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All NHRA coverage for the rest of the 2008 will be dedicated to the memory of Scott Kalitta, you will be missed greatly.
July 4, 2008 Happy Independence Day One Pro Stock car on the grounds headlines the Rocky Mountain Nationals...Strange but true! All results from Edmonton presented by Ace Manufacturing Day One at Edmonton Pro results are here Edmonton Pro Nostagia Nitro Harley results and Press releases are here July 2, 2008 The biggest news to hit drag racing since well..........ever, and I for one applauds the decision July 1, 2008 Mission Raceway Doorslammer gallery is here This just in Joe Delehay is declared the winner at the Mission Pro Mod event. His 10 lbs light weight at the scales was not a worse infraction than the red light by Dan Vogt. Pro Mod results are here or at their site. Happy Canada Day The Canada West Doorslammer double header story is posted. Mission Pro Mod Gallery #1 is here Pro Mod Gallery #2 is here Edmonton is the next event on tap for SpeedZone Magazine, our biggest IHRA event of the year, and apparently the IHRA think that as well about the Edmonton event. Here is the preview. Coverage here at SpeedZone is presented by ACE Manufacturing. June 30, 2008 All gallerys will be posted on Tuesday including Mission Pro Mod, Doorslammer, Pro Street and Norwalk NHRA. The Pro Mod story from Mission is posted. Photos will be up Monday night. The Doorslammers results will be posted Monday night and Tuesday along with a bunch of gallerys. June 29, 2008 The first part of the Mission Pro Mod story is up... more to come. It was a crazy final for sure. June 28, 2008 Mission Pro Mod qualifying is up June 27, 2008 Mission's looks HOT this weekend, here are Friday testing shots from the Pro Mods who made laps.Weekend coverage is courtesy Jet Equipment. Norwalk NHRA was basically watered out Friday (track seepage). Only a couple Pro Stock and the PSM got in laps. Saturday will be posted tonight. David Smith is there for all the photo action. June 25, 2008 Englishtown Pro Stock and Motorcycle gallery is posted Pro Mod gallery along with Sportsman and extras is posted here June 24, 2008 Top Fuel and Funny Car Gallery from Englishtown is here Top Alcohol gallery is here Englishtown photo gallerys will be posted starting later tonight. This weekend's Pro Mod and Doorslammer coverage
(as well as Pro Street) will be on it own dedicated page here at
Speedzone. The coverage for this weekend's festivities is sponsored
by Jet Equipment Canada June 23, 2008 Updated info on Ken Mostowich.... Good news, as the earlier info stating his condition was not as serious as posted. He did suffer a concussion and has a sore back, but is generally feeling okay. That is good news for sure.
R.I.P. SCOTT KALITTA 1962 - 2008 June 22, 2008 Finally this day is done. With the death of Scott Kalitta at the top of the list as a very bad weekend of Drag Racing, Word out of Seattle was Ken Mostowich had a bad crash at the Divisional and not only wrecked his car but he was hurt quite badly as well. Will have word up as soon as possible on Ken. Also heard from Terry Spargthis evening and he hurt his Cavalier just off the starting line in the final qualifier. Here are his words on his deal as well as Mostowich's who was pitted next door to Spargo: "Ken's Fram oil filter exploded in the lights, and the subsequent crash that not only severly damaged his gorgeous Cavalier but hurt the man badly". "On my deal, my incident was minor toHis and the unfortunate happenings at Englishtown, but on my last qualifieer Saturday, It would have been a 6.70 pass as indicated by Frank Tamez's improvement, I had my steel driveshaft tear apart on the launch, 12 inches from the third member, and severe the wishbone track locator, sending shrapnall through the rear tire, cut the brake lines and destroy the racepak driveshaft speed indicator amung a number of other issues. I have to talk to RJ tommorow and it will be a thrash to be ready for next Saturday's Doorslammer race. I'm meeting with Gord Schmidt tomorrow morning so he can get a handle on the repairs. Friday and Saturday had air temps at 90 degrees and track surfaces at 125 degrees and 2000' air, our 6.75 passes looked pretty good. But as Dave Richardson said to me this morning, with all the cloud cover I would have seen my first 6.60 today. I had back to back 1.01 60' with the added tuneups we did, both increasing stall speeds and timing". As far as the results from Seattle, Stefan Kondolay won Super Comp; Add that in with his win in the same class at Mission, and you have the second Super class where Stefan looks to be THE MAN!!!. Jerry Epp was runner up in Super Street, John Witmore won Super GAs, Doug Lambeck won Comp, Randy Johnson won Top Sportsman, Blu Hyball won Top Dragster, Mark Faul won Stock, Jimmy Defrank won Super Stock, Doug Rathbun won Motorcycle, Dennis Taylor wins TAFC and Duane Shields gets the TAD win. More on the race in the next couple days. At Englishtown, the winners who likely did not celebrate
too much were as follows: Tony Schumacher (TF), Tim Wilkerson (FC),Greg
Anderson (PS),Chip Ellis (PSM), Dianne HArker (TAD), Frank Manzo
(TAFC), and Josh Hernandez (PM). Full
results are here.
June 22, 2008 In Comp during round one at Seattle, Casey Plaizer takes out the #1 qualifier Rob Harrison with a huge holeshot .20 light and a .55 under in Ken Reich's C/SMA. The kid can drive for sure. Also at Seattle, Duane Shields wins TAD and Dennis Taylor who got in on the last qualifier, sets out a message that they found a tune-up as Dennis rips off a career best 5.56/259 to defeat Sean O'Bannon who got loose and took out the 330 cone The worst possible news today from Englishtown. Scott Kalitta has a horrific crash after a fiery explosion at the finish line. The car continued at a high rate of speed through the shut down area and sand trap and into a field where the car continued to burn. He was transported to hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival due to multiple injuries. Very sad news indeed. Scott leaves behind wife Kathy and sons Corey and Colin. Crash shown here on You Tube. June 20 2008 Englishtown is up this weekend. Results are here. Seattle Lucas Oil coverage is here. June 17, 2008 IHRA Budds Creek coverage is here. June 12, 2008 The final Chicago gallery is posted (Top Alcohol and sposrtman classes) The Pacific Raceway's Lucas Oil event is next weekend. TA pre entry and event schedule June 11, 2008 The West Coast Pro Mod season preview is here. Jegs Allstar gallery is here. June 10, 2008 Galley #1 from Chicago's National event is posted.
Ken Kraus is out of the SynOil flopper. California Hitter Sean Bellemeur is tapped as the new driver.
June 9, 2008 Three gallerys are posted from the Eagle Motorplex. June 8, 2008 The weekend at the Eagle Motorplex started out so promising with a huge car count of race cars and show n shine vehicles. Saturday was a great day and Sunday morning was great, then the rains came just after noon. They continued until 4:00 pm when the race was finally called and postponed until the July 19-20 weekend. Stayed tuned for a couple huge galleries form Saturday and Sunday morning. The Jeg's and National event at Chicago is complete with Division six finishing in the middle of the pack . Division 1 won the tie breaker. Tom Bayer won the TAD Dragster Jeg's portion. Adam Bowdish went to the semis as did Tommy Gaynor and Mike Coltrin. Shawn Cowie qualified well Top Half second quickest Blown car but went out in round one on a holeshot to Tom Bayer. Brian Hough lost in round one as well. Full results and photos starting Monday night. MRP did not have a good weekend either for their IMPORT INVASION. Weather kept the Asian and European rides off the track. The Jrs did run on Sunday but with the bad weather all over only a dozen diggers made the call at MRP. All the results from the Jrs are here.
June 4, 2008 Division Six Jeg's allstar team. Good luck team. Another notable will be at Chicago this weekend. Shawn Cowie hot after his first ever #1 qualifying effort at the Topeka National event TAD Tom Bayer June 2, 2008 Unfortunately the National Open Day two at the 'Plex was washed out. They will re-schedule the race (for the Brackets only) to July 12. No NHRA classes only the brackets, Jrs. and Sports Compact. Because eliminations had not started, the race is open to racers who did not make it to the weekend's event. Large payout and wallys (payout based on Car count) The Doorslammers did get their race off at Seattle on Sunday. With Saturday beng a complete wash out there, qualifying and eliminations were run on Sunday. Lloyd Flatum won his second consecutive event and Steve Downs (one of the race sponsors) was the runner-up. All the results at their site. Hopefully this coming weekend at the 'Plex for the "Langley Loafers Old Time Drags" sees good weather for the entire weekend. The Big Rig Group and Lucas Oil Canada are the sponsors of this weekend's Old Time Drags. SpeedZone will be there is full force updating the event adding photos and even have our photo printer on site so you can get high quality photos up to 8x10 on site. While you wait.
June 1, 2008 Shawn Cowie went to round three at Topeka where he lost on a holeshot to Chris Demke. Demke then proceeded to loss with a bad light in the final to first time winner Mark Niver. In the Alky floppers, Sean O/Bannon runner-upped for the second weekend in a row. He lost to Steve Harker in the final. Hillary Will won for the first time in Top Fuel. Way to go girl! John Force got the victory in Funny Car and Ron Krisher was the surprise winner in Pro Stock. At the Eagle Motorplex, The National Open double header saw close to 150 cars go through the turnstiles. On Saturday, John Evans won in Top Comp over Joe Mura, Frankie Plaizer (way to go girl!) won Super Comp over Darrell Baker, Jerry Epp defeated Casey Plaizer in Super Street, Mike Shannon defeated Todd Sims in Super Gas and in. Combo saw Joe Graves take out avid Rastad (two r/u's in a row for Rastad). For the bracket classes, Jason Gibson defeated Al Quigley in Super Pro, Glen Parkinson won Pro over Chris Stone and Don Elgin got the victory in Sportsman over Brian Thompson Bike/Sled winner was Tyler Tingle. He defeated Chris Knight. For the Jrs., Holly Clarke and Justin Gibson were the winners in Lightning and Thunder respectively and the runner-ups were Chris Hanson and Chris Cannon. May 31, 2008 The Cowie TAD team travelled all the way to Topeka Kansas after their runner-up finish here at MRP last week. They rewarded themselves with their first ever #1 qualifying effort at a National event. A great 5.33 @ 266 mph. It is against most of the best Blown cars in North Amercia and many of the top A/Fuel teams as well. Hopefully they can parlay that effort into a very late run in eliminations. Congrat's Shawn, Ron, Bill and the rest of the crew. Todd Hoener got in on Saturday (#15) as well in Pro Stock. Full Topeka results of Sunday May 29, 2008 The West Coast Pro Mod race rescheuled for this weekend at Billings has been postponed again due to bad weather due to hit Yellowstone dragstrip this weekend. Go to the West Coast site for more info. Mission's Lucas Oil event Sunday Gallery 2 is posted May 28, 2008 The first Sunday Mission gallery is here. Weekend wrap-ups are posted May 27, 2008 Milan IHRA results May 26, 2008 A number of Mission LODRS Gallerys over the next two days. Friday #2 (scroll down for the first Friday gallery) The Sportsman story from the Mission Lucas Oil event with photos is posted.
May 25, 2008 In a surprise to everyone including the prognosticator himself (me), go to the Top Alcohol qualifying story and see the predictions for eliminations to see not only to see who was picked to be the winner in the final in TAD and TAFC, but also to see who the opponents would be. Can't think of when I got all four picks right. Perhaps one of Mission's best divisionals in recent memory ended a few hours ago at Mission Raceway and then the showers came. A bit of deja vu there for sure. All the classes had very close final rounds and were watched in front of one of the bigger divisional crowds at MRP in recent memory. In short the winners were and if you want to read the story to find out who the winners were come back tomorrow by noon and the complete story will be posted. But for those who just need to know winners tonight here they are: TAD: Joey Severance over Shawn Cowie. TAFC: Clint Thompson over Sean O'Bannon. Comp: Rob Harrison over Pat Byron. Top Sportsman: Rob Matthews over Bill Kondolay. Top Dragster: Mike Henderson over JR Leercamp. Super Stock: Don Thomas over Norm LaPointe. Stock: Jeff Lane over David Rastad. Super Comp. Stefan Kondolay over Earl Cunningham. Super Gas: Lindsay Larson over Chris Cannon. Super Street: Tony Hernandez over Nicki Cannon. Motorcycle. Buff Kobs over Jeff Havens. Super Pro: Kenny Trociuk over Kevin Chambers. The Top Alcohol qualifying story from Mission Raceway is posted. May 24, 2008 Saturday gallery is here. Final numbers are posted the complete qualifying story will be up Sunday Morning
A Top Alcohol preview for Saturday's final qualifying and Sunday elimiantions at Mission Raceway is here. Team Press releases are at the bottom of the event page. May 23, 2008 A great day at Mission Raceway for day one of qualifying for the BC Nationals Lucas Oil event. 330 cars are on hand and all classes saw record runs and personal bests. Highlights included a 9.75 by Joe Sorenson, Duane Shields ripping off a out of the box 5.23/272 and Clint Thompson blasting a great 5.62/257. More here........ A Friday gallery is here. A second Thursday gallery is here. Joe Sorenson went an unfactored 9.75/133 in his AA/SA Camaro 20 minutes ago at MRP.
If any race team or company would like to sponsor the coverage this weekend here at SpeedZone Magazine for the BC Lordco Nationals email me or call 604 302 3907 or 604 209 1157. This race could likely be a history making event will huge fields in both TAD and TAFC. Record breaking cool temperatures are forecasted. SpeedZone is one of the busiest Racing web sites on the west coast and we will likely have in excess of 50,000 page views this weekend alone, add in another 50,000 to 100,000 over the next couple weeks and you can see this will be a very viable marketing experience for your team or business. A huge Top Alcohol preview will be posted later today. May 22, 2008 BC Lordco Nationals Lucas Oil event Thursday gallery is here. A slow start to the day at Mission Raceway for the tnt portion of the Lucas Oil event. Moisture kept the track for getting rubber layed down until noon, but after that it was fast and furious until an unfortunate TADbrush with the wall (steering shaft broke from tire shake amd then the master cylinder cap spun off leaving the car with no brakes and no steering, not a good feeling for the driver I am sure) and a synthetic lubricant oil down right at the end of the day. The best laps by TA cars were Brian Hough's oil depositing (right at the finish line) 5.74/254 and Leo Grocock early sutoff 5.91@ 207. THE run of the day though had to been Joe Sorenson's wheelstanding 9.88@ 132 in his cool A/SA. Possibly the quickest unfactored A/SA run in history. The same car set the official record three weeks ago at Boise with a factored 9.78 14 Dragsters and 10 Funny Cars are at the track already with the possibility of four more showing uop on Friday. Here is the web page to see all the action. BC Nationals Thursday gallery is here.
The first West Coast Pro Mod 2008 event scheduled for this weekend has been postponed until May 31-June 1 due to inclimate weather in the state of Montana. May 19, 2008 Canada West Doorslammer Race 3 gallery is here. Canada West Doorslammer race 2 gallery is here. The biggest NHRA race of the year in Western Canada is up this weekend at Mission Raceway Park. The Lordco BC Nationals, Lucas Oil Divisional event. A huge pre entery list of TA cars and forcasted sunny but not too hot temperatures should make this one of the best divisionals in a long time. Stay tuned here for all the action. May 4. 2008 Mission Raceway got the day in for all the brackets (single event) as well as the CW Doorslammer series. A first time winner and and the r/u was also in the final for the first time. Two Washington competitors, Greg Anderson defeated Lloyd Flatum in the final round. The Mission site has all the bracket results. In the NHRA , another John Force car is in the final round for the fourth consecutive race. This time it was rookie Mike Neff. Todd Hoerner losses a very close one to KJ in round one of Pro Stock. Both drivers run career bests ( KJ and TH) Final results from St. Louis are here. Finally we are back on line. After 8 days of trying to get telus to hook up ADSL on the street where my new home is located in an older subdivision, they struggled with issues for a few days to get it right. Hopefully it will work at full capacity. St. Louis NHRA results are here. Lots to talk about including big news for TODD HOERNER who has qualiffied for the second straight NHRA event in Pro Stock. He sits well into the field this week at St. Louis in the #12 spot with a career best 6.635@ 207 "courtesy DRC". 12 6157 Todd Hoerner, Deer Park WA, '06 Stratus 6.634 207.75 He will race Kurt Johnson who went four hun quicker with a 6.598@209 Way to go Todd! Kick some today. The track here in Mission will be a very busy place today, as the weather cleared and it looks to be a great day. The Canada Werst Doorslammers highlight the day and the race is sponsored by TCS Performance Products. Spargo will be very tough as he went an aweome 6.76@206.9 . His new ride is specatular. It will easily go into the low 6.60's and maybe even the 50's, all with an automatic.Chris Murphy is working out the bugs in his blown Camaro and had a real eye opener Friday during the test session. Pfister has the video. Atlanta NHRA results from last weekend are here. Ashley Force extends her point lead with a historic win in the nitro coupe class. She defeated her father in the final round at Atlanta. April 30, 2008 April 23, 2008 Will be off line for the next couple days due to moving on Thursday and Friday. Will not have internet activated until Sunday at the earliest. The Eagle Motorplex is about to get their season started. This weekend's weather looks pretty good as well. Here is a bit of a preview to their season courtesy ERA president Joe Sye.. Will have an updated schedule and a couple features on three pretty big new events for 2008, including a second Nostalgia event, a new blown Alcohol series and a fast doorcar series. Here ais a bit of a preview courtesy Joe Sye. April 21, 2008 A gallery from Mission Raceway's Doorslammer event is here A Sunday Mission gallery courtesy Bill Jeffery is here April 20, 2008 Under very cool conditions Mission Raceway got un Saturday qualifying and the National Dragster challenge event from 2007 got completed. The Canada West Doorslammers got in three round s of qualifying go here for all the info. The Super Shifter sereis also got in their first day of compettion.Go to the MRP site for all the bracket action. Rockingham's IHRA event has completed qualifying at the first real IHRA race (1/4 mile racing not 1/8 mile like the San Antonio event). Will have coverage starting tomorrow. April 14, 2008 Sunday gallery from Vegas is posted April 13, 2008 Ashley Force takes the point lead in nitro Funny Car, with her second runner-up finish in a row. She is the first woman to lead in the class in history. Way to go Ashley.! Great TAD rounds at Vegas and the Dallas Divisional, as the blown cars are definately going rounds. In the semis at Vegas, Shawn Cowie and Jim Whitely have an epic race, as Whitely prevails with a 5.34 to 5.37 side by side bout. The best ever finish for Cowie. Whitely unfortunately can not repeat in the final round as he blows the tires off and first time winner Jeff Isbell who switched to an A/Fueler prevails. Jay Payne is looking strong in TAFC with a win over Von Smith. In Comp, Jim Marshall looks to be one of the top B/AA competitors in the class with a strong .61 under qualifying effort, he went to round two. All the rest of the results are here. On another note, Congrat's to the Hugh Ridley team in Vegas, with Gary Ormsby Jr. in the seat. The BC based TAD team is working out their stuff, and qualified.The team ran a career best 5.57 in round one. Look for them to run in the 5.40's at Mission. Way to go to good buddy Hugh Ridley! In Dallas, Darvin Martinets in the ex- Guy Kelly (and Mark Hentges prior to that) went a career best 5.34 only to bow out to another guy with a career best, Aaron Tatum in his and Joe Monden's A/fueler, a solid 5.29. While there is not absolute parity in the class the top 6-8 blown cars in the class, will run low 30's and high 20's in average conditions or better. The Mission Divisional with no less than 3 top BAD's (Cowie, Severance, Bayer, and possibly Whitely) could see the first 5.20 pass by a BAD in divisional competition in a long long time. Thursday photos from Vegas Friday photos from Vegas Friday photos Sorry for the long delay in posting. I am in the process of moving into my new digs and have been renovating for the last month non stop and have been away on a much needed hiatus for the last few days. I am back rejuvinated and ready for the race season including up here in the great North West. Larry Pfister at HH has been keeping the locals up to date and also have the Mopars at the Strip event covered, as well as local shots form the first street legal event. Go to his site for all the info. Las Vegas in up the weekend and Rich Carlson has started to send me the photos. Will posted them later today, after daughters ball game is complete. Results from Vegas are here. Photos later today.
Gainesville NHRA results are here. The Canada West Doorslammer web site is undergoing a facelift. Click here for their look, look which is a work in progress.Their first event is up next weekend. Can't wait. The Werst Coast Pro Mod will also have a fresh look for the 2008 season. Will have that site updated in the next days. Bucky Austin and Tim Nemeth have been busy over the winter. Nemeth with the Alky Flopper as well and his new Nitro Funny Car. The Stang will be bitchin. will have pictures up here in the next day or so. Austin has a new A/Fuel dragster for TAD competion and will debut at Mission for the Divisional event. Garrett Bateman will be the pilot. Will have photos here as well and Bucky's site later today.
March 10, 2008 Judee Shoemaker's interview after John's fateful run Saturday March 9, 2008
Unbelievably sad news in the world of Drag Racing as good friend and West Coast Drag Racing legend John Shoemaker died today at Bakersfield's March Meet after a top end crash during the second qualifier. He was a great fiend to SpeedZone and both he and wife Judee always were happy to chat about just about anything. My daughter Shelby got a chance to sit in John's gorgeous new "American Eagle" Top Fueler last year at Mission. He will be greatly missed. Heart felt wishes go out to Judee. RIP John!!!
March 2, 2008 Sunday Gallery from Phoenix Divisional All Results will be posted Monday evening. Final round photos tonight as well. Feb 29, 2008 At Phoenix...Shawn Cowie is in, Gary Ormsby (In Hugh Ridley's TAD) is not. Thompson and Hough top the field in TAFC All divisional results will be posted later today. A Saturday Phoenix gallery is here Phoenix divisional Friday gallery is up. A number of Div 6 TA competitors are in the house. Feb 25, 2008 The Eagle Motorplex Spring Fling highlights are here. Rich Carlson Phoenix gallery is here Sunday gallery # 1 is here. Feb 24, 2008 Final eliminations are posted. Saturday photo gallery is posted Feb 23, 2008 Saturday Results are here February 23, 2008 Don't forget tonight is the Eagle Motorplex spring fling party. Should be a blast. Dean and Shelby will be there with bells on. Its at the Aldergorve Legion on Fraser Highway. The CSK Nationals are covered here. Photos included Rain washed out all Pro Qualifying so two sessions are all they will get. February 16, 2008 The Pomona wrap up is posted. Next weekend's event at Phoenix will be photo laden as two Speedzone photogs will be out in force. 2008 is the only confirmed exemption year for the Canadian fuel ban at this point. There is optimism that there wqill be another 3-5 years though. Force is inducted to the Motorsports hall of fame. February 8, 2008 Winternationals coverage is here. Top Alcohol results on Sunday. Local Cowie looks good,as he goes 268mph in first round win, and he had a decent rt. January 31, 2008 Wednesday gallery from Phoenix including scoreboard numbers January 29, 2008 We are one of the few racing sites with photos from Monday and Tuesday. We will even have some up from Wednesday and Thursday (if the teams are still there). Thanks to Dwayne Harksell (Firebird Media director) amd Mark King our Phoenix correspondent. Tuesday Phoenix Gallery Monday Phoenix Gallery January 27, 2008 Saturday gallery link from Phoenix January 26, 2008 Saturday time trials are posted as well as sportsman testing highlights. A great Mark King photo sequence is up as well. A sad day today as tragedy hits Doug Herbert and his family. His two teenage sons were killed in a traffic accident. Sincere condolences go out to Doug and his family January 25, 2008 The first drag racing gallery of the year comes from this weekend's test at Firebird in Phoenix. Thanks to Mark King for the weekend photos. January 11, 2008 Unfortunately more potential bad news for in the drag racing world. This one affects Canadian racers and fans and is perhaps the biggest blow in history. Remember the leaded fuel issues 15 years ago? Well it is back and the deadline has now passed. Technically the ban is now in place (Jan 1, 2008). This is something that all of us should have been paying attention to more diligently. They are making a decision in the next month whether or not to expend the extention for only one more year. What can we do, write the government. More on this potentially shattering news here. For as much as this will affect drag racing in my home town of Mission, Three major National events (Edmonton Grand Bend and Toronto) with millions of dollars of tourist revenue are in jeopardy, as well as the sport we all love here in Canada. January 10, 2008 NHRA listened to the racers and fans and made a number of changes to the "Countdown to the Championship". Here is the release.
January 9, 2008 Perhaps the biggest blow to Drag Racing in recent history, hopefully it is not permanent.
January 3, 2008 The Sportsman photo page is posted. The Funny Car photo page is now complete with captions, as is the Pro Stock page. January 2, 2008 More photo highlights from 2007 are complete. The nostalgia photo page is posted, as is the specialty page January 1, 2008 The Top Alcohol photo page is posted. Happy New Year race fans....we continue with our photo highlights. The pages are: Pro Stock (IHRA, NHRA and bikes), People, Pro Mod. Nostalgia, Top Alcohol, Specialty, Sportsman later today.
December 31, 2007 The first three 2007 photo highlight pages are up. Page one is a bit of a preview courtesy SpeedZone's West Coast photographer Bill Jeffrey. From that page, you can link on all the highlight pages of 2007. 2008 Speedzone calendars are on this page. December 30, 2007 Starting tomorrow (New Year's Eve), we will show case photos in a SpeedZone "2007 Photos in review". A little bit of nitro as the year 2007 comes to a close. (You Tube, Mission Raceway National Open Nitro Funny Cars)
December 20, 2007 A couple of releases for teams heading into the 08 season. The Pro Mod calendar samples are now posted Larry at HH has all the Division 6 winners from the banquet last weekend (did not get a release from the Div 6 office, nor is it posted on their web site?????). Included was Shawn Cowie as the Division 6 "Rod Hoerner Memorial Rookie of the year" (well deserved), MRP winning the Division 6 "Track of the year" and the 'Plex winning the "Most improved track". Another surprise announcement was the Plex going out and improving themselves even more with the purchase, the first ever in Canada, of the Squeegie Machine, a self propelled track cleaner for oil downs. I have seen it in action at NHRA and IHRA national events and it flat out works. Kudo's to the management at the New and Improved Plex. Kudo's to MRP for their 8th track of the year award as well. Was hoping they would get the TBA divisional for all their hard work, but Acton did in fact get their race back. Maybe we should have seven races again. December 15, 2007 The calendar page is now up.
The calendar page is now up.
The calendar page is now up.
December 2, 2007 Terry Spargo's new ride is revealed.
It is a Rick Jones 2004 Chevy Cobalt. It will house a 813 in Sonny Leonard wedge that puts out close to 1500 hp. The car has all the exotic chassis stuff including a top of the line computer system for engine and chassis readings. If all the ducks are in a row after preseason testing the car should run well into the 6's at over 200 mph. The Canada West Doorslammer party and gallery is here.
November 19, 2007 The Coors Finals IHBA gallery is posted. If you want to see some of the most remarkable photos I have seen all year long, check out sometime Speedzone contributer Paul Grant's pit and grand stand shots from Vegas. The artistry is simply outstanding.
The rest of the Coors Finals (Drag Boats) photos will be up later today or tomorrow. Results are posted.
Saturday Drag Boat gallery is here. Awesome shots, check it out!! The liquid 1/4 mile World Finals at Firebird in Phoenix is up theis weekend. 10 Top Fuel Hydros a full field of TAH and all the other classes will fill the pits in Phoenix. Mark King is there for SpeedZone to give us all the results and a bunch of photos.
July 30, 2007 Mission Loafers final round results with photos are posted. A very cool Gasser and Feature car gallery is posted (from MRP). Gallery #2 from the Mission old time drags is posted. Mission Raceway AA/Gassers story is posted. An update on the Kate Harker TAD crash at Sonoma. Kate was releasd in the afternoon Sunday and did return to the track. Hopefully Tom, KAte and the team are back out soon. July 29, 2007 Sonoma wrap-up today with John Force looking like he has turned the corner. He gets his second win in four races and moved into sseventh place. Anderson gets his 50th win. Shoe takes out the perennial bridesmaid Vandergriff. To the horror and astonishment of all TAD fans, the Tom Conway owned and tuned TAD driven by rookie female driver Kate Harker goes into a powerstand and does an blow over pirouette style (ala Shelly Howard). Luckily Harker was released from Hospital basically unscathed. What are the odds????????? Duane Shields gets the TAD win. Bayer had a good chance at this event running a career best in round two (a 5.30) but a 5.27 by Harker took him out. Jay Payne 5.50's them to death in TAFC and looks to be a legitimate thorn in Manzo's side. Brad Plourd repeats in Super Stock. Click here for the rest of the Sonoma story. Mission Raceway gets underway after an hour and a half rain delay this morning, and suffers through numerous oil downs to get their Loafers event completed by 7:45 pm. It was an awesome event overall (sans the oil downs). The Gasser results are here. The rest of the winners are posted here. The Gasser prtion has photos posted and the rest of the photos will be up Monday. July 28, 2007 Mission Langley Loafers AA/GS qualifying and other feature car highlights are posted. Sonoma final qualifying is posted. July 27, 2007 The ReMax Langley Loafers Old time drags at Mission Raceway park are up on the local front. One of the best weekend's of the year. The AA/Gassers, front engined a/fuel, a 55 Chevy match race, a couple Pro Mods and a whole lot more. Go here for the weekend action. Don Hudson's Racing web site is updated. Sonoma's Autolite Nationals coverage is here. (Top Alcohol Team Press releases are included). What a strong day one at Sonoma, a lot different that last weekend at Seattle. The 10:00pm curfew did get hit though, as Alan Bradshaw booms it big time, forcing an early end. 16 dragsters were set to shred the track records, but could only watch in dismay as the cleanup took too long. July 25, 2007 West Coast Pro Mod results from Calgary are posted. Congrat's to Kieth Korecki. Points standings for the WCPM are included (unofficial). Also coming up at Calgary is a different look to the popular "PINKS" races on Speed. It is called "Thinks". August 17 is the date. Click here for more info. Looks very interesting. July 24, 2007 Seattle photo gallery is here. July 23, 2007 Lucas Oil results from Division 3 (Indy) are posted Seattle results with photos are posted Seattle Sportsman got completed and a couple locals (Canucks) had great results. Congrat's to Calgary's (not Edmonton as earleir stated) Ken Mostowich won got his first ever Wally in Super Comp in a door car, he defeated Dale Green. It will sit atop his mantle beside his previous Super Gas win. at Pomona. Jerry Earp went to the Super Gas final and came away with the R/U check. The "Ferd" was the victor. Brad Vinje did the same (R/U) in Super Street (ssorry Brad for that one slipping bay Yesterday). Jody Lang won (surprise) in Super Stock over Jimmy DeFrank. Eric Waldo defeated Steve Wann in Stock. David Rampy won Comp. He took out Clint Sallee.
Just in.... Kieth Korecki from Kelowna BC won the West Coast Pro Mod event at Calagary yesterday. His first race in a couple years, and he debuted a refit Shelby Mustang. Way to go Kieth. More info soon. Seattle Sportsman eliminations are set to complete today if the weather cooperates.
July 22, 2007 Grand Bend final results are posted. Seaatle results are ongoing (can't beleive they are getting the race off), and are posted to 9:00pm. Lots to talk about so click to see whats happening..... Ashley Force.....has the ride of her life.......
July 21, 2007 Grand Bend final qualifying is posted Seattle's final qualifying is posted after only one round. A number of qualified cars were ousted from the field due to the "top 10 rule", and only one session completed.. July 20, 2007 The Medicine Hat National Open is up in two weeks. It is the last NO in Division Six and all class championships are up for grabs. Here is trhe event poster with all the details Friday was washed out at Seattle. Hopefully it goes tomorrow, as it is the best weather day in the next three or four. Grand Bend results from Friday are posted. Just got off the phonewith SpeedZone personel covering Seattle and it like here is raining. Saturday looks to be the best day, but to get the weekend off without major delays is not a probable situation right at this time. Will let you know as the action happens. The event page for Seattle is here. July 19, 2007 Seattle and Grand Bend pre race press releases are posted. Final gallery from Edmonton (Harleys, IBAA Pro Alcohol, Sportsman) A little late Pro Mod/Pro Stock gallery from Edmonton's Rocky Mountain Nationals is here. The Rocky's Nitro Funny Car/Dragster and Top Alcohol gallery is here July 18, 2007 Division events results from Woodburn and St. Louis are posted. Previous Divisional events not posted earlier including Rusk (Div 4), Mid Michigan (Div 3), Norwalk (Div 3), and Lebanon Valley (Div 1)are up. All courtesy NHRA Marketing Seattle had four classes complete at Woodburn (Comp, Super Stock, Stock and Motorcycle, the balance this weekend at the National., July 17, 2007 The RAD Torque Systems Top Alcohol Shootout and the Ace Manufacturing 7.20 Pro Alcohol results are posted. Nitro and Top Alcohol gallery is here. The Sportsman Harley IBAA and Pro Street gallery is here. The best of the best gallery is here. The Harley, Injected Nitro, Pro Street and Sportsman results are here. Final round photos are included.
July 16, 2007 The Lucas Oil National Open Funny Car (they were awesome) story from Mission is posted. Will have the RAD Torque Top Alcohol Shootout , the Ace Manufacturing IPro Alcohol, Nitro Harleys, Pro Street and Injected Nitro stories on Tuesday. Most are completed, just have to add photos. And the galleries will be up Tuesday as well The rest of Edmonton's photos will be posted Tuesday as well as final team wrap-ups. Denver's Mopar Mile High Nationals results are posted. St. Louis Divisional coverage will be posted Tuesday On a very important note, due to the mis-printing issues of the latest SpeedZone Magazine (which was out at the track on the weekend, the entire magazine is being reprinted. It will be completed by Thursday or Friday and all our advetisers will have them at their shops starting on the weekend. We do apologise for the lousy quality of printing of the copies we handed out for free this weekend, but the printer has taken 95% responsibility for the issues and is making amends. While we have never said we are perfect, the quality of the photos in both black and white and color as well as the clarity of the photos and ads have always been good we were embarrassed by the final product. July 15, 2007 The little ol' record breaking drag strip north of the 49th, did it again today when the Lucas Oil National Open at MRP completed the first ever Nostalgia (Nitro) Funny Car Assoc. points race. The first ever side by side 5 second race occurred in Round one, and then Terry Capp who became the first ever driver to run in the 5.80's, when he and the Jenner/ Leong tuned Bubble-Up Trans am ripped off a jaw dropping 5.85//249 to defeat a game 6.10 by Mike Savage. A major oil down in the TA Shoot-out final when Ed Verenka broke the rear end ending the days festivities with eight - ten finals still to be run. All the results and photos will be posted Monday. I will be busy next week as the new issue of SpeedZone's print magazine Out at the track this morning) will have to be completely reprinted as a couple major press issues occurred. Check back Monday. Shawn Cowie won the flintstone mobile TA final when both he and Roger Bateman spit the belt off at 280 feet. Cowie had more momentum and got his second Wally in a row. Other final rounds completed included Top Fuel Harley (Steve Dorn defeating Rob Smith in what was possibly the first ever side by side 6.50 final round), Pro Street (Coin flip which Rash Dhaliwal won over Garrett Richards), 'Ace Manufacturing' Pro Funny Car had Darrell Webb defeat Tim Boychuk in a close final round. Outlaw Street upset winner winner was Bryan McDonald over Dale Moznik. Real Street winner was Kieth Vahle, Stock Super Stock combo winner was Rod Stultz, Super pro winner was Curtis Munson, Pro victor was Ted Miller Sportsman champ was Brad Porcello, Mile Hauer won Motorcycle and Sydney winner was Sydney. Check back tomorrow July 14, 2007 Mission's Open had all the markings of one of the best Open's is recent memory, but unfortunately a couple substancial oil downs in the evening cut short the major portion of the evening show. The Top Alcohol, Nitro Harleys, Injexted Nitro Dragsters and the main attraction, the Nitro Funny Cars did not complete their final qualifiers due to an 11 o'clock curfew. Not sure what will happen this morning with the feature cars, as far as getting their final hit. Overall it was a pretty good day, as the nitro coupes saw three 6.0's and great side yy side laps. Stay tuned this evening for all the final results and photos. All the other results from Denver's National Sunday night.
July 14, 2007 Sorry for no updates in the last four days. I put together an issue of the magazine and built a cool nitro poster for this weekends event in the last couple days. Here is a Top Fuel (and FC) gallery from Edmonton two more gallerys to come tonight. Also final wrap-ups from that awesome event. The Lucas Oil National Open page is here. Coverage at SpeedZone is presented by Joey's Place Paint and restoration in Edmonton. July 10, 2007 An Edmonton gallery from Sheryl Ogonoski. Team weekend wrap-ups are posted. A couple more left (Pro Mod and Team Ace) and gallerys Wednesday. July 9, 2007
The best Rocky's yet (other that the three unfortunate major oil downs in round one of the fuel classes Sunday) is highlighted by first time winners in the nitro classes. Tacoma's Terry Haddock and Terry McMillen win in FC and TF respectively. Ed Hoover takes out the 'Big Dog' in Pro Mod, Roger Bateman red lights away his chance in Alky Flopper and Robert Patrick wins in Pro Stock. The sportsman classes did not finish until after 11pm due to a huge storm ten minutes after the pros were completed. IHRA's wrap-up is posted. Photos are still being logged, as I have close to 2000 to edit. Bill "the pro dude" Jeffery and Tracey Elias (sportsman coverage) did a great job in the photo department. I was as usual average. The main gallerys will start tomorrow. A teaser gallery is here (100 photos). It will be worth the wait. Not much of a break as Mission has a huge weekend on tap, that will include close to 30 funny cars (to be run under the lights), a whack of Nitro Harleys and 8-12 TAD's, as well as close to 300 sportsman cars. MRP has a bit of a preview here. My coverage of the event (here at speedzone) will be sponsored by Joey's Paint and Restoration in Edmonton. I am hoping to produce the first 'nostalgia nitro funny car' poster the NW has seen in two-three decades. Also the next issue of Speedzone is close to completion. With major sacrifices from the printing gods, it could be out at MRP this weekend. It is 50-50 at best. Congratulations to Shawn and Ron Cowie for that team's first of what will be many TAD wins. Also at Woodburn, Sean Bellemuer won TAFC . The first TAD win for a BC team in a long long time. Maybe the first ever. The 'Madman' may have been the first. Will have to investigate. July 7, 2007 Pro quaifying is complete from Edmonton. Lots of track records shattered. Because of the slow loading (28k) at the track very few photos will be uploaded until Monday. Will do as many as possible. Thanks for your patience. The wait for photos from Edmonton will be worth it. In Pro Nostaglia (7.50 funny car), Eddy Pliazier wins his second Ironman (full results for pro nostalgia later today). Final Sportsman qualifying is here. A couple more team releases are here, including Edmonton's two Nitro Funny Car teams Woodburn qualifying results are here. All the results from Bristol with be posted Monday.
July 6, 2007 Friday is in the books and it was a pretty good day for all the pro classes. Close to track record runs were witnessed in all five Pro catagories. TJ Zizzo went 326+, Scotty Cannon was only a hundredth off his TR. Pro Stock saw seven drivers in the 6.40's. Here are the pro classes (TF, FC,PM, PS) . Go here for Sportsman and exhibition classes. Edmonton's Rocky Mountain Nationals is underway. Round one is complete for three of the five pro classes. Team Press releases are here The sportsman and exhibition class page is here July 5, 2007 Is it ever hot here at Edmonton. At least 35 degrees (95 for all you farenheit dudes). A strong group of Pro Mods on the grounds as well as the top nitro classes. Click here for a list from what I can remember. July 3, 2007 Just getting set up for the Road Trip To Edmonton Thursday. "Team Ace" is sponsoring SpeedZone Magazine's coverage at the Alberta capital. Here is the first of many Rocky pages. July 3, 2007 The first Norwalk photo gallery is here July 2, 2007 Doorslammer gallery # 1 is posted. The first of two "Eaton" Fast and Furious Pro Mod gallerys is here. The gallery is sponsored by Jet Equipment. Fast and Furious Pro Mod results are posted. Eliminations photos are included The Doorslammer web site is updated. Eliminations photos are included Gallerys up later today. Norwalk National event final eliminations are up. Mission results for the Pro Street and brackets are here July 1, 2007 Happy Birthday Canada!!! What a great day at Mission Raceway as not even a drop of moisture hit the track. Glen Kerunsky one ups last year's runner-up finish at the Eaton "Fast and Furious on the Fraser". He gets a single in the final when Kirk Kuhns has head damage from his semi final win over Danny Rowe and can not make the call. Carl Spieirng runs low et for the weekend with a great 6.06 on Sunday. For the Doorslammers, Dave Richardson almost doubles up for the weekend as he wins the rain out event from a month ago against young gun Stefan Kondolay and then goes to the final in this weekend;s race. He red lights against first time contestant Zak Clark. All the full results and more photos than you can shake a stick at on Monday. Final qualifying for the "Fast and Furious on the Fraser" Pro Mod event Presented by Eaton. Photos will be posted Sunday evening. The winner of the Jet Tools "Quick 16" qualifying lottery was Tom Meheden. He walked away with 1000 dollars worth of Jet Tools. Danny Rowe was the runner-up and his take was $500 worth. Thanks to Jet Tools. Speedzone put up a $200 bnus for the first "5" but it has not been won yet. Division six from Medford. What a pathetic car count there. Only 230 cars before the brackets. Final qualifying from Norwalk. June 29, 2007 Friday testing and cars on the grounds for the "Eaton" Fast and Furious on the Fraser. Gallery is here. Mission Raceway has a gallery up from Friday as well. Norwalk's NHRA Summit Nationals coverage is here. June 27, 2007 The Doorslammer web site is updated for this weekend's scheduled double header. Look for a big preview Friday evening for the EATON "Fast and Furious on the Fraser" Pro Mod event once we see the arrivals at the track. History is made this weekend at Norwalk at the NHRA lands at the previous flagshiop race track in the IHRA, Norwalk Raceway Park in Ohio. The Bader's jumped ship at the end of 2006 after leading the IHRA into a true force for the sport in North America. The Summit Nationals coverage will be posted throughout the weekend and we have two photogs (Guy and David) to send us all the action. I can't wait to see the re-styled facility. And then the West's show cased drag racing event is up the following weekend. What a busy schedule in the next month. June 24, 2007 Englishtown final eliminations are posted. Englishtown gallery # 1 is here. This coming weekend's speedzonemagazine.com up to the minute results and photo gallerys of the "EATON" West Coast Pro Mod event "Fast and Furious on the Fraser" is brought to you by Jet Equipment Canada. The Rocky Mountain Nationals coverage in two weeks here at speedzonemagazine.com will be sponsored by "Team Ace" Racing. June 22, 2007 Tulsa IHRA National event is complete for the Pros. Eureka Montana"s Pat Stoken wins Pro Mod for his first ever National event win. Too bad he won't be at Mission next weekend. Rob Atchison finally gets on track in Alky Funny Car. He takes out rival Mark Thomas. Pete Berner take the Ironman in PS, Dale Creasy wins FC, and rookie Kevin Jones wins in TF. Saturday final qualifying for the Englishtown National event is here. The Web page for "Fast and Furious on the Fraser" WC Pro Mod event presented by Eaton, includes entry list, preview and and special bonus award offered up by Jet Tools and Equipment. Joe Delehay Salt Lake wrap up The "Moose" (Nitro Moose) announces team line up. June 18, 2007 AMS Pro Mod team statement after tragic accident. A recap from Edmonton's Fox Hunt is here. Fox Hunt Gallery is here The Vogt's show off at Salt Lake for Race #1 in the WC Pro Mod series. Results are here. Seattle was washed out on Sunday after two-three rounds of eliminations. TA will be completed at the national event there and the balance will be raced off August 25th. In TAFC, Albertan John Evanchuk runs a career best 5.68/252 mphand is in the final round against Dennis Taylor. Way to to John and crew! In TAD, Tom Bayer goes to the final against Brandon Johnson. The recap is here Div 1 results Div 3 results Div 5 results (All courtesy DRC and NHRA marketing) June 17, 2007 This is not good........ Major tragedy at car event at "Cars for Kids" charity event in Tennessee leaves four people dead and many injured. ....(Update two more have died making the total now six)
on a happier note.................. .......Happy Father's day to all the dads. Hope you have a great day! With absolutely trying weather conditions including way too many rain delays at Pacific Raceway for race # 3 in Division six's Lucas Oil event, local Top Alcohol teams are outside the field heading into elimiantions. Local rookie 'young gun' Shawn Cowie has gone from hero after his r/u at MRP to the the lowest of low's. In the world's fastest TAD, Cowie fails to qualify after not making it down the track on any of three three attempts. In round one the car shook hard and Shawn lifted, in round two the ignition crapped out and in the final attempt the car died on the burnout (more ignition troubles). To say this is a major disappointment would be the understatement of the weekend. Not having the 273mph dragster in the field shows the reality of the tough TAD class. Tim Nemeth is the other local not in competition on Sunday. Tim wounded a motor in the first TAFC qualifier, he missed the second sesssion making an engine switch and could only manage a 5.99 best with the new bullet for the final session. That run had him .04 outside of the 5.95 bump spot. Alberta driver John Evanchuk made his best lap ever and qualified # 4 in the FC field. His 5.700 at 252 (soo close to a '60) comes on the heels of his efforts at MRP three weeks ago. The new motor combo (BAE and getting a handle on the AFT lock-up) has paid back dividends in just two races. They will try to finish the event under more threatening conditions today. Three other Divisional events are on this weekend including Div.1, Div.3 and Div. 5. Results will be posted later this evening. Seattles Divisional page is here. June 14, 2007 The Doorslammer web site is updated with their last event at the Plex. Jegs Allstar gallery is here Chicago Pro gallery is here Apparently, the Big Rig weekend at scheduled for Mission this weekend has been cancelled. The event was moved to Chilliwack due to some idiots from the Big Rig event deeming MRP being under water. What a load of crap! Hopefully the MRP personal will not have them back in the future unless some sort of non refundable waiver is presented. (not their thoughts, just my own personal rant) It will still be a great weekend at MRP as the Junior Dragsters take centre stage on Saturday as well at the Super Shifters. On Sunday, the Super Shifters are back at well as the first of two or three "Street Legal Sundays" take place. Seattle divisional is up this weekend. June 9, 2007 The Canada West Doorslammers race at the Plex along with the Loafers event was washed out today. The weather does look good for Sunday. Chicago National event coverage is here. Jeg's Allstar coverage is here. Division six tied for third place, as three drivers went tot he final round. They had a chance for first place, but unfortunately all three driversdid not the final round oint necessary. Johnny Gross (super Comp) Mark Faul ( Stock) and Sean Cour (Super Stock) were the finalists. Division one repeated as the Jeg's team champion. June 8, 2007 Topeka Kansas event gallery is here. The final results from Topeka are here. Jet Tools and Equipment Canada announce their team roster for 2007 The West Coast Pro Mods are in action next weekend at Salt Lake. The preview is here. Team previews and last weekend's wrap ups are here. Sunday evening: June 3, 2007 208 paid entries raced at the 'Plex on Sunday, making it the biggest event since the Divisionals back in the 90's. A brief shower and high winds ended the day two finals from the end of the day. The Top Comp and Super Pro finals will race off at Seattle. Winners and finalist at Ashcroft: Super Pro: John Riedel and Mike Shannon (final at
Seattle) Sunday June 3, 2007 Winners from day one at Ashcroft are: Jr. Lightning: Forest Schiffman, Jr. Thunder: Daiton Ward, High School: Emily McDonald, Sportsman: Martin Dykstra, Pro: Brad Plourd, Super Pro: Vicki Strell, Snow/Bike: Jim Sibley, Sports Compact: Gerald Patzer, Super Street: Steve Lowe, Super Gas: Glen Iggulden, Super Comp: Mike Seekins, Super Stock/ Stock Combo: Brad Plourd, Top Comp: Dustin Hentges Saturday June 2, 2007 Sorry for not having the Top Alcohol story completed from last weekend's MRP Lucas Oil Event. This week has been waayy too hectic. Plus am still trying to digest NHRA's big move. Unreal!! Will work on it over the next day or two. TAFC is 2/3's done. Also, the promised new Top Sportsman/Dragster web site is still delayed a few days. Look for it next week. Sorry! At the 'Plex this weekend, the biggest turnout in a half decade or more for the National Open Double header, as 185+ cars are in attendance. The results will be up Sunday for day one of the double header. At Topeka Kansas, half the pros were washed out Friday night. Here are the results after final qualifying. The latest word from the NHRA and the new guys NHRA Pro, is that there will be a number of new nationals over the next two years, including a foray into Canada. Unfortunately, it will not be on the West Coast unless MRP acquired another 100 acres. Wouldn't that be sweet (it will be the province where the hockey world supposedly starts and ends. When did they make the cup final last??). That will likely hurt the IHRA, as one of the existing tracks has to be the location, I would think. Also the Pro season end purse will hit 500k in both FC and TF next year according to sources. Wednesday, May 30, 2007 What will this mean to Drag Racing as we know it? |
