huge Funny Car fields (3 different classes), a huge Pro Street class is expected, over a dozen Comp cars, Nitro Harleys and all the sportsman classes. Under the lights Saturday night, be there!!! Rob Charlton won the Doorslammer event at the 'Plex last weekend at the CMDRA event. Word it one Harley rider in the Destroyer class came off her bike on the top end. She is okay, but suffered a few broken bones. At Sonoma, The Autolite Nat'l winners were: Ron Capps (FC), Larry Dixon (TF), Jeg Coughlin (PS), Michael Phillips (PSM), Mike DePalma(Comp). Washington Hitter Brandon Huhtala crashed his C/A Cutlass in the lights (after the throttle stuck). He is okay, but the car is a mess. Other winners include: Mike Ferderer in Top Sportsman, Jimmy DeFrank in Stock, Tony Mandella in Super Stock (DeFrank was the R/U), Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon won in Super Gas and Kyle Seipel in Super Comp.
July 16, 2010 The Eagle Motorplex AHRA event results are posted. Photos later today. A big weekend in California as the Sonoma Autolite Nationals is on tap. Legendary tuner Ora Vasquez celebrates his 80th birthday this weekend. Go here for a special release and contact info to send your birthday wish to the West Coast Top Alcohol tuning legend. Shawn Cowie has his blog updated from Seattle. Todd Hoerner is alive and well believe it or not. His blog is also updated. He talks about a 900+ inch bullet on pump gas making over 1700 hp. We are a week away from the largest Funny Car race in the North West. 32 Funny Cars at Mission Raceway. A big preview is upcoming. A different form of Motorsports is at MRP this weekend as well. The annual British Columbia Historic Motor Races. A huge event with over a 100 vintage race cars. Click here for more info. July 14, 2010 Three Seattle NW Nationals galleries are posted in Bill Jeffey's blog. Sunday's NW Nat's results and photos are posted. NHRA announces manadatory Carbon Fibre rear brakes for the top four classes in NHRA. Top Fuel, Funny Car, TAFC and TAD. In effect by July 21, 2010. Front Carbon Fibre brakes for Funny Car and TAFC by August 11, 2010 July 13, 2010 A Speedzone editorial is the first order of business, due in part to the death of respected TAD Driver Mark Niver, The Sunday report from Seattle is posted. Photos will be added throughout the evening for both the Saturday and Sunday report. July 11, 2010
Very sad day at Seattle as TAD driver Mark Niver died from injuries suffered in a top end crash against Shawn Cowie in the semi finals. Niver's parachutes came off his car as they blossomed after his semi final win over Cowie. His car went into the sand and then got wrapped up in the catch net folding the front of the car in half. He was transported to the Hospital but was pronounced dead. Condolences go out to Marks' family and friends. Sort of does not matter who won the event now, but the winners are: Cory Mac, Tim Wilkerson, Greg Anderson, Chris Demke (TAD, dedicated to Niver) and Sean O'Bannon (TAFC) Sportsman final rounds: Competition Plus have a heart felt story on Niver from many of his Friends. Competition Eliminator -- Alan Ellis, '23-T Ford, 7.599, 117.26 def. Glen Treadwell, '23-T Ford, 10.434, 83.61. In Super Stock -- Ryan McClanahan, Chevy Cobalt, 8.509, 147.07 def. Shawn Blair, Dodge Dart, 10.596, 123.09. Stock Eliminator -- Kevin Cour, Ford Mustang, 10.127, 127.90 def. Jim Waldo, Pontiac Firebird, 10.204, 130.39. Super Comp -- Tom Malicki, Dragster, 8.900, 177.44 def. Bobby Dye Jr., Dragster, 8.915, 151.89. Super Gas -- Reg Wilson, '34 Ford, 12.638, 111.36 def. Justin Lamb, Chevy Camaro, DQ. Super Street -- Darrel Saxby, Chevy Chevelle, 10.868, 123.32 def. Bob Sims, Chevy Nova, 10.845, 130.75. Full report from Sunday with photos Monday At the AHRA Sportsnationals at the Eagle Motoplex: Doorslammer winner was Rick McLeod Jr. over Dallas Wagner. Blown Alky winner was Neil Lachelt over Brent Murray. Darrell Webb won the best of three Funny Car match race over Cody Anstead. Super Pro Winner was Al Mackay Smith, Pro winner was Mark Klingball, Sportsman winner was Dale Nagy, Jr winner was Jared Anstead and Tyler Tingle won Sled/Bike. Full story Monday. July 11, 2010 Saturday Seattle report. Saturday Eagle Motorplex AHRA report is here. July 10, 2010 Friday Seattle report is posted. July 10, 2010 Hot at Seattle and some bad luck for comp racer Howie Stevens from North Vancouver. He put his new Mustang on its side and then finally it went on its roof. Lots of cosmetic damage, hopefully not too much chassis damage. In TAD, Cowie sits 2 and Carlson is #5. In TAFC, Evanchuk is #5 and is off to the final from the rained out Mission Race. He will face Brian Hough in the final. Team Force is dominating Funny Car. Doug Kalitta is #1 in TF and Jason Line is #1 in Pro Stock. At Ashcroft, the Funny Cars and Jets are here. Lots of Outlaw Doorslammers and Blown Alcohol teams. Should be a good Saturday. Three time trials, a gamblers race, a great Jr. program and a run your dial deal on Saturday, then the AHRA will host an after race hospitality deal Saturday night. They also hosted a hospitality deal Friday night for all the teams. A good way to get the racers on the AHRA's side. July 8, 2010 Hot, hot weather for two events in the NW. Seattle's NW Nationals is getting all the press, but Ashcroft needs a good weekend as well. So does the AHRA, as they are hosting the event at the 'Plex. The first Sportman Nationals. Two quick very cool Outlaw series, Jets, a couple floppers and bracket racing at its best. Good money to be won. If you ain't heading to Seattle, head on up to the 'Plex this weekend. Photos and an extensive preview for Seattle is posted.
July 6, 2010 Seattle event preview and press releases are here. Mission Raceway July 3rd and 4th results are photos are posted. July 5, 2010 Lost a complete external Hard Drive today, the one with all my 2010 photos as well as all promo and related stuff from 2010, so I will be busy trying to recover the files for the next while. In the meantime, I am working on the preview to this weekend's N.W. Nationals at Pacific Raceway. SpeedZone has three photo/journalists there this weekend, so our coverage will be extensive. If you or your company is interested in sponsoring the coverage here at SpeedZone for this weekend's National event contact us . With the guys at Seattle, I will be at Ashcroft for the inaugural AHRA SportsNationals. Should be a good weekend as well, with great feature classes and big money for the Pro and Super Pro classes. No weather concerns except for the forecasted heat wave, I'll take that for sure. July 2, 2010 A Shawn Cowie blog is posted. Rocky Mountain Nitro Jam Galleries (part 2) Top Alcohol Funny Car...........Nitro Funny Car......Pro Nostalgia Funny Car.....Pro Mod Sportsman........People July 1, 2010 Rocky Mountain Nitro Jam Galleries: Top Fuel..............Jet trucks...........Pro Fuel............Nitro harley/Pro Mod bike The other classes will have gallerys posted Friday. Happy Canada Day. The Rocky Mountain Funny Car web site is updated from Edmonton. The Sekura Brothers Racing web site is also updated. June 29, 2010 The West Coast Pro Mod results from Edmonton are posted. The full Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car story (with photos) from Edmonton is posted. Woodburn Lucas Oil event results are posted Norwalk results and photos are posted. A Norwalk Gallery is posted. June 28, 2010 Team reports from Edmonton are posted. A lot to catch up on in the next two or three days here at SpeedZone. Edmonton was very good to say the least. While I am not a huge fan of the match race stuff they call Professional racing, overall the three main IHRA classes were rated as follows........ The six other classes that were featured are rated here...... Congrat's to Joey Severance for finally getting a win at his home track, Woodburn. He defeated Shawn Cowie in the final. Brian Hough won TAFC over Jeff Ashwell. Full report later this week, with photos. Norwalk Pro winners were: Larry Dixon (TF), Tim Wilkerson (FC), Greg Anderson (double up for Anderson as he won the PS shoot-out as well), Matt Smith in PSM, Pat Musi (YA YOU READ IT RIGHT) in Pro Mod, Frank "I won again" Manzo in TAFC and Bill Reichert in TAD. Full report with photos starting Tuesday. June 27, 2010 One of the best Saturday's at Edmonton in the eight years of the event. Full report throughout Sunday and Monday. Final qualifying for Pro Mods, TAFC, Rocky Floppers, and IBAA is here. Top Fuel, Nitro Funnys and A/Fuel later Sunday. June 26, 2010 Round one of qualifying for WCPM, Rocky Mountain funnys, TAFC and IBAA from Edmonton is posted. Final qualifying for Top Sportsman and Top Dragster from Edmonton is posted. Edmonton Top Sportsman and Top Dragster round one qualifying is posted. Tim Nemeth, Ed Verenka, Steve Nichols and Jay Mageau Edmonton press releases are posted. Saturday Morning 7:30am. As you can tell by the no updated Friday evening, here was no action Friday night, as hard rain and wind stopped the pro classes just prior to their start. Today the weather is much more positive looking for the entire day and will last through Sunday (according to the Weathernetwork.com for Nisku). Once the pros get to the track. Here is the propose schedule for today. June 25, 2010 7:15 update. A major wind storm has hit the Castrol race track just prior to the start of pro qualifying. The extreme heat earlier in the day brought up ground water to the surface as well, which delayed the gamblers race. MORE UPDATES IF THE WEATHER TURNS FAVORABLE. Friday morning at the track The schedule for today is sportsman time trials, followed by a bracket gamblerace and then a roun of professional qualifying at 6:00pm and another at around 8:00pm Edmonton coverage IHRA Previews for the Pro Mods, NFC and Top Fuel are posted. Top Fuel, Prostalgia, Pro Fuel and TS /TD are covered here. Pro Mod, TAFC, Nitro Harley, Rocky Mountain Funny Cars/IBAA, and he rest of the sportsman classes are covered here. Woodburn divisional is up this weekend as well. June 25, 2010 1:00am update A short update as we arrived in Edmonton. The hotel's internet sucks on a wire right now but there is only one wired hook-up. Bobby Thunder is cranked up. Hopefully they sort it out tomorrow, or a different venue may be on the docket. June 24, 2010 A quick note regarding the AHRA event at Aschroft. Drivers can double enter in the Pro and Super Pro classes (even Bike and Sportsman for that matter). There will a top half and bottom half of the ladder. And if you double enter your spots will be on opposites sides of the ladder. Most big buck races are done like that. You can also enter your car in two different classes providing your car fits both classes. And the Gold card holders at the Plex will have your Gold card honored for one class. Pretty good on both the AHRA and Eagle. Updates from Edmonton start this evening. June 24, 2010 On the way up to Edmonton in a few hours. Will do updates from Woodburn as well as Ashcroft and Norwalk throughout the weekend. Thanks again to Ace Manufacturing and Team Ace for sponsoring the coverage here at SpeedZone for this weekend's largest Drag Race in Canada, Castrol Raceway's Rocky Mountain Nationals. Sometimes I am amazed that that facility is so much more successful than any other drag strip in Canada, but it is. The town is racing crazy, and there is more disposable income than any other city (Province or State) in North America. Plus they have an owner who gives a crap about the fans. They pack the place for this race as well as their annual Wednesday night "Hot August Nights" event in August. I think the IHRA would really be at a loss if the track ends their sanctioning. The contract expires this year. The ownership group is so committed to the sport, that they would not need any sanctioning to be successful. The NHRA should really look at the operation closely. You see tracks like Norwalk, and Englishtown do well at non national events, Edmonton would be the same. We will have three different pages up for the Rocky's. One for Press, one for the three IHRA Pro classes, TS and TD, and one page for the other specialty classes competing, TAFC, Nitro Harley, Nostalgia Blown Alcohol, West Coast Pro Mods, and the rest of Sportsman classes. June 23, 2010 8:50pm An update and final comments from Ron Cowie on the Fallon issues.
The first AHRA event at the Plex is a go (true). I just finished the poster and picked it up at the printers. Here are the details. Based on the classes for this event, there is big potential. Nothing will stop this event based on my conversations with both parties. 5K to win for Super Pro and Pro. $2500 for sportsman and $1250 for bike (all based on reasonable entries). Plus Rollin Thunder Jet Funny Car, Blown Alky shootout (minimum $2500 purse), Outlaw Doorslammers ($2500 minimum purse as well). A gamblers race Saturday. Two match race Funny Cars will also be there to put on a show. $150 entry for the 5K classes All regular Eagle racers get a free AHRA membership to that race. $100 for the other classes. Free entry for Blown Alky and Outlaw Doorslammers. All non regular Eagle racers (in the bracket classes) pay an extra $25.00. All cars that currently pass tech (for any sanctioning body) as well as your current license make you good to go. $15 per day for spectators. A pretty good deal. All you racers, get out to the "Plex next weekend. They need your support for this, and all the races there. Here is the flyer.
Mission Raceway Sunday Bracket results are posted. (Robert Hunter photos attached). IHRA has a feature on the West Coast Pro Mods in advance for Edmonton. The local Nitro Funnys are also featured at the "I" The CWDS event from last weekend is covered here. Will have more Calgary stuff at the Rocky Flopper site. An Englishtown Gallery is posted. June 22, 2010 The preview for the Rocky Mountain Nitro jam is here. The coverage here at SpeedZone is presented by Team Ace Racing. Thanks to Harold, Eddy and the crew at Team Ace. I know I am stirring up a s... storm again but..... I see on the NHRA division Six site (I have known the rumor for a while, but really did not think it would happen) that is now posted that Spokane's Divisional race in July 31-Aug1. Not sure if the DD up here has looked at the schedule on his own web page, but he also has a National Open scheduled for Medicine Hat that weekend. They have had their National Open scheduled for that weekend for a number of years, and the closest NHRA track to them also happens to be Spokane. From what I understand the Division 6 event was tentatively put together by Jay Livingstone before the current owners took over the track. It was scheduled for the same weekend way back in December or January. That is a kick in the guts in my opinion. Jonathan knew about this back then, and maybe has hoped the NHRA deal with the Spokane operators would fall through, or maybe he thought that Med Hat would change their date a long time ago, or thirdly maybe he did not car, I don't know. I heard the head office had something to do with keeping it that weekend (Spokane that is) Good way to keep the smaller tracks as an important part of your division. When Spokane is not getting their Division event put on the schedule until the summer time (officially) with little notice, one has to wonder the thought process here. Shame on NHRA for allowing this to go on this long. I talked to Cyndi Gibbs (Spokane track manager) today and she said it was not her decision, and she is as frustrated as anyone for it taking so long to be announced. The date was not her decision and if she knew that date was reserved for Medicine Hat I am betting she would of had another date on the schedule. June 21, 2010 Pro Street from MRP is posted. The Pro Mod story from Mission Raceway is posted. The Calgary Father's day Funny Car race is at Northern Thunder. Click on each day on the linked page above to see the recap and photos. June 20, 2010 Just a short recap form what was a great day of racing at MRP. No we did not get a "5" in Pro Mod, but it was not for a lack of trying. The air was SO good, and the track had so much bite, that the cars underpowered the surface. In the end, it was Tommy Johanns who won the event (second win in a row at MRP) running a 6.10 and then a 6.12 to reach the final round. His opponent was supposed to be #1 qualifier Joe Delehay but he had to make a bullet switch after his semi final win, and he found a couple issues with the new bullet that could not be worked out in time. They waited over an hour to try and get er done, but in the end Joe had to throw in the towel. Tommy singled, and ran hard to half track beroe he got loose at half track. Hopefully he and the other dozen Pro Mods set to invade Castrol Raceway (Edmonton) next week put on a great show up there. In Doorslammer, Zak Clarke got his third win of the season, to take a huge series point lead. He defeated Randy Arlitt who had more lucky breaks (his words) than you would believe to reach the final round. Trevor Lowe defeated Dale Moznik in the Pro Street final. The rest of the MRP results in the next couple days. At Bristol, Tony Schumacher got the Top Fuel win. John Force got his fourth of the season in FC. Mike Edwards won again in Pro Stock. Von Smith won in Pro Mod. At Salt Lake, Mark "Mr. Explosive" won both days in NFC. Lagana and Litton each one a day, and in A/Fuel (Pro Fuel) Johnny Ahten and Brandon Johnson both won a day. Full reports Monday and Tuesday.
June 20, 2010 A short Pro Mod Saturday recap is posted. A Bill Jeffery Saturday gallery is posted. June 19, 2010 About all you need to say!!!!!
JOE DELEHAY GOES 6.01@238 TO GET THE MRP TRACK RECORD!!! The quickest Pro Mod pass in Western Canada. Will a five happen? We'll see Sunday. Rick Distefano is sooo close to getting his new RH Camaro sorted out as well. Sunday round one, the two hitters from Cow Town face off. A couple personal bests by Duane Grosart (6.55) and Keith Korecki (6.49) as well in the Pro Mod field. Unfortunately there was some carnage as well. Hopefull the weather will hold, and Sunday does get completed. If so, it should a great day. Trevor Lowe lays down a great 6.32/223. to get the #1 spot in Pro Street. Terry Spargo is # 1 in CWDS with a 6.60 Garrett Richards blowns the front end completely off his Chevy Pro Street truck right in the lights at over 200mph, must have scared the ..you know what out of him. Hard to twll, hopefully one of my other photogs got it.
June 19, 2010 Rad Torque Systems is the SpeedZone sponsor of this weekend's coverage of Pro mod, Pro Street, Doorslammers and all the bracket classes. Two Pages of coverage from MRP this weekend. The Pro Mod and CPSA page is here. The Doorslammers and the bracket classes are covered here. June 18, 2010 A Paul Grant Langley Loafers Gallery is posted. The Shawn Cowie blog is updated. Here is my first grandson Logan Van de Ligt
June 17, 2010 A Langley Loafers gallery from Ashcroft is posted. 5:20 update.... Mike Rice replies back after reading the editorial. At the bottom of the editorial Fallon Editorial is posted. We will have the editorial I talked about (the controversy from Fallon and Medicine Hat) posted later today. The Loafers page from Ashcroft has the show and shine winners posted. Rick Distefano is testing at MRP today (hopefully weather is okay). June 16, 2010 A preview to this weekend's Pro Mod race at MRP is posted. If your company is interested in sponsoring the coverage here at SpeedZone Magazine for this weekend's Pro Mod Pro Street and Doorslammers email us here. Two different pages, a number of gallerys and over 100,000 page views. You get a banner on the home page (to the right) for an entire year as well and links to your site and/or business, as well as the pages with your logo throughout the coverage. Go here for a sample of a sponsored event page. The Canada West Doorslammers Ashcroft story is posted. A Delehay Motorports Pro Mod preview is posted. The Rocky Mountain Funny Car Ashcroft report is posted.
June 14, 2010 The Langley Loafers story from Ashcroft is posted. A couple editorials to work on in the next couple days as we deal with the TA shoot-out race at Medicine Hat and the debacle final round at Fallon Nev in TAD. Some poor sportsmanship all around. Check out NHRA.com. It has a winners circle picture of the NHRA State/Provincial championship event from Mission Raceway 10 days ago, as one of the lead stories. Very cool! Check out the link above. Other than the spelling for Mike Goad (n) they got it all right. June 14, 2010 RIP Neal Parker
Got word from my journalist in Englishtown (David Smith) and he is still affected by the tragic death of TAFC driver Neal Parker (above). His take on the crash was that Neal had a great run and the parachute(s) did not deploy after the run, and the car appeared like it was W.O.T (for a good period) after the 1/4 mile. It did appear that a chute (pilot chute) did start to deploy just before the car hit the sand trap, after that point all there was to see was dust and debris. David had seen Neal race for a number of years and said he was a very capable driver, and this incident was totally uncharacteristic of Neal's ability. The preliminary report was that Neal had died of massive head injuries. The speculation that he had suffered some sort of debilitating medical issue during the run seems to be a very strong possibility. I am sure we will hear much more on this in the coming days or weeks. Staying with Englishtown, Larry Dixon, Bob Tasca, Mike Edwards, Michael Philips, Munroe Guest, Frank Manzo and Von Smith were the professional class winners. Full results are here. (Photos later this week) Fallon Nevada had a bit of controversy this past weekend with local driver Shawn Cowie and the TAD final round. The recap (below) off of DRC was not accurate. I am just finishing the full story off, and will have the entire story up Tuesday. It will be well worth reading. Medicine Hat also saw a bit of excitement in their Top Alcohol shoot-out on the weekend. In the end it was John Evanchuk defeating Ken Webster in the final round as the TAD teams were out by the semi finals. Track record holder Ashley Bart's team had a bit of an encounter against one of the TAFC teams in the semi finals, and it was not the Red Wolf team. Ashley kept her cool and did not let the run (in which she originally won) affect her, but the team did have to rerun the semis and they lost on the rerun. Congrats to John and Ruth Evanchuk and the whole Red Wolf team. A full report from Ashcroft is still being completed, and will be posted Tuesday and Wednesday.
June 13, 2010 An absolutely great Langley Loafers event at the Eagle Motorplex. Close to 200 race cars and 130 show n shine vehicles made for great racing and shutter bugs were kept busy. A couple delays made Sunday a long day, but overall one of the best weekends at the 'Plex. Full report starting Monday. Very sorry to see another tragic death at Englishtown, as TAFC driver Neal Parker succumbed to injuries after going through the sand trap and catch net at the top end after his career best (5.7/249.9) run. RIP "Excavator". Shawn Cowie lost in the final at Fallon Nevada after the car failed to fire against Mike Austin. Tough luck two weekends in a row for the local team. June 11, 2010 The Langley Loafers coverage from Ashcroft is here. A Chicago National event (and Allstar competitors) gallery is posted. The complete Chicago event is wrapped up here. June 10, 2010 A Bill Jeffery gallery from MRP from last weekend is posted. A very busy weekend at SpeedZone as coverage from Englishtown highlights the NHRA Full Throttle series. Locally, the 23rd Langley Loafers Old Time Drags at the Eagle Motorplex gets underway Friday. SpeedZone Magazine coverage is sponsored by
Click here for the Loafers weekend coverage here at SpeedZone Chicago Full Throttle and Jeg's Allstar photo highlights Thursday evening. June 9, 2010 Looks like I am going to be a grandfather tonight. My daughter is going in for an emergency "C" section as we speak. The West Coast Pro Mods first race of the year is next weekend at MRP. Here is the Association press release. SpeedZone will have a big preview early next week. In the drama section, more negative news and updates for the AHRA. The Father's Day event at Race City will go on without it being an "AHRA Reunion Tour" event. Issues with the racing surface is the official report via AHRA. I will try and get the official word from the track Thursday, on what will be run at the event. June 7, 2010 Chicago update... My photog just called me and his 'puter crashed and he is trying to retrieve his pics from the weekend. Will keep you updated.
The Canada West Doorslammers will be running the completion of last weekend's event on Saturday this coming weekend at the Eagle Motorplex. Go here for details June 6, 2010 MRP full weekend results are posted. 8:00pm update......Shawn Cowie unfortunately makes his worst run of the weekend and is defeated by Jared Dreher in the semis. Larry Dixon goes 4.77 to defeat Tony "Shoe" (3.82) Matt Hagan takes out Robert Hight and gets the et record as well (4.022). Mike Edwards defeats Jason line. Both go double "0" and both run 6.59. What a race! Manzo goes 5.45/264 to defeat Mickey Ferro(really red). LE Tonglet defeats Steve Johnson in Motorcycle. 4:00pm update.....Rain has struck the Chicago National event (again) delaying eliminations as they were into the semi finals in most classes. Division 6 TAD driver Shawn Cowie is in the semi finals. He is set to face Jared Dreher. Shawn has a good chance to reach the final round as he has over a tenth in performance advantage. Rain today at MRP, so the CW Doorslammers and the rest of the classes made their way home early without getting a hit on the 1320. Even though the call was made early, the rains were around all day long so a good call in the end. At Chicago, Ken Webster (TAFC) lost in round two when he went red. Michael Dalrymple was way late in Super Comp (round four). Brad Plourd is off to the semi finals in Super Stock and Mick Alley went red in round four of Stock. More info on the rain delay as we hear it.
June 5, 2010 Congrat's to the NHRA Division 6 State/Provincial Champions (BC Division) crowned Saturday at MRP. Winners in the bracket classes were: (Left to right) Brianna Jackman (Jr Thunder), Phil Marvetz (Sportsman), Dave Jung (Pro), Kevin Brennan (Bike), Mike Goad (Super Pro), Tyler Smith (Jr. Lightning)
Division 6 had one of its best outings at the All Stars in Joliet. They finished 3rd behind Div 1 and Div 5. Mark Faul got the win in Stock and Shawn Cowie was Runner-up in TAD. Six drivers from Division 6 got past round one. Cowie is #2 in the TAD field for Sunday eliminations (Nat'l portion). Stefan Kondolay won the Medford Mega bucks 10k race Saturday. They are running the 5k race Saturday night June 2, 2010 The planned feature cars for the Calgary AHRA reunion tour event June 18-19 are: AA/FC Randy Bykowsky
and Jason Duschene The Canada West Doorslmmers
are at MRP this weekend. Fortin's Automotive is the event sponsor.
Click here for
more info. June 1, 2010 The Top Alky story from Mission Raceway's Lucas Oil event is posted. The sportsman classes results and photos are posted. Bill Jeffery MRP LODRS gallery is here (includes a couple awesome near miss sequences) Robert Hunter LODRS gallery is here. Paint is finally applied to Jeff Dykes Datsun Funny Car that Randy Parker ran to the N.W. BB/FC championship. Here are all the awesome details. May 31, 2010 A couple notes from other events this past weekend..... While car counts were down by a bunch at the MRP divisional, back East (Maple Grove) there were 31 Top Alky entries, 33 Comp cars and over 120 Stock racers. Weather here certainly played a role, the Canadian fuel issues also might have accounted for a few. Hopefully the ugly weather has played itself out for a while. Tim Boychuk won the Rockabilly Rod Reunion/NHRA Heritage Series Funny Car event at Vegas. 25+ cars were there, and he took out Steve Macklyn in the final. Mark Sanders lost to Boychuk in round one. Todd Lesenko went to the semis. He was also testing his new RED dragster. Good luck to all the Division Six representatives for the Allstar event in Chicago this weekend. Sorry for no final eliminations update from MRP but there is no update. Qualifying and round one got completed for all classes except for two pairs in round one of TAD..... Then small showers and cooling temperatures forced the postponement again. Today was supposed to be the rain date for the event and guess what... It's raining again the by 8:30 am the torture ended... The race has been reschedule for completion at the Seattle Divisional event in August. I think the event name (according to us) will be "The what could go wrong...went wrong Nationals" . Results and weekend story along with photos will come throughout the next couple days. May 30, 2010 Sunday weather looks promising. It will be a busy day at MRP with a final qualifier and then right into eliminations for all classes. A Friday gallery is here. May 29, 2010 7:00pm update.... No racing at MRP today, as constant showers dominated the skies and keep the track wet. The hope locally is to get one more qualifying effort (the first for the six TAD's and the harleys) and then go into eliminations. Weather is unfortunately a bit iffy for Sunday. We will see. I gave DD Jon Adams a chance to respond to my comments and say his side of the issues from Friday, but he declined and said his position is the decision that was made yesterday, so there is no point in a response.
Weather Saturday does not look good unfortunately, showers throughout the day and it looks like they may be right today after two days of getting a reprieve. Sunday looks much more promising as does Monday according to the Weather Network. Will the race run into Monday, I don't know, and just know selfishly that the TA classes get at least two hits in before eliminations. Yikes.......More added to my observations from Friday's qualifying. Click here Results wrap up and photos from Friday are here (Sportsman), and here (Top Alcohol) May 28, 2010 Mission Lucas Oil event Friday wrap-up.... A bit more of an editorial than what could have been a great story about the TA session to end the day. I feel that the day ended with a few disgruntled fans and a dozen unhappy racers (including the Harley riders) when it did not have to happen....(More here) Mission LODRS Sportsman qualifying numbers. Top Alcohol qualifying numbers. Weather looks iffy at the best for Friday's day one of qualifying at MRP. A good day of testing Thursday in preparation for the Lucas Oil event this weekend. More here....... Thanks to Ray and Jan for selling SpeedZone their golf cart. One of the nicest out there. Shelby is pretty stoked. May 27, 2010 Photos are added to the Top Alcohol preview and the sportsman preview May 27, 2010 Evenings like this are why I love Drag Racing so much........(more here) May 25, 2010 Weather looks to be a 50/50 shot this weekend, meaning Mission Raceway Park will be keeping the Jet Dryer on standby all weekend long. One positive to the cooler temperatures, is the cars will fly. Get off your butt and head out to MRP for the weekend. May 24, 2010 Huge preview for the BC Lordco Nationals at Mission Raceway this weekend. All of the SpeedZone coverage for the event (and there will be plenty), is sponsored by
RAD Torque Systems. Bobby Thunder did up the Top Alky preview and pulls no punches. Murdoch did the Sportsman preview (posted here). Thanks to Dan at RAD for all his support this coming weekend. May 20, 2010 Lots of rumors from the first AHRA event (mostly bad) and the surprise cancellation of the second (first main event) at San Antonio. Weather concerns are sighted as the reason on the AHRA web site. And in truth, the weather has been absolutely crappy down there for a while. But the forecast for San Antonio since Monday has been promising, but they did decode to cancel the event. Their next race (scheduled ) is in Ohio thin two weeks. Here is a link to photos from their race (Sunday only) at Midland Texas. Local papers in the lower mainland of BC have the first preview for the Lucas Oil event at MRP next weekend. May 17, 2010 Eagle Motorplex weekend double header results. A great opening weekend at the 'Plex with great weather and over 100 cars. Brent Murray was out with his new Damn Yankee FC and he went 6.5's. Kerry Stone went 6.90 in his PS Camaro and Gary Christopher on his pro mod bike ran a best ever 6.95. Sunday...
Blown Alky Series Winner John Evans 7.42 171.52 Runner up Neil Lachelt
6.99 171.52 Saturday...
Pro Winner Chris Stone 10.53 127.38 Runner up Mike Parkinson
11.44 115.45 In other news....... Not good news for the inaugural AHRA event as bad weather took its toll at the Nitro Showdown in Midland Texas. Looking for more info. The San Antonio event this coming weekend is reported to be threatened by bad weather as well. Hope not Also......
At Seattle this past weekend, Yvonne Lucas ripped off a career best
6.55/214 to win the UDRA (Seattle only Pro Street deal). She defeated
Joe Loch who went 6.95. Congrat's to Yvonne and Mike. Lastly.....
At Edmonton, A number of RMNFC guys were testing for their first
event of the year in four weeks at the Loafers event at Ashcroft.
Pictures will be posted at their site. Go
here (Tuesday). Eddy Plaizier won their Super Eliminator event
on Saturday. Heard it was a 3k win... Awesome!!! He was runner-up
Sunday. A bad crash in that class as well as Paul Glandon hit the
wall and flipped his new Top Sportsman Cobalt after one of the chutes
got hooked under the wheelie bars. Here
is a link to the photos. May 16th.... 7:00pm update Just heard from DS competitor Ken Kruger about the race up at Fort St. John. They run a few events every year and this weekend was race #1. Darryn O'connor was in two final rounds (double header) and won one, lost one. His competitor Steven Fedderly was up against Darryn in both finals. Obviously he also was 1&1. Doorslammers racer from race #1 Graham Foster crashed hard on the top end at St. John, he was not seriously injured but the car was badly damaged. Mike Lucas victim of the fire three weeks ago on the way home after his win, took an old beater Ford Pick-up used in mud bogs and won in the no box class. Good on ya Mike! Winners at the Atlanta NHRA event were: Robert Hight in Funny Car, Larry Dixon in Top Fuel, Jeg Coughlin in PS and Andrew Hines in PSM. Pro Mod winner was European competitor Michael Gullqvist who was subbing for team owner Roger Burgess who was away due to the death of his father. Sportsman winners were: Vinnie Barone (Comp), Todd Ewing (Super Stock), Jeff Barker (Top Sportsman), Ray Miller (Super Comp) and Anthony Fetch (Stock). At Fontana , the Pacific SPORTS Nationals saw Tony Jardino (TD), Alan Ellis (Comp), Kevin Kleinweber (TS), Andrew Madrid (Super Comp), Ryan McClanahan (Super Stock), John Schloe (Stock), Nik Downing (Super Street), Dana Keniry (Super Gas) and Aaron Pine (Sportsman Motorcycle) all take home National accredited Wallys. Hope to have Ashcroft winners posted. May 16, 2010 For all the local race teams, word is West Coast Polaris dealer Bill Bourdon will have VP Fuel available by June 7th, contact Bill for more info. May 15, 2010 A quick note to say "get well soon" to Eagle Announcer Joe Weber who had heart surgery a couple weeks back. see ya at the track soon Joe. May 14, 2010 Atlanta Full Throttle event is up in the NHRA this weekend. Locally, the Eagle Motorplex opens its season this weekend, a double header. The Canadian Long Weekend (May 22-24) Victoria Day there is a triple header there. Busy busy, busy. At MRP, Road Racing, Karts and Bikes will be in action for the next two weekends. Then it is the "Lordco BC Nationals Lucas Oil event" with Top Alky, Comp, Top Sportsman, Top Dragster and all the sportsman classes. A big Buck Bracket race as SIR (Saskachewan International Raceway) in August. Go here for the details May 9, 2010 A couple gallerys from Mission Raceway. (Gallery 1) Bill Jeffery Photos. (Gallery 2) Dean Murdoch photos. The Canada West Doorslammer web site is updated. Mission Raceway partial final round results. May 6, 2010 One of the finest Canadian photogs around spent the weekend at Boise's LODRS last weekend. Here are Blair Aldertons photos. Locally, MRP has race three including a bracket double and the CW Doorslammers. Click here to see the new Eagle Motorplex schedule poster ....... here for the Langley Loafers poster May 3, 2010 A big congrat's to Jay Syversten, who ran a career best 6.37/232 in round one of Pro Street at Vegas. He went to the semi finals (way to go big guy), where he lost to his ex tuner, John Scialpi. Scialpi went on to win the event. Kurtis Tamez went to the final in Outlaw 10.5 where he lost to Rick Snavely. Congrat's to Mark and Jake Sanders and the 'Mr. Explosive' Funny Car team, as they win back to back weekends. It was Sacramento last week at "Funny Car Fever", this week it was "Drag Fest" at Bakersfield. Way to go team!! Paul Grant has a few pics posted here from MRPs race last week. The Canada West Doorslammers first event results are posted here, including race #1 points. At St. Louis, the NHRA's top guns included Warren Johnson in Pro Stock (first win in four years), Robert Hight in Funny Car, Tony Schumacher in Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle winner was Michael Phillips. The Sunday Boat Drags from Phoenix gallery is here. May 1, 2010 Mark King is at Phoenix for the opening Drag Boat race of the year. Lucas Oil is the new series owner, as all drag boats assoc are under their umbrella, and under the same set of rules. Here is a link to photos from Saturday Starting this evening......... we have a belated photo blog from Pomona's 50th Anniversary race. It took some time from photog Bill Jeffery, as he had a over 2000 shots to go through. Well worth a look. There are nostalgia cars (a very cool corral), the Pros, Top Alky, and Sportsman as well. It will be updated throughout the evening so check back a few times. The Shawn Cowie Vegas Blog is posted.
Remember this little girl (Mariah Conway), she could be THE next JR. hitter (and a rookie as well) along the lines of Mike Peck JR. She is undefeated this year already, and I know this is bold, but could go the whole year that way. If she loses, it likely will be because her crew chief screws up her tune up. Better not Stefan! 6:00 pm update... Marshall does infact reset the record in Comp's B/AA class. His back up and final qualifier is a 7.185 (good enough to back up his earlier 7.171 for the new record). Congrat's to Bob and the TCS team. He wound up #2 in the field. Rob Harrision another BC boy, is #1 with a 7.808 in J/A. Bob Marshall set the B/AA record this morning at Boise. He needs a back up run now within 1%. He went 7.171/190 (Factored it equals a 6.99/194). Steve Halloway went 6.98/198 at the Houston National event, but records can not be set at national event. April 30, 2010 Looks like Drag Racing will see THE first real rule change to slow down the Nitro teams in the NHRA. The NHRA will have a couple teams test Spec Fuel pumps that are between 50-65 gallons. That is about have of what the teams are currently running right now. With testing over the next couple months, they say the rule will come into effect for 2011. With this return the teams back to 100% nitro and 1320 racing. SpeedZone hope so. The Full Throttle series is in St.Louis this weekend, and a couple teams will test the new fuel pump on Monday. The first Div 6 Lucas Oil event is this weekend at Boise. No Alky cars again, as the Nostalgia Top Fuel class is the feature. A number of lower mainland teams are competing including Rob Harrision, Bob Marshall, Jim Isherwood, Jim Mantle and John Buczynski. Likely a few Super Class cars as well.
April 26, 2010 A correction on the Super Combo winner at MRP yesterday. It was Larry Miner, He defeated Glen Iggulden, Sorry about that. Also real bad news as the CWDS winner Mike Lucas was on his way home to Prince George (or Dawson Creek (not sure which), and going through 100 Mile, his trailer caught on fire and unfortunately, they could not get the fire out, and it, as well as all contents were destroyed. What a bad deal. Really sorry to hear this Mike. Hopefully you were fully insured. April 25, 2010 Cool deal at Sacramento at Funny Car fever as THE Mr. Explosive Nitro Funny Car, driven by Mark Sanders and tuned by Jake the "Snake Sanders" get their first big FC win. Congrat's guys. At Mission Raceway, Mike Lucas won the Canada West Doorslammer event. Jim Isherwood won SS/ST combo, John Budzinski won Pro Kevin Brennan won Bike, Jon Riedel won Super Pro, MRP announcer won Sportsman, Taylor Vogel won JR Lightning, Mariah Conway won JR Thunder, Gerald Patzer won S. Compact, Jerry Byfield won Hot Rod, Tom Brown won Super Combo and John DePourq won Super Shifter.
April 24, 2010 10:00pm update... The Fire and nitro show at the BC Custon Car show was very exciting with a big crowd on hand. Will post a bunch of photos Sunday. Here are a couple. a total of seven nitro FED's, Altereds and Floppers. 2 Jet Dragsters and one Jet Funny Car.
8:00 pm update.... The fatality at the ADRL event was caused by a nitrous bottle explosion...no word on if it happenedwhile it was being heated up by according my eye witness, the bottle flew well over a hundred feet in the air and landed on the circle track adjacent to the pits.
April 24, 2010 Rain is continuous at MRP canceling the days events. Sunday looks more promising. On a very sad note, Mike Walker ,co-owner of Blake Housley's Pro Nitrous ADRL team died in a tragic pit incident at the ADRL event in Valdosta Georgia. No definite info on what happened, but on a unrelated matter, three cars crashed at the ADRL event on Friday during qualifying. The record books were shattered in 1/8 mile racing there as well, as TAFC guru Frank Manzo tuned the Sheikh Khalid Al-Thani to an astounding 3.67/212 mph lap in qualifying. (Of note, Tim and Kim Richards are on the crew for the Al-Thani racing juggernaut Three Lucas Oil Divisional events are on this weekend in the NHRA, Div 3, Div 4 and Div 5 are up this weekend, in Indy, Dallas (Ennis) and Great Bend. April 24, 2010
Unfortunately rain kept the "Big O Tire Burnout" contest at MRP with Brett Wagner as the judge from happening Friday night but, the car show in Abbotsford was the next best place to be. One of the best hi end displays I have seen as a show in BC since the old days at the PNE show buildings. Rain also kept the nitro and jet fire up form taking place, so the plan is to have two shows today, one at 2:00pm and one at 8:00pm. Check it out. A great show for sure. Here are photos from the show Friday night.
Rain looks like it will play a role at Mission again this today, as the CWDS are supposed to be out for their first of 10 races of the year. Hopefully we still get some racing in. Sunday looks a bit more promising. April 22, 2010 Another NW racing legend has passed away. Kenny Goodall, died after suffering a massive Heart attack last week. Go here to read about Kenny's racing career. His last car is the one owned and driven by Chris Eggen (Mr. Buffy's Toy) April 21, 2010 A very nice Paul Grant March meet photo gallery is posted. April 19, 2010 Harley Drags from Phoenix final results and photos are posted. A Sunday Nitro Harley gallery is posted. Vegas wrap ups are posted. April 18, 2010 ... Afternoon update
Sunday eliminations Larry Dixon, John Force and Mike Edwards win in Las Vegas. Local hitter Shawn Cowie took out three of the best BAD drivers there are, to win TAD. He took out Whiteley in round two, Demke in round three and Joey Severance in the final. Jay Payne (the guy who said earlier this year that TAFC was a dying class) took TAFC honors over Sean O'Bannon. Division 6 had four finalists in the other Sportsman classes at Vegas as well. The Ferd, Mike Ferderer won Super Gas, Dick Vander Meer won Super Comp, Brad Plourd was defeated by Div 7 hitter Justin Lamb in Super Stock and Mick Alley lost in Stock to Larry Gilley. Two Division 6 teams won special awards at Vegas as well. The Ken Gilmour/Ashley Bart team won best appearing crew and John Dalrymple won best appearing car. Congrat's to both teams. April 18, 2010 A photo gallery from the AHDRA (Harley Drags) event at Firebird is posted. Great performances three Canadian based TAD teams at Vegas. Dale Carlson (owner Hugh Ridley) and Shawn Cowie in round one of TAD at Vegas. Carlson went second low for the weekend, a great 5.39 and a win over Mike Austin. He takes on #1 qualifier Chris Demke. Carlson does get lane choice. Cowie went 5.40 and will race his rival Jim Whiteley in round two. Cowie has lane choice. The third Canuck, Ashley Bart, qualified as the best Canadian (5.44) also won round one. She unfortunately get the task of facing the quickest car in round one, Joey Severance (yes another Div 6 car). Severance went 5.37 in his first round win. In TAFC, Brian Hough went out in round one, but Clint Thompson, the #2 qualifier, went low in round one and is one of the favorites for the weekend. Thomspon will be debuting a new Nostalgia Funny Car (below) later this season. Hopefully he will be one of competitors at the National Open at MRP in July.
April 17, 2010 Vegas Summit Nat's are here. AHDRA Phoenix results are here. (photos Sunday) April, 15, 2010
MRP gets a bunch of PR as Pass Time's Brett Wagner makes a return visit to MRP. He will be there to judge the Friday Night Burnout contest April 23rd.. He also will be in attendance at the Tradex for the BC Custom Car Show that weekend. Here is a link to the car show. Unfortunately the noise restrictions keeps Pass Time from appearing at MRP. The show is usually taped late in the evening. This weekend, the first of 2 Las Vegas Nationals events is up as well the AHDRA in Phoenix. The ADRL is on in Valdosta as well. It will be a busy weekend next weekend (April 23-25) locally, as the afore mentioned Car show and an early big race at MRP. The Canada West Doorslammers are on the schedule, and after last years huge season with close to 40 members, the series Prez expects this year to be the biggest ever.
April 13, 2010 Mission Raceway Sunday results and photos are posted. (Updated). Left out the Jr Thunder, sorry Mariah and Bryce. Final rounds results from Houston are posted. April 10, 2010 Houston NHRA Spring Nationals are up this weekend. Results are here. Mission Raceway opens its season this weekend. The first Summit bracket race of the year. It should prove to be a huge bracket year at MRP as it is hosting the ET Finals, and there is only one other track from the two left coast provinces that is an NHRA track (Med Hat). Many bracket competitors will be out in force as they want to bew part of the home team. THe Eagle Motorplex is having their annual work bee this weekend as well.
April 7, 2010 A little different topic but one that shows unity in drag racing will likely make a change. It confirms the statement from PRO that the competitors did not like (a vote of 60-3) the 4-wide Nationals. If the Nostalgia Funny Car group were unified, issues like the Twig Zeigler dis-satisfaction would not be an issue. Here is the official letter with the results of all the members in the vote.
April 6, 2010 In the interest of fair reporting, here is the response that Twig Zeigler got from Blake Bowser, regarding the March Meet "I would like to address what you call a scam.
For the record, you and I never spoke on the phone. You spoke to my secretary Elania.
Also, for the record when you sent your entry in the first time you sent it in blank. Your exact words on the phone to our secretary were "you don't race for free". Based on those words, I figured you weren't going to show. But you did show and nobody forced you. We didn't treat you any differently than anyone else. Everyone pays to race at the March Meet. Total purse for Nitro classes is 73,000 dollars. $31,500 for Top Fuel and this year Funny Car was $41,500. The purse needs to be, and is supplemented by racer entry. The purse for Top Fuel has been the same since we, my dad and I, raised it 25% in 2007. This was the first March Meet we did in house. Funny Car has been going up every year. It has gone from and 8 car field to and 8 car A and B field to this year's 32 car field. We have continually spent more money on Funny Car over the last Four years.
You are incorrect about the class size. I announced the 32 cars in January. I did an interview on DRO, it was on all of the Funny Car Billboards and we sent out Press Release announcing the 32 field.
What wasn't announced is how we were going to qualify and run the 32 field. The format was going to be based on entries. I had to make sure I had 32 cars before we qualified and ran 32 cars. Are you aware that every Funny Car on the property got paid? We could have just run a 16 car field and 16 Funny Cars would have received nothing. Your car would have received nothing, by the way. I felt running 32 cars was showing some respect to the cars that come and make the car count great and get nothing. Sure you didn't turn a proffit. This is supposed to be a hobby. I don't know of anyone making money by racing at Nostalgia races. The format chosen after talking to a lot of race teams and to save competitors money was to cut qualifying from 3 to 2 sessions and compete first round on Saturday. Weather didn't allow that so we had to run our first round on Sunday. Again, expenses were cut for all race teams by cutting out a qualifying session and every car on the property was paid something.
As for your check you were sent. Checks were made out the week after the event and mailed to those who had all of their paperwork filled out correctly. Yours, by the way, was not, that is why your check was held until we received proper paperwork. We need to make sure the check is made to the proper payee. Had you filled out all of your paperwork properly, you would have received your check much sooner. Just ask around we paid a lot of people much earlier than you becuase they had all of their paperwork filled out properly.
I am not in the business of scamming people. My Father and I have given everything we have to try to make Famoso a nice track to come to. We have a lot of racers that understand that and come becuase they trust us and understand we are good people. I am proud of the success we have had. I am sorry we won't see you at Bakersfield anymore".
Good luck at your "Car Shows", Blake Bowser Blake does address many of the issues regarding the March Meet and Twig's perception on the FC class. The purse in fact is a bit higher (10%) than my estimate, but the real issue that was not addressed and should be in the future. It's this, "Advertise the purse so teams can make informed decisions on whether or not to go. If they know in advance and decide to go, then they can not bitch if the purse is not what they feel it should be. That is a proactive step by promotoers IMHO.
April 5, 2010 I am adding this statement to my opinon of the Bakersfield March Meet and the payout. "The least track promotoers should do is advertise the purses for each class well in advance allowing the racers to make their decision. Then there is no fallback as to how low a purse is after the fact". "If teams know the purse in advance there is no excuses afterward. If the March Meet promoters would have advertised the purse, controversy could and would have been averted. If the excuse is they weren't sure due to pending sponsorship, post a minimum purse".
April 3, 2010 A note on the Environment Canada directive regarding leaded Fuel. The Ban did go in place as per protocol, but the Federal Government in Canada did put in an amendment to the ban which, because of the fact they weren't in parliament for three months never got pushed through. It is on the docket and I expect the five year exemption will be put through in the next few days. So all you leaded fuel racer have no fear, and don't worry.. Happy Easter weekend. The Shawn Cowie blog is updated from Tucson. A very entertaining blog Shawn. Photos are included. April 1, 2010 Interesting letter I recieved, this puts things in perspective with regards to the two huge nostalgia events hosted every year at Bakersfield.This letter was written to Blake Bowser operator of the Bakersfield track Blake Bowser:
If you do the math on this event, the money made by the Bowser's (promotoers/operaators) is big , and they are not giving enough back to the racers, IMO. Just because it is one of the two biggest nostalgia events of the year (the CHHR is the other) does not give the promoter the right to take advantage of the racer. The racers have to be more unified though if it is going to change. There were in excess of 25,000 spectators (including crew) at the March Meet and there were 500 race cars. Revenue before concessions, parking, souvenirs etc. was in excess of $750,000. The purse for the March meet was less than $150,000 for the 14 classes, with roughly $36,000 going to the Nitro Funny Cars for the 32 car field. Advertising and other mics. start up costs would have easliy been covered by the sponsors, and the die hard racers and fans know about this race, so extensive advertising is not necessary. There is something wrong with this picture. Without the calibre of cars that show up for the two nostalgia events at Bakersfield, the track would not make the revenue it is making. The fans are not going to show if the top classes have less than 10 cars. Bowsers and other track operators, give back to the racers will ya! All the competitors at the March Meet are working stiffs who work hard all year long to make sure their car is ready for an event of this size. They should be able to go to an event like that knowing they will get their share. Greed should not be part of the equation. Most importantly here, the racers themselves must be unified and talk as one. Because it is the March Meet or Hot Rod Reunion should not give the Famoso Raceway Operators or promoters license to take advantage of the racers, just because they know the racers want to race those events. T March 30, 2010 It's official....... EAGLE
MOTORPLEX RECEIVES AHRA SANCTION We are very pleased to add Eagle Motorplex to the AHRA family of sanctioned tracks,” said AHRA CEO Troy Moe. “The facility is a first-rate track, definitely a crown jewel of Canadian drag racing.” The facility is a part of the Thompson nation in Western Canada that extends from Cache Creek south to just north of Seattle and is situated on the site of the Ashcroft/Cache Creek Aero Club's former airstrip. Featuring a 300-foot concrete launch pad, the 60-foot-wide track is at 1700-feet above sea level. The final stop on the 2010 AHRA Reunion Tour is scheduled to be held at Eagle Motorplex August 14-15th. “We are looking forward to a long and mutually-beneficial relationship with Eagle Motorplex, their staff, and the fans and racers who call the Eagleplex their home track,” Moe said. It certainly is a risk to make this decision and the track executive thought long and hard before making the choice, but in order for the facility to move forward to look to increase it revenue, the risk had to be made. There were no programs put forth by the NHRA that had the potential to do what the AHRA is willing to try. The
big question is, will the AHRA be a better business partner with
the 'Plex than the NHRA has been in the last half decade.
Based on the decisions that the NHRA has made (negatively to the
Eagle Motorplex recently), it won't take much to be an improvement. March 28, 2010 Tucson Final eliminations are posted with final round photos as well. A final Tucson gallery is posted. XMax gallery is here Tucson gallery is here click on the logo to go to SpeedZone coverage
The 4-Wide$ (sic) are in a 20 hour rain delay. Sunday got 2/3rds done when the rains came just prior to the semi finals of Pro Stock. Eliminations will be completed on Monday. Many notable observations on race day and if the drivers and riders were all not so PC, I am sure you would get earfuls from a number of competitors. One thing is sure, final results for a couple of the classes are not the expected four. Maybe that is good for the sport. Seven of the 16 motorcycle riders had horrific lights in round one (one left before the tree was activated) and four of the sixteen Pro Stock drivers also were uncharacteristically tardy (also with one having staging issues. Two of the best leavers in Top Fuel were tardy in the semis, leaving them to analyze 4-wide dragracing. Funny car the most difficult class to stage and leave on green actually had the best results and performances. That being said John Force, Ashley Force, Ron Capps and Matt Hagan are in the finals. In Top Fuel, Doug Kalitta, Doug Herbert, Antron Brown and Cory Mac are in the final round. This one regardless of the final results will be debated for a long, long time. And word is this weekend, Las Vegas will also be built to four lane standards, possibly in time for the 2011 season. Results are here. At Mopars at the Strip, Charlie Westcott Jr took the win over Mark Vieira. Westcott was the quickest all weeekend long, and Daniels was around .05 back. THis year will be interesting. Westcott had one run in the 8.40's and a bunch in the 50's, Daniels was in the 50's all weekend.
Two Division six Top Sportsman drivers were in Concorde to battle. Both Todd Hoerner (SpeedZone Blogger) and Craig Olson went out in round one. Red lights did them in. At Tucson, Shawn Cowie got a break in the semi finals in TAD against Chris Demke, and he is off to the finals against rival Jim Whiteley. Doug Gordon and Sean O'Bannon will face off in TAFC. Dale Carlson was on a decent lap for the first 330, but he had mechanical woes and Mark Niver advanced in round one. Only Mike Henderson is left from the sportsman ranks in the later rounds from Division 6. He is in the finals in Top Dragster. Results are here March 27, 2010 Big news from SFI, as Impact (Bill Simpson's company) Racing has been de-certified by the Foundation. According to SFI, Impact has been attaching counerfiet labels on their safety gear for two years. All Impact products have to be replaced by the end of April. Go to SFI's web site for more info on what you can do if your gear is made by Impact. What a sad path that Simpson has gone down. March 26, 2010 Quite a bit of action this weekend down south as the historic Inaugural 4-Wide Nationals is underway in Concorde NC at X-Max Dragway. Cory Mac and Robert Hight lead qualifying in their respective Nitro classes. Mac went 4.79 and Hight went 4.03/315 close to national records. And all four lanes seem to be pretty good, as all four had pretty good times. At Tucson, the NHRA is trying to complete their first Div 7 Lucas Oil event. Two Division six TAD drivers are their including Shawn Cowie and Dale Carlson. At Vegas, the Mopars at the Strip event in underway, with the first Hemi Shootout of the year. East Coast and of course West Coast teams are in attendance. We will have results and photos from all three events throughout the weekend. March 21, 2010 Shawn Cowie blog is updated The final Gatornationals gallery is posted. Two Gatornationals gallerys are posted. First one is here (Saturday), second is here (Sunday). The Dallas ADRL season opener was rained out on Saturday, and will be re-scheduled and run a second race the same weekend in July. In PX Extreme Josh Hernandez ripped off a stellar 3.68/208 lap. Alex Hossler went 3.79 212mph, Wow!!!! In PX Nitrous, The top four were B. Auxier, S. Jenkins P. Stoken and J. Halsey all in the 3.8 zone. Went down to the local track this past weekend (they race in 3 weeks). Doing lots of work to the comp pit area, getting all the staff trailers moved into an organized row, which will open up a bunch more space. Looks good. Lots of announcements from the 'Plex as well, and they will be here first for all to see by the end of next week. Believe me their deal will be worth checking out in 2010. March 17, 2010 A bit of a delay in the final Gainesville Gators report. Hope to have it posted Thursday. Also a couple big local announcements coming soon.
Teams are already feeling the pressure as the Bernstein Top Fuel team has changed their crew chief just three races into the season. Gone is Canadian Rob Flynn and assistant Mike Guger. He was replaced by Todd Smith. Will Smith have the success that John Medlen had in his first race co-tuning the Matt Hagan Flopper. March 15, 2010 Final full coverage and a bunch of great photos from Gainesville will be posted Tuesday. March 14, 2010 SpeedZone is proud to announce the newest team racing web site in the North West.
Sekura Bros. Racing Web site. Corey and Ron Sekura out of Drayton Valley Alberta, are the Kings of the Show. Huge burnouts, and huge team and a lot of fun. Click on their logo above. 7:45pm update....very quick turnaround fors the Sportsman eliminations after the Pros, as the Sportsman classes are complete, wow!!! Arnie Martel defeated Glen Treadwell in Comp. Sal Biondo defeated Chuck Gallagher in Super Stock, Joe Santangelo took out Wes Neely in Stock. Steve Furr defeated Trevor Wiggins in Super Comp and Jerry Heffelfinger defeated Mike Ruff in Super Gas. Full results are here. 4:30 update.....The Gators are complete.... for the Pros. The weather played a huge role in this weekend's Gatornationals in Gainesville. Thursday complete wash out, and Friday a partial wet day did not allow the sportsman drivers to hit the track until Sunday Morning. They got in a qualifier, and then after the Pros (TF,FC, PS, PSM, TAD, TAFC, PM and Comp) completed their day, Super Gas through Super Stock started elims. The Pros saw Tony Schumacher take the win in Top Fuel. Team Schumacher was very dominant, having two or their three cars in the finals. Funny Car was won by Tim Wilkerson. He defeated Bob Tasca Jr. Mike Edwards DID NOT win Pro Stock. He was in the final round, But a holeshot by Jason Line got him the win. TAD was won by Duane Shields over a broken Darren Nicholson. Frank Manzo won the quickest and faster side by side TAFC race in history with a 5.47/265. He defeated Micky Ferro who went 5.49/262. Winnipeg's Kenny Lang won Pro Mod over Swedish driver Michael Gullqvist. Gullqvist was way early on the tree. Full report Monday, including an Antron Brown statement on the tragic crash three weeks ago. A second March Meet gallery is posted. March 13, 2010 Gainesville Gators are complete as far as qualifying goes....except for the sportsman classes. They have yet to run and will get a time trial Sunday morning and then likely get one or two rounds of eliminations Sunday at the end of the day. They rest of the elimnations will be completed Monday. All due to the bad weather Thursday. Plus the pits are a sloppy mess in the sportsman areas. The biggest news to hit this weekend though, was the announcement fom both the Force camp and the Schumacher camp, as long time Force Crew Chief John Medlen switches over to the dark side, teaming up with DSR to help tune the Matt Hagan car. Medlen was said to be dis-satisified with his lack of a tuning role with the now three car team. A Friday Gators gallery is here. March Meet results are here. Gallery is here (the usual Paul Grant outstanding photos) March 12, 2010 It looks like the SpeedZone communication issues are resolved, and SpeedZone should be online with faster more reliable service. After the three weeks worth of issues, Telus (thanks to Jamie Clerf, and Telus superviser Lydia) stepped up and has supplied us with their fastest internet service and adjusted SpeedZone's billing and other issues to our satisfaction. We even added Telus satellite HD TV service. A notice to all readers, clients and friends who have emailed me over the last 10 days, please resend me your emails, as all sent in the last 10 days were kicked back to your server.
The Gatornationals are up this weekend and SpeedZone has two photogs there to cover the event. We will have photo coverage starting Saturday morning. Full SpeedZone coverage is here The March Meet suffered from weather issues for the first time in five years, the race did get completed on the Monday and the car Garrett Nateman drove last year has Leah Pruett behind the wheel and she took it all over Gary Densham in the final. Paul Grant and Bob Snyder hsent us photos from the March Meet and we will post them over the weekend. March 1, 2010 So much for getting the internet sorted out email wise (will will be down for four or five days) anyway, as we get through this move. May be with a new provider, looking at options as Telus really dropped the ball on this one. February 28, 2010 What an ending to the Oympics, as Canada did what they had to do Sunday, to win the Gold Medal in Men's Hockey, in overtime talk about drama. The world as I see it can now relax. Canada sets the new benchmark for Gold Medal finishes with 14, the most ever for any nation at the Winter Olympics. While the US did rent the podium for the overall total, also a winter games record with 36 (congrat's BTW), Canada did improve by two, over their previous best. A bunch of projects to complete during my move so bare with us over the next week or so. February 27, 2010 Now have a new email account. dean@speedzonemagazine.com (have actually had it for awhile, but never had it synched up) Send me an email to test it out. Check if I configured it properly. Satuday Phoenix gallery is here (the last one from Phoenix you will see for a while)..... Why you ask? Check the short blurb below. A quick note to say that my email is down, and likely will be for the next week (unless I decide to get a hotmail or live account). I am moving to a new location and my email provider was supposed to transfer my account to my new digs next Tuesday, but the Telus service accounts dept. dropped the ball on this, as they did not relay the proper info to the correct dept. A major blow for a few days. This frustration reached new heights today, as I made sure TELUS knew how important my email account was. They did apologize profusely, and said they would try and get it back online by dinner time tonight, but there were no guarantees. Guess what, I still don't have it and it is 9:00 pm. Telus has likely lost my account, one I have had since 1996 for the Internet and since 1977 for telephone. They probably won't miss me, but I look back on my years with them, and a conservative total paid to the company including when I had my retail business in the 80's, cell phones since 1995, and everything else totals close to 6 figures, roughly 95,000 dollars give or take. Ouch!! Three major projects are on the go, and to be finished in the new week, will keep the updates to the minimum . The Phoenix debacle (IE national and divisional) reached new heights today as Mike Rice, Division 7 director was forced to cancel the rest of the event, not due to weather, but due to the continuing VHT issues. More close calls on track today and a lack of runs down the track as the two parties (NHRA and Phoenix staff) tried to source the ongoing track woes. After more frustrating issues scrubbing the surface and attempts to get bite, the call was made to end the suffering. The official word was the batch of VHT from the last two weeks was in some way a incorrect blend, and until they have the proper compound, the Division event will not run. Hopefully Tucson will not have the same issues or Bakersfield next week for the March Meet. A Friday phoenix gallery is here. On a more positive note, a new NW team web site was launched this week, check out Sekura Brothers racing. Two Nostalgia floppers from Drayon Valley Alberta. Feb 27, 2010 Phoenix Divisional is up this weekend.... and so far the issues continue at Charlie Allen's facility... (more here). February 24, 2010 Huge announcement for Spokane County Drag Strip. The new operators for Spokane Cpunty Motorsport Park are Ron Hodgson and the guy behind a bunch of race track controversy, Charlie Allen (operator of Firebird Raceway). While having Hodgupson in Spokane's corner is great, Charlie Allen is open to much banter. For years, Allen has been accused of being an operator who is in the sport for his own personal gain, and not really a guy at the forefront of innovation and facility improvement. Maybe with solid financial backing in his corner Spokane will continue to improve like it did last season. It is a 10 year lease. Cindy Gibbs, daughter of NHRA director Steve Gibbs will oversee the race track operation. THe decision is not what SpeedZone was expecting as I thought Jay Livingstone and his partners would be the ones to take over the track. February 24, 2010 Just 10 days away is the Eagle Motorplex Spring Fling. They need a head count for the caterer. Please contact any of the people below. Saturday, March 6, 2010, Aldergrove Legion, 26607 - Fraser Hwy Adults $35.00, 12 & Under $20.00 Cocktails 5:00 pm, Dinner 6:30 pm For
Tickets please contact Living
life a ¼ mile at a time! February 22, 2010 Weather for the final rounds of TF and FC at Phoenix look to be on hold again, as it is raining quite hard. Whether they get it done or not is hard to say. With all the issues (all bad) maybe they should cut their losses and run the finals at Gainesville. They already decided to run the rest of the Pro Stock eliminations at Gainesville. All the Sportsman classes will complete their eliminations starting Thursday or Friday at the Div 7 event next weekend at Firebird. Based on all the issues and taking away from the tragic death of the spectator, the facility needs a huge overhaul. Is Charlie Allen and the Gila River Indian Community going to move forward and make the improvements necessary to make the facility a viable option for the NHRA National event tour. NHRA has to make a stand, There are plenty of tracks that would like to host an event and are willing to make the commitment to do it. A Sunday gallery is posted February 21, 2010 6:00 pm update: It was confirmed that the spectator at Phoenix did die for the injuries she sustained when the tire struck her in round one of Top Fuel. Our heart felt condolences go out to her family. The question will now be raised and debated over and over again on how to make the sport safer. A very good question for sure, as everyone has their own opinions on this. It is a dangerous sport, but the spectators should not be the ones in danger. It is an inherent risk to walk around in the pits at any time, with the close proximity of both race cars and fans within inches of each other. Below is a couple pictures from one of SpeedZone reporters at the race taken from the tower. Note the tire up in the air just after it came off the car.
Again condolences to the family. 12:40 update: A major tragedy at Phoenix in round one of Top Fuel. Antron Brown was up against Troy Buff and Antron was loose after severe tire shake, the shake got so bad a rear wheel came off the car, it careened off the track and into the pit area where it hit a spectator (or crew member in one of the Nostalgia Funny Car pits, know which pit area but will not release that info). The female in the pits was seriously injured and was life-lined to hospital. The word is she succumbed to her injuries . More info when we hear.
10:00am update: Rain is the order of the day at Phoenix. Will update when the event gets underway. A Saturday gallery is here. February 20, 2010 Saturday Phoenix update The second Pro Stock crash of the weekend happened today in a rain delayed Saturday, that reduced the qualifying to one shot today. Veteran Vinnie Deceglie, in about the same spot as Rivera yesterday, got loose and put his Mopar in its lid. Vinnie was okay, but again another race car seriously damaged, in an area of the track (900-1100 feet), that many drivers say has a pronounced bump in the left lane. Looks Like Charlie Allen has some work to do in the off season. At the top is Mike Edwards, for an unbelievable 11th time in a row. Ron Krisher and Rodger Brogdon are #2 and #3. Deceglie crash sequence is here. (Mark King photos) Team Force went to #1 for the second weekend in a row, this time is was the 'boss', as he laid down a 4.06 in the final qualifier. Hagan is #2 (4.068) and Worsham is #3 with a 4.084. In Top Fuel, Tony Schumacher is at the top with a final lap et of a 3.818/317. Doug Kalitta's Friday lap of 3.825 was enough for the #2 spot. And Larry Dixon is #3. Hopefully weather is favorable on Sunday. Saturday results are posted. Phoenix round two qualifying gallery is posted February 19, 2010
A second Friday gallery is posted. A large Friday gallery is posted. The Phoenix NHRA Full Throttle event is up this weekend, the first time in a long time the first two races are back to back. An eventful day one, as Gordie Rivera crashed his Pro Stock GPX. The car wounded up on its lid, and slid for over a 1000 feet upside down. Rivera was not injured in the crash. Mike Edwards lead qualifying in Pro Stock. Click on the photo for a sequence of the crash.
The Fuel ranks were not without their own issues as well, as the NHRA impounded a few teams Superchargers, keying on the Alan Johnson TF team. Apparently the AJPE Supercharger does not have proper NHRA approval, which is necessary for use. Dixon had one on his car last weekend, and there is no word yet if any penalties will be implemented. This weekend, he was still one of the quicker cars, sitting #3 after two runs. Doug Kalitta leads. Matt Hagan is out front in Funny Car, with JF right behind. All the results are here. February 18, 2010 The decision of which operator will take over at Spokane is down to two proposals. An Alberta Ron Hodgson backed group and one headed by Jay Livingstone are the two favored proposals. Two others submitted bids (one a group of Spokane advocates and the other from Arizona), but the two bidding groups above will likely be where the choice comes from. Also of note, the announcement that Jay Livingstone and Joey Severance will be the new owner/operators of Woodburn as Jay's father Jim, is looking toward full retirement. Hopefully the two other Division six events will be named soon. Feb 16, 2010 The final report with photos from Pomona is posted. Feb 15, 2010 The Sunday story from Pomona is now posted. Photos will be added Tuesday morning. Check out the new web site for BC's premier Race Car builder RH Race Cars. Feb. 14, 2010 What a day at Pomona. "Ole Man" Force showed all the young-uns that he still has some gas in the tank, as he takes out a bunch of younger drivers on his way to his first ever win at 1000 feet. Larry Dixon gets the win in Top Fuel over a resurgent Doug Kalitta and Mike Edwards continued where he left off last year with a win over Greg Anderson. In Top Alcohol Chris Demke got his long a waiting first win in TAD. He took out Joey Severance. Sean O'Bannon defeated Doug Gordon in TAFC. Full results here. Photos on Monday. A Saturday gallery is here (highlighting the Nostalgia Funny Cars and caklefest cars). At Daytona Jamie McMurray gets his biggest win of his career. Holds off Jr. Happy Valentine's day from SpeedZone. Lots on today including the finals of the Winternationals (SpeedZone coverage) NHRA coverage is here, and that other motorsport event... Daytona The Winter olympics has a half dozen medal events today but the weather is the craps. Click the links above for the results. Feb. 13, 2010 6:00 pm update...... In a very close race Shawn Cowie just edges out good buddy Dale Carlson in round one. 5.35 to 5.38, A .012 holeshot by Carlson was not quite enough to get to the stripe first. I had a chance to talk to car owner Hugh Ridley just after the race and he had this ti say (a bit tongue in cheek) "I didn't travel all the way to Pomona to take on local rival Cowie in round one", was a close race, but we have to get by Shawn one of these times, I'm tired of that damn team beating us". Ashley Bart had problems against Demke , and failed to advance. Brian Hough advanced and Clint Thompson broke. In Comp it was the class of crashes this weekend. Beside Ron Weems Thursday, Tyler Hogan crashed his C/D in round two. He crashed last year at Phoenix as well. Gary Ross bounced his car off the wall. He too is running a engine combo like Terry Spargo. Adam Bowdish also hit the wall in his Trans Am H/SM in a round two victory.
Feb 13, 2010 Friday results from Pomona are here. In the Sportsman classes, 6 second performaer Ron Weems in his A/AA crashed big time Thursday night on the top end. Weems is running a similar bullet to local Terry Spargo and that was the only salvagable part of the Pontiac left. In TAFC Both Hough and Thompson are in the field. Hough is the top half (3#6) and Thompson is #10. Unfortunately for the local TAD teams, Dale Carlson and Shawn Cowie have to face each other in round one as they sit #8 and 9 respectively. Ashley Bart is #12 and takes on Chris Demke. Full results and photos are here. Feb 12, 2010 2:00 pm update: Shawn Cowie got his new car issues sorted out in Friday's 1st qualifier with a 5.40. That run put him in the top six. Courtney Force is #1 after round two with a 5.306. Dale Carlson laid down a solid 5.39 to move the Chilliwack BC team owned by Hugh Ridley into the top five.
Day two of the NHRA 50th WInternationals at Pomona. Weather looks great. Go to the results page for the complete Thursday recap and photos.
Feb. 11, 2010 2:30 pm update....Qualifiying for the TA classes is done for Thursday and Shawn Cowie had a starting line issues. He could not get the car into reverse, and then when the team got the car pushed back to the starting line it would not go into forward gear, so they shut the car off. Ashley Bart went 5.53, Dale Carlson slowed to a 5.70 and Joey Severance went 5.73 not what any of those drivers were hoping for. Whiteley went 5.31 to sit #1. Brian Hough is the quickest div 6 driver and is #4 with a 5.65. A 5.73 from Clint Thompson. Pro Stock is up next. February 10, 2010 On the way south in the trusty Alaska Airlines 737 I had a chance to think about the significance of this year's biggest NHRA event the 50th Winternationals. Thirty eight years ago, I was 14 years old growing up on a.........(more)
Click the logo above for SpeedZone coverage: Speedzone is ready as well for the 50th NHRA Winternationals. Talked to SpeedZone correspondent Bill Jeffery a couple hours ago, and he said the weather is fantastic in Pomona, sunny, fairly cool with lots of snow on the hills surrounding the fabled race track. He took a few shots while securing his media credentials, and we hope to have a few up late this evening or tomorrow morning.
Shawn Cowie and the Mundies Towing new TAD. Shawn's blog is updated, and the team is ready for Pomona.
February 9, 2010 We have Bill's photo blog updated with all the links from his favorite shots of 2009
February 8, 2010 In all fairness to reporting, it was pointed out to me by ex Division 6 Director (current Div 7 director) Mike Rice today that the National Open Series was a Sportsman program with points that encompassed three Western Canadian tracks (along with Bremerton), Mission, the Eagle Motorplex and Medicine Hat. The new AHRA program is not the first one to organize a Sportsman series for Canada. A very good talk with Mike Rice on the phone, regarding all things drag racing, obviously the AHRA was in the discussion as well. Many wish he was still in charge up here, and if that was the case there may not be the current situation we see now. His wife Beth and the three girls are all doing fine. From the talk, I do hear Mike still having a fondness for the great North West. February 7, 2010 A cool for sale car in Calgary, 7 seconds @ over 170. Check it out. In front of the computer all day long. Super Bowl Sunday. Indy has always been my favorite team since the day of Johnny United, but I do like the New Orleans story. So as long as it is as good a game as most in the playoffs this year it will be okay whoever wins. 2010 drag racing calendars are now on sale....huge price drop. Go here for the details. February 6, 2010 A few comments in regarding the major announcement by the Eagle Motorplex, and all are positive. If the interior track needs this type of drastic change to have the success they desire then I say good on them. You know the NHRA is not going to give them a bone (ie a Divisional event), if this becomes a success then it opens up drag racing much more than the current status quo. While Mission's major events have been in large very good and quite successful, having three or four distinctly different feature classes at one event has major potential. The "Pro Stock" best of 2009 gallery is posted. Three more galleries to come over the next two days.
February 5, 2010 It's official.....and it's huge news!!!! The American Hot Rod Association is extremely pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached to utilize the Eagle Motorplex facility to host an AHRA Reunion Tour event in Western Canada on August 14-15. Eagle Motorplex is a ¼ mile dragstrip that is located in Ashcroft, British Columbia and has been in operation for 23 years. “ We’re very excited to have the opportunity to include Eagle Motorplex in the Tour for 2010. With major improvements being completed at the facility at this time, it has become an attractive opportunity for us to capture this market and bring Nitro Fuel cars to the area. The track is adding 6000 seats as well as resurfacing the dragstrip,” stated Troy Moe AHRA CEO. “On behalf of our racers and spectators, we are honored to have our track chosen to host one of the most exciting races in British Columbia for years. The Reunion Tour Event featuring the nitro funny cars has the making to be one of the best events ever to be held at Eagle,” stated Joe Sye Track Manager. My early misgivings about the AHRA are perhaps put to rest with this announcement. The big question is how will the NHRA react to this announcement. At this point the talk of the cars that will be at this event include, all the sportsman classes, as well as Jet Cars, Pro Mods, Possibly Top Alcohol Dragster and Nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars. Maybe even Nitro Harleys. Whatever the decision is on the Pro Cars this WILL be THE biggest event to ever hit the Eagle Motorplex. The divisionals back in the 80's and Early 90's were very good, but this has the potential to blown them out of the water. Make plans to be there!!!!!! They also have plans to host two or three other AHRA events, one in July, the August race and one in September, called Sportsman Nationals essentially National Open type events. Here is that info: AHRA is pleased to announce the first ever organized Sportsmen series in Canada by a sanctioning body. This six race series will be held on an alternate basis between Eagle Motorplex , located in Ashcroft BC and Race City located in Calgary, Alberta. This will be a designated national point series with a “Big Buck” Sportsmen payout, at each race. The following dates will be run at Eagle Motorplex, Ashcroft BC, July 10-11, August 14-15 and September 25-26. The remaining three races will be held at Race City, Calgary, Alberta on June 19-20, August 28-29 and September 11-12.
The other big news comes from Mission and that is there will be a Scotty Richsrdson Drag Racing School September 16, 17th (Thursday evening, Friday) at MRP. THursday will be a theory classroom session around 304 hrs. and Friday will be hitting the track hard and heavy. Go here for the details and the info to book your spot. First come first serve. February 4, 2010 TAD, TAFC, TF and FC 2009 ."best of". galleries are posted. (Captions will be added to the individual car galleries over the next couple days). February 3, 2010 Click on the links below to see the various galleries. Check back over the next couple days as we add more. There are a total of 16 galleries when we are complete. Just before the opening NHRA National event coming up in 10 Days SpeedZone Magazine brings you a some of the best shots of 2009 courtesy SpeedZone Magazine Photographers Bill Jeffery, Paul Grant, Robert Hunter, David Smith Mark King and even a few of my own. Here is the first batch (the next week we will have 10-15 different gallerys preceeding the 50th Winternationals). Doorslammer, Nostalgia, Pro Mod, Stock/Super Stock, and Dragsters February 1, 2010 A weekend IHRA gallery from Palm Beach is posted. January 31, 2010 Race one in the new IHRA is complete, and first impressions are telling......The crowd was ..........(more) Pit notes from a number of the teams as SpeedZone correspondant Pat Welsh had a chance to talk to the drivers and teams, very insighful. January 30, 2010 Day one is complete at Palm Beach for the IHRA's Nitro Jam. Results and photos are here. January 29, 2010 The IHRA opens its season this weekend at Palm Beach Florida. SpeedZone is there to report on the new IHRA version of what drag racing should be, how it will work and how the spectators will respond. The final days of pre-season testing in the NHRA is get underway at Las Vegas this weekend. Pro Stocks will be there, and likely a few pro teams. Testing there will likely go on for the next 12 days right up to the Tuesday before the 50th Winternationals which get underway Feb 11th.
January 28, 2009 A major sad announcement as far as SpeedZone goes, as very good friends Ray and Jan Bobrowski, owners of RJ Enterprises have decided to retire from the the Fuel business. "It's time, said Jan on the phone today, it was just too time consuming. We want to enjoy the races as well, and it is tough to do when we are working at the track during every race weekend. At this time there is no replacement at the track, and we will service our customers until a replacement is found, or until our home is sold in Coquitlam. The warehouse we were in is not available anymore and the cost of leasing a new one is too expensive. Until the track or another business takes over the deal, Ray and Jan will sell fuel bulk, so if you want to pre order by the barrel (50 gallon), or in the five gallon drums, contact them at 604 936 1946. We will have more information as we hear it, from both Mission and Ray and Jan. January 26, 2010 A report sent to me a few days ago had incorrect information about the death of a racer at Palm Beach. 18 year old Casey Bicknell did NOT die from his injuries at Palm Beach Drag Strip, he is still is serious condition. It was another driver, Jerry Baxter who died from a crash there. I apologise to Casey and his family, and my condolences to Jerry's family. Either way a very tough couple weeks at Palm Beach. On a more positive note, the IHRA is going to be there (PBIR) this weekend for their opening Nitro Jam race of 2010. Top Fuel, the new A/Fuel (Pro Fuel moniker), Pro Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car, and other exhibition classes will be showcased. SpeedZone has a photographer there. January 25, 2010
Mark King photos. Most of the teams were still out Monday, as the Force trio were flat out fast, numbers that were sea level like. The results are here.
A Monday Firebird gallery is here. The second Firebird Napa Time Trials Sunday gallery is posted. The newest Funny Car assoc and web site are now live. The Rocky Mountain Nostalgia Funny Car assoc. is up and running.
Western Canada has a new group of racers called ......................(more) January 24, 2010........... 8:30pm update
The 'Bird' was heating up Sunday, Go here for two great sequences from Firebird. Best numbers from Sunday are posted as well. A 100 picture Sunday gallery is here. January 24, 2010.............. Noon update A very cool poll is up at NHRA.com. Pick your top 10 Rivalries, Drivers, Crew chiefs, Sportsman drivers and a few other topics. Go here to send in your picks. Sad news out of Florida at Palm Beach dragstrip. A young driver died of his injuries after his Corvette crashed January 6. Casey Bicknell died two weeks after his car left the end of track. Condolences to his family. An update to the weather in the Arizona state from the last few days.The race track was not the only motorsport facility affected by the crazy weather. The wind affected one of the large collector car auctions in the area and a few Canadian sellers. Nostalgia Funny Car partners Tim Boychuk and Ron Hodgeson, had large dollar cars in the Russo-Steel Auction in Scottsdale. Boychuk had four big dollar hot rods and Hodgeson had a $400,000 hot rod under the tent that got blown away in the storm, many cars were damaged by the tent tarps and poles and the owners were not allowed to go salvage their jewels for over 24 hrs. whil;e they secured the area. Hopefully insurance was up to date and accurate. A good day weather wise for the Napa Time trials as Firebird today Sunday, but it does not look like there are more cars in the pits then yesterday. We likely will see a few more runs from each team and more full pulls. The Bernstein principles had a mock strategy session in the pit lanes that many photogs including SpeedZone shooter Bob Snyder were shooed away from. If you got an exclusive deal happening during an open test, do it in your own pit area, not out in front of everyone boyz.
January 23, 2010 6:00pm update
A large gallery from the day at Phoenix is here.
No real huge numbers today but the Force trio but lay down solid numbers . The new Bernstein Top Fueler struggled (or planned) in the new colors. The weather that has been reported far and wide in the South East surely kept a good number of the teams away. Beside the pro classes, the Nostalgia contingent was expected to be out in force with a good number of big old time drag races on the docket in the early months. Numbers and photos are here................. A short highlight gallery from Saturday is here Testing is underway at Phoenix, only a dozen or so nitro cars today. Three Force cars, Bernstein, Miller, Wilkerson, Cruz and the Doug Foley car without new driver Jesse Harris in the seat. The Dote Racing/Foley/Harris team was set to start the season together, but according to team sources the Harris financial commitment is absent, so Doug is in the car. According to Jessie's myspace page she is right pissed. intersting to see how this will play out. photos and results later in the day. A couple nostalgia floppers (Mike Adamas for sure), the Gorilla Fuel altered and one or two AA/FD's. The newest Nostalgia Funny Car assoc web site will be launched in the next day or so. Stay tuned. January 21, 2010 Rain is hitting Phoenix at this moment, which likely will affect Pre season testing this weekend. SpeedZone has two photo/journalist there throughout the weekend, and into early next week, as the season is only a couple weeks away. But the storm there is nothing compared to the anouncement by NHRA this morning. Z-Max dragway in North Corolina will see all four professional classes compete four wide throughout the event including eliminations. Three rounds of racing with the final round seeing four lanes and four cars. The name of the event is "Inugural Four Wide Nationals" All the details courtesy media.NHRA.com
David Smith photos The inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals is scheduled for March 25-28 at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte, N.C. NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series competition will be conducted in the traditional two-lane format, running some classes in the left two lanes and others in the right two lanes to assist with lane preparation and consistency. The announcement comes just four months after NHRA
conducted its first-ever four-lane exhibition at a national event,
where nearly 30,000 horsepower blasted off at zMAX Dragway during
the September running of the NHRA Carolinas Nationals. In separate
runs, four Top Fuel dragsters and four Funny Cars competed in the
four-wide event with everyone standing on their feet to witness
the most spectacular five-seconds in "We had so much positive feedback from our fans and drivers after the four-lane exhibition last September that we were comfortable adding this unique twist to an official NHRA national event," said Tom Compton, president, NHRA. "Once again, NHRA will be making history at zMAX Dragway. With all four of our Full Throttle Series categories competing in four-wide racing it will certainly be a spectacular event to see." "Watching these nitro cars thunder four-wide
down the world's only four-lane concrete strip is exactly what we
had in mind when we built zMAX Dragway," said Bruton Smith,
chairman and chief executive officer of Speedway Motorsports and
creator of zMAX Dragway. "We're making history with horsepower
at the Bellagio of drag strips and race fans will be treated to
a competition unlike any thing that's ever been seen
The rules for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX
Dragway will be as * Qualifying will be conducted using four lanes
* The two drivers to cross the finish line first in each of the four first rounds of eliminations will advance to the second round * The two drivers to cross the finish line first in each of the two second rounds of eliminations will advance to the final round * Each final round will feature four drivers in each category, and the single driver to cross the finish line first in the final will be declared the winner of the race, the second runner-up and so on. The NHRA Carolinas Nationals, Sept. 16-19, the second of six races in NHRA's Countdown to 1 playoffs, will continue to be conducted using only two lanes at zMAX Dragway. Tickets for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals are available
by calling (800) 455-3267 or by visiting www.charlottemotorspeedway.com
on the Web. The inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals is the fourth
of 17 races in the NHRA Countdown to 10, NHRA's regular season.
ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD will televise the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
Series event.
January 19, 2010
Big Bob photo Steve Nichols, driver of the world's quickest Chevy powered Nostalgia Flopper, is making the switch to a hemi for the 2010 season. The trusty 5.96/238 mph Chevy bullet will still be in the trailer, but crew chief Ray Zeller has a couple other clients with the hemi, and Steve really wants to be competitive (ie: the top dog) in the IHRA deal this year. Look for the debut in 10 days at Palm Beach Florida Also in the nostalgia arena, Todd Lesenko will have one of the all new Nostalgia rear engined TF dragster. with the current funny car bullet in the rails, they should top 260 in the 5.40 range. More info on the project in the coming weeks. One of SpeedZone's favorites is back...........In N Out Burger is back in Drag Racing
Drag racing star Troxel returns to Funny Car with In-N-Out Burger support IRVINE, Calif. (Jan. 19) -- Drag racing superstar Melanie Troxel will return to the Funny Car ranks in 2010 behind the wheel of the In-N-Out Burger Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car. Troxel will banner the landmark restaurant at the eight NHRA national events that take place in California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas. The agreement resurrects a successful partnering between Troxel and In-N-Out Burger from the late 1990s that was highlighted by Troxel's second-place finish in the 1999 Top Alcohol Dragster national standings. In two seasons, Troxel won six races for In-N-Out Burger and claimed the '99 Division 6 title and '98 Division 5 runner-up honors. "I am so excited that In-N-Out Burger is back in drag racing," said Lynsi Martinez of In-N-Out Burger. "My father (H. Guy Snyder) had a passion for drag racing and that passion lives in me. Drag racing has played a big role in In-N-Out's history and it is also an important part of my family history. "It's great to be reunited with Melanie. She is the perfect representative for us and she's an exceptional driver. We are looking forward to a great season. It should be very exciting for both our In-N-Out family and our customers!" Troxel's early triumphs with In-N-Out led to her ascension to the professional ranks midway through the 2000 season when she was selected by mega-team owner Don Schumacher to pilot the Exide Batteries Top Fuel dragster vacated by his son Tony Schumacher, who was moving over to the newly-formed U.S. Army group. Wasting little time in impressing her peers, Troxel quickly raced to a runner-up result in Dallas and was steady enough in just 10 races to be named the Auto Club Road to the Future award winner. The accolade, now saluting the sport's top rookie, was given to Troxel as a racer "who had the best chance to make a mark in the sport of drag racing." She's been living up to that billing ever since, racing Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Mod with great success. In her brief career, Troxel has raced her various hot rods to seven national event victories in 16 final-round showings. She also has four Low Qualifier awards to her credit and is known throughout the motorsports world as the quickest and fastest female racer. "It's very exciting to be back with In-N-Out Burger and to be racing a Funny Car again," said Troxel, who will be tuned by veterans Lance Larson and Robb Hauser. "We had big plans with In-N-Out a decade ago and now the circumstances have come together for us to continue our partnership and move forward. "I feel a real bond with Lynsi and her staff at In-N-Out and I really want to do well for them, both on and off the racetrack. Our team owner, Roger Burgess, has given us all the equipment we need to be successful and I think we can jump right back in the mix at Pomona. We're all very excited to get started." Troxel won the Pomona race in 2006 to kick-off a record string of five straight final-round showings to start a season. The victory made her just the eighth female since 1951 to win an NHRA national event and the sixth female ever to win in the Top Fuel class. Her incredible season ended with Troxel being named Sportswoman of the Year by the Billie Jean King Foundation and her nomination for two ESPY awards (best driver and best female athlete). Switching to Funny Car in 2008, Troxel proved just as lethal, winning the Bristol event to become just the second female in history to claim a trophy in the class. Last year, Troxel drove a Pro Mod car for Burgess and managed to post the third quickest quarter-mile pass in history, a 5.829-second blast. She will still compete in the Pro Mod class in 2010, driving the In-N-Out Burger '63 Corvette at all 10 events in the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series. In 1948, the first In-N-Out Burger was founded by Harry and Esther Snyder in Baldwin Park, Calif. The basic menu of burgers, fries, and drinks is still the same one customers have enjoyed since the company's inception 62 years ago. Everything is still made fresh to order and there are no microwaves or freezers in use. Through careful and deliberate expansion, In-N-Out Burger now features restaurants throughout California, Nevada, and Arizona. In-N-Out Burger remains privately owned and the Snyder family has no plans to take the company public or franchise any units. January 18, 2010 The best of 2009 photo spectacular is almost complete. Check back by the weekend for what has to be some of the best shots anywhere of the year. Testing is just around the corner at both Phoenix and Las Vegas, as the NHRA Full Throttle season get underway in three weeks. Hope to have coverage from both venues prior to SpeedZone extensive coverage at the 50th Winternationals. January 15, 2010 Don the "Shoe" Hudson is the new driver of the "Pizza Haven" flopper owned by Twig Zeigler. Congrat's dude, will be a cool ride for ya. January 14, 2010 Just a reminder that the Canadian awards nominations according to Drag Race Canada, for top drivers, rookies, crew chiefs, etc. are now up at DRC. Finally they have a few West Coast racers in the nominations. Have had one or two in the past, but more this year. Sportsman drivers, crew chief, up and coming and Pro categories have great West Coast based teams nominated. Vote here. January 11, 2010 A typo with regards to the Langley cruise-in cancellation. I for some unknown reason called the event the "Langley Loafers Cruise-in". It is NOT a Langley Loafers Car Club venture. It is an event run by a commitee from the city of Langley. Sorry for the confusion.
An update regarding the Rocky Mountian Nostalgia Funny Car series, they are scheduled to be at the Langley Loafers event at the Eagle Motorplex in June. Both Eagle's and the RMNFC schedules will be posted soon. January 10, 2010 Working on the new site for the Rocky Mountain Nostalgia Funny Car Assoc. the next week or so. Also had some interest for another doorcar calendar which we will confirm in the next few days. Also will get CWDS Christmas banquet/ party photos posted as well as their schedule for 2010. January 9, 2010 The 2010 Olympics and Drag racing come together January 8, 2010 Lots of motorsport news locally and in the big show. The biggest announcement is, the "SNAKE" is done. Don the "Snake" Prudhomme announced his retirement for drag racing this week after a 47 year career that included a total of 112 national event wins as both a driver (47) and owner (63). The full story is here. Locally expect a huge announcement from a local track on some big plans in 2010. On another note locally, Mission Raceway has their schedule posted. Put in the category as a surprise (at least to me), the Langley Loafers Cruise-in has been canceled for 2010. burnout according to HH is the reason. A huge boost to the Langley downtown economy for that weekend in September. Five SpeedZone calendars are now ready for shipping. The cars are great, the pictures are fantastic and the price is the best in a half decade.Go here to purchase and see samples. Pre season testing is just around the corner down south as the next four weeks will be busy. Starting next week in Florida, where the Schumacher clan, the Kalitta cars as well as a few others (Tasca for sure), likely a number of Pro Stock teams as well. SpeedZone will have a photog there. The week after all hell breaks loose in Phoenix for the Napa Time trials at Firebird in Chandler Arizona. We also will have coverage there. The week after in Vegas for final testing and then the 50th Winternationals (the largest promoted race in the NHRA since the 50th US nationals almost a decade ago) the second weekend in February, SpeedZone will also be represented there. Back on the East Coast, the newly transmogrified IHRA starts off the last weekend of January at Palm Beach International Raceway. We also should have pics and results from there courtesy our newest contributor. Phoenix, Gaiinesville and the huge March Meet (with a 32 car Funny Car field will also have SpeedZone coverage. Local coverage will be extensive as well here at SpeedZone. Mission of course will see every drag race weekend covered on the net and likely more coverage at the 'Plex. I am going to be helping them with marketing, sponsorship and PR this year, at least in the first half of the season. It also looks like the no lead issues that have threatened Canadian racing will finally be put to rest as Environment Canada proposes the same rules as the US are going by. In other words, when they decide NO LEAD is mandatory, then Canada will follow suit. Not confirmed yet, but it should be shortly. January 5, 2010 Another big announcement this week, and this one proves that Nostalgia Funny Cars are the fastest growing group of drag racers."The Rocky Mountain Nostalgia Funny Cars" are ready to rip up the tracks in BC, Alberta, Saskachewan, Washington and other N.W. US states. This exciting bunch of pre 1984 floppers will be live with their new web site, and all the news in the next week to 10 days. January 4, 2010 Big News in the North West Drag racing front as one track looks to buck the normal drag racing trend, at least on the West Coast (an announcement in the next ten days). January 1, 2010 Happy New Year to every gearhead out there. Have lots of good stuff planned for the next couple weeks here at SpeedZone. For a great "what the ..................,this can't be real, check out this epic fail!!!
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25, 2009