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If your team is interested in being a part of the SpeedZone blog team click here for the info. you can't afford not to. Web site services are available. Go here for pricing 2011 calendars are here.
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2010 and earlier Speedzone coverage is here. January - June 2011 Speedzone headlines are here. Speedzone Magazine 2011 NHRA gallerys are here. January 5, 2012 A big announcement for the NHRA as they schedule its first NHRA ever double header Divisional event weekend. Thursday and Friday, February 23-24 will see race #1 and then Saturday and Sunday February 25-26 will see race #2 which will include the two Top Alcohol classes for the first regional event of 2012. All three SpeedZone Magazine Calendars are now ready for shipping the Last one complete, the Nitro Funny Car version is a 13 month calendar. Go here for ordering and shipping details. January 3, 2012 NHRA is starting off on the right foot for the TA classes. The regional and National competitor are going to have their team profiles as part of NHRA data base. Here is the release from Eric Lotz, the long time NHRA field marketing liaison for NHRA: NHRA
wants driver profiles
NHRA recently announced the formation of the new NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Regional program featuring the drivers of the Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes. In our ongoing efforts to elevate this new Regional program and these two premier classes we would like to develop driver profiles for each of you for use with both motorsports and local media. The profiles may also be used in various ways to help build the fan base of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series and that of the Top Alcohol classes. If you have already filled out this profile form as a division champion, please disregard this email – you do not need to fill it out again. Below you will find a link that will open the profile. Please take a few minutes and fill it out and submit it as soon as possible. This is time sensitive project as we need to keep things moving forward as the 2012 season approaches. If you are unable to open the link please let me know and I will re-send it. Please feel to contact me at any time if you have any questions and/or concerns. Happy Holidays! Thank you, Eric Lotz January 1, 2012 Happy New Year to all drag race fans. We are only a month away from the start of the 2012 Full Throttle season. Testing gets underway in two weeks at Las Vegas and Palm Beach. Shipping gets underway this week for calendars, Hemi and Doorslammer Tuesday and Nitro Funny Car Thursday.
Happy New year
December 25, 2011
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all our loyal readers. Best wishes for a prosperous 2012! December 23, 2011 A bit late, but Ray and Jan (RJ Enterprises) are down south for the winter and went to Force's Christmas car show. Here are a few pics. December 22, 2011 Click on the samples for calendar ordering.
December 21, 2011 We are just a day away from the annual SpeedZone Calendar releases. The Top Sportsman/ Doorslammer calendar is first up then the Hemi and Nitro Funny Car are next. The TS/DS calendar goes up for sale tomorrow, with shipping starting Friday. The Hemi and Nitro Funny Car calendars will be ready for shipping next Wednesday (28th), but you can get your advance orders in now, as quantities are very limited. We are holding the prices from last year despite printing increases, so $14.95 plus shipping will get you your choice of the three listed above. Here is the link to the calendar page. December 18, 2011
SpeedZone is very excited to write the press release for a NW legend Todd Hoerner who is stepping into the Pro Stock Foray again. Here what's up for Hoerner in 2012.... A number of changes continue in the NHRA big show with JR Todd rumoured to be back in the Top Fuel ranks. He will reportedly team up with Bob Vandergriff for 2012. Brandon Bernstien will likely be with MLR next year. The ADRL announced their purses for the 2012 season and while they have dropped a bit, they are still pretty decent for an 1.8 mile series. They also have added a true Pro Mod class (with the NHRA GSA rules). Top Sportsman is a full time class as well. In possibly the biggest news, their Jr. Dragster class now has a substantial purse, with the winner earning 1,250.00 and a payout right down the entire field.
Here is the list of the rule changes for 2012.
The IHRA finally got their schedule posted for the 2012 season. There are eight events, with two in Canada. Edmonton will again be a three day event (the only one on the tour). It is a week later than in the past . The 2012 date is July 6-8
December 13, 2011 Mission Raceway award's banquet photos are posted More shake-ups in the Al-Anabi and Lucas camps in Top Fuel, as Larry Dixon and Alan Johnson part ways opening the door for Shawn Langdon to leave Lucas and join Johnson (or is this the start of a four car team with the Lucas cars and Johnson cars). The Al-Anabi/Johnson teams with four plain black trailers are at Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida. One of the Al-Anabi Promod drivers, Khalid Balooshi is said to be licensing in one of the cars, and Langdon is in one of the others. December 11, 2011 Scotty Richardson's Drag Racing School at the 'Plex! Got this from Joe Sye. "We have an opportunity to have Scotty come to Eagle. If you are intersted please let me know ASAP as we can get Scotty to come to the Plex one weekend only. He is prepared to put on a school Friday June 29th right before a huge weekend we are planning at the Plex for our 25th reunion tied in with their Grassroots Bracket Series. The cost for the whole experience with Scotty is $300.00 for the day! We need to know right away and the class is limited to 35 people"! December 10, 2011 Mission Raceway Major Dates for 2012 Lordco BC Nationals – May 25-27 Pro Mods (Pro Street) July 7-8 Lucas Oil Canadian National Open July 21-22 Langley Loafers Old Time Drags July 28-29 CMDRA Bike Drags August 18-19 Smoke, Fire & Thunder Jet Car Race August 25-26 Mega Ford Weekend Sept. 8-9 Eagle Motorplex 2012 schedule (Eagle brass is working on their 25th anniversary event and date) April
21-22
December 7, 2011 Lots of news over the last week and a half, but we have been busy organizing calendars for the 2012 season. One big note here though is there may NOT be a Hemi calendar in 2012. We are trying to make it happen but it is not looking good. There will be a Doorslammer calendar, and a Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car calendar. There will also likely be a Top Alcohol version and Fast Doorcar/Outlaw/Pro Street Calendar. If any teams are interested in marketing their team in a drag racing calendar gives us a call. (604) 826 5775. Or email here. Rumors of big changes at the Alan Johnson Al-Anabi nitro team persist, as Del Worsham officially announced his retirement from driving. He will tune Alexa De Joria's Funny Car. A major announcement in the Funny Car ranks is just around the corner involving what will be a Canadian vying for rookie of the year honors. John Force will have daughter Courtney in a flopper full time in 2012. Does that mean a four car flopper team again or is Mike Neff back turning screws full time only? Also daughter Brittany will be testing a Top Fuel dragster throughout the year in 2012. Northwest Division hitter Jody Lang earned the title of ThisIsBracketRacing.com “Driver of the Year.” Lang earned the honor through the BTE power ranking. The system awards points based on final round finishes at Major drag racing events in all sanctioning bodies and big dollar bracket events. At the six National events he competed at in 2011, he won three Stock Wally's and three Super Stock Wally's. He bested 1200 sportsman drivers in the 2011 season and topped super stars like Nick Folk, Jeg Coughlin Jr, Mark Faul, Peter Biondo and Tommy Phillips to name a few. John Force Racing driver Courtney Force has been nominated along with Darrell Wallace Jr. (NASCAR), Chase Elliot (NASCAR), Ryan Truex (NASCAR), and Josef Newgarden (IndyCar) as ESPN The Magazine's the NEXT big driver in motorsports. Go to the ESPN web site to vote for COurtney. Dickie Venables and Danny DeGennaro have joined John Force Racing Inc. JFR has added more to his Crew Chief brain trust. It is Venables second stint with Force. The ADRL becomes the first Drag Racing group to approve EFI in Pro Stock. This is one of those, "It's about time" announcements. How fast will they go? The John Force Holiday car show was held this past weekend and close to 25,000 fans were in attendance and the show saw over 10,000 toy donations. We should have photos from the show up shortly. Lee Beard will be Cruz Pedregon's crew chief for 2012. The six Ford Nitro Floppers face of in Ford's Aaron Brooks and Rod Centorbi have joined Lucas Racing as co crew chiefs. Last year Brooks was crew chief for Melanie Troxel and Centorbi was an intregal part of the Al Anabi team. The second annual charity
calendar titled the NHRA Full Throttle "Real Families" benefiting Children's
Cancer Research through Indiana University Simon Cancer Center Radiation Oncology
is
now on sale. Still have to post photos from the MRP Banquet and the Canada West Doorslammers. We will get to those soon. November 29, 2011 The funeral for Ken Rempel is Wednesday @ 2:00pm at Cedar Valley Mennonite Church in Mission. If you have any photos for a memorial collage please bring them. The Mission Raceway Banquet was held this past weekend along with the Canada West Doorslammer party in the adjoining room. It made for a lot of racers in one facility. It was a great time on both sides and the Layne Wooley band ("Burnin Rubber") performed at the DS party. It was a great time. We will have photos up from both functions in the next few days. November 25, 2011 A Note from Bill Jeffery: Product Development Manager for Jet Canada. Today
is one of sadness as I learned of the passing of my friend Ken Rempel. I met Ken
in the '90's as a budding top alcohol car owner and driver and immediately felt
like I had known him my whole life. That was just the kind of person he was. Friendly,
kind, warm, and just an all round nice guy. At that time our company was looking
for local race teams to sponsor and quickly partnered with him. True to course,
he and his team were the perfect ambassadors for our company.You couldn't ask
for better representation and better people.
November 24, 2011 Two gallerys from SCSN are posted. A qualifying gallery is here. A Sunday gallery is here. November 21, 2011 True to form top qualifiers at SCSN 7 ended up in the finals in most of the classes. Jose Gonzalez from the number..... (click here for final round results) November 20, 2011 SCSN had a wild day, and performance levels that were through the roof. The bump for the Pro Street class was an amazing 6.438 by Jeremy Hanger. Six NW drivers made the field lead by Joe Delehay who is #14. Trevor Lowe (in Jay Syvertsen's new Willys), Dal Sangha, Mark Campbell, Don Wilk, Glen May and Steve Goddard fell just short of the field. In 10.5 Dale Moznik is well qualified and brother Roy tried his hand in the class for the first time. He shook and had mechanical issues but is #25. Steve Nicholson is qualified with a 7.89 but he blew off his scoop of in a nitrous explosion. Plus one of the wildest incidence in my drag racing experience as XDR racer Eric Pederson (out of the NW) hit the wall in his final qualifier and then the car scooted across the track, spun and the throttle hung open in the middle of the track (the driver was knocked out with his foot down on the brake pedal). The front tires were locked and the car sat there under full revs with the rear tires spinning until the motor caught on fire and finallythe rear tires shreaded...man it is hard to describe! The driver was pulled from the car and transported to hospital. The injuries were not reported to be too serious. Let's hope. Go here for the video. Full
Saturday results are here. Photos later
today. Two more big events left on the left coast and the one this weekend, is the largest fast Pro Street race in North Amercia. SCSN 7 is at Vegas this weekend and we have all the action. Here are the results.
November 14, 2011 The silly season is here one day after the final NHRA event is complete. The "King of Speed" Kenny Bernstein is said to be packing it in, as word from a few crew members saying the team was released at the end of Sunday's event. The Al-Anabi rumors continue, with the Sheik ending the financing of anything drag racing in North America. Whether is it true or not is yet to be confirmed, but Del Worsham is rumored to be the new crew chief for Alexia De Joria, Morgan Lucas going to Alan Johnson Racing and Shawn Langdon gone as driver. Lucas and Geico will be the major sponsors. Terry McMillen is rumored to put together a two car team. Rod Fuller will be back in a two car pairing with Bob Vandergriff. Melanie Troxel announced that In n Out Burger ended their foray in Funny Car racing for the second or third time. She is actively looking for new partners. Hector Arana may add another son to the team PSM stable. 20 year old Adam Arana is said to be pushing dad's buttons to get behind the wheel of a Motorcycle. John Force signed Freightliner to a multi year sponsorship... Mpre when we hear Photos are posted below on the runs that decided the championships. The full report and Monday wrap up from Pomona is posted. November 13, 2011 7:00pm update.... All the final Sportsman finals (and a few semi finals) will be completed Monday morning. 5:35 update...Final rounds... Del Worsham ends the season with a win in a great side by side with Tony Schumacher. A 3.796 to a very close 3.799 brings to a climax a great Top Fuel season. What will be in store for 2012, lots of rumors and likely they will be exposed soon. Worsham left the line first with a .034 to a .046 rt. Not to be outdone, Matt Hagan one upped Worsham as he defeated Robert Hight in the quickest side by side race in 1000 foot Funny Car history. A 4.009/317.79 to a very close 4.041/318.92. Hight ended up in 4th place in the standings. Greg Stanfield won his first race of the year in Pro Stock over Kurt Johnson. Both drivers had solid RT's but KJ shook and lifted early handing Stanfield the win. Andrew Hines won the battle of Harleys and team mates, as the newly crowned champion Eddie Krawiec red lit away a great 6.819/197. He would have been in tough though as Hines was slightly quicker, with a 6.814/196. In TAD, Jim Whiteley got to the finish line by less than a hundredth over Ray Martin. Martin had .12 at the tree but Whiteley's 5.300 was just enough for Martin's 5.422. He finished in 3rd place in the final standings. Jay Payne got the win in TAFC over Sean Bellemeur with 5.575/259.56 to a 5.676/255.73. Payne jumped up two spots to third place in the standings. Canadian Roger Bateman dropped to 4th. In the Summit Finals, no Division Six drivers took home titles. Mark Faul went to the finals in Sportsman but lost a close one (.001) to another hitter Edmond Richardson. Paul Comeau lost to Brandon Schmall in the Pro Bracket finals. Mission Raceway's Kevin Brennan lost in the semi finals as did Dale Green in Super Pro. (Bob Wilson photos) 3:30pm update...Semi finals... Del Worsham wins the Top Fuel championship by .004 in an amazing side by side semi final battle agains t#2 Spencer Massey.
A 3.800 to a 3.808 gets the long time Funny Car driver the Top Fuel title in what rumored may be his last race in Top Fuel (more on that later). He will race Tony Schumacher in the final. 'Shoe' defeated Larry Dixon 3.823 -3.823. Matt Hagan gets the Funny Car title as he defeats his only remaining challenger Cruz Pedregon.
A 4.096 - 4.113 (plus Hagan had .02 at the tree). Hagan will race Robert Hight in the final round. Hight defeated a tire smoking Johnny Gray with a 4.079@315.69. Kurt Johnson and hole shot king Greg Stanfield will race in the Pro Stock final round. Johnson defeated Jason Line (6.60-7.35) when Line shook and eased off the gas.
Stanfield took out Alan Johnson, 6.609 to a slowing 6.737 for Johnson. AJ held the lead until 1000 feet, but he slowed by 30 mph in the last 300 feet and that was the difference.
The now two time PSM and Harley champion Eddie Krawiec and past PSM champ Andrew Hines will race in the final round of Motorcycle. Krawiec defeated Arana Jr. 6.831-6.863 to put an exclamation mark on the title (Arana Jr. was his only contender left at the start of the weekend) and Hines defeated Arana Sr. 6.880-6.894.
2:00pm update...round two... Round two in Nitro Funny Car became THE round in the 2011 season. Six Nitro Coupes had a chance to get the title, and there was lots of drama in the round. Mike Neff was the first to be eliminated as he lost to Johnny Gray. The two cars left together but Gray had .05 at the finish line (4.105 - 4.155) and eliminated team Force #1. Robert Hight took out Ron Capps (4.091 -4.114) to eliminate the Napa driver and then had to hope Matt Hagan lost in the next pair to keep his slim chance alive. Hagan did not comply, as he ended team mate Jack Beckman's shot with a 4.107 -4.142). The win ended Hight's chance as even with a win and a semi loss by Hagan would put him 1 point back. Cruz Pedregon is the only driver left to challenge Hagan but he needed to defeat Melanie Troxel to keep his hope alive. He did it with bells on, and took out the In n Out driver, 4.07 - 4.15. Cruz still needs round wins and he gets a huge chance in the semis as he faces Hagan. Hight will race Gray in the other semi. An event win by Cruz and he gets the title by 5 points. Troxel had a wild end to her run as her car fired back up just as she turned off the track in the shut down area. The compression and fuel load sitting in the cylinders relit the he Toyota then lurched hard. She steered it into the open fence area, suffering quite a bit of damage, and minor injuries, but no one else was hurt. Top Fuel saw Del Worsham continue his roll and title aspirations as he defeated David Grubnic 3.85 - 3.88. Larry Dixon (who lost his chance for his second championship in a row in round one, due to others ahead of him advancing) defeated Antron Brown in a huge match-up. Brown's chance for the title ended with the loss. Spencer Massey the last guy to challenge for the title defeated Morgan Lucas 3.84 to a slowing 4.20. Tony Schumacher while not in the title chase (when was the last time you heard that) defeated a tire smoking Brandon Bernstein with a round quick 3.82. In Pro Stock, Jason Line, Alan Johnson (winning on a Mike Edwards red light), Kurt Johnson on a huge holeshot and Greg Stanfield doing the same all reach the semi finals. Eddie Karawiec got his second world title in Pro Stock Motorcycle when he defeated Le Tonglet in round two. Other winners in the round include Andrew Hines, and the Arana duo act.
TAD and TAFC title chases are complete and congratulations go out to Duane Shields as he wins his first TAD World title. Joey Severance gave it a game effort with a .008 light in round two, but his car fell off this weekend and he could only run a 5.40. Mark Taliaferro took him out with a 5.31. Shields advanced into the semis defeating the #1 qualifier Aaron Tatum (Tatum went red) but the Shortline Express team team is already celebrating, and everything else this weekend is icing on the cake. A championship for a very good team!! Frank Manzo won his 15th world title two months ago. 12:30 pm update Round one results for Top Fuel and Funny Car is posted....... IT'S END OF THE RAINBOW - AND THE ROAD - TIME (Bob Wilson)
With nothing to get in the way of a good day of racing, let's look at the key matchups in the first round of eliminations, starting with the "Kings of The Sport", the Top Fuel Dragsters. Starting on Thursday with 26 racers vying to be among the elite 16 still standing this morning, the three qualifying sessions that were completed put ten aspiring race teams on the sidelines. The final bump spot wasn't as impressive as the previous event in Las Vegas, but a 3.95 cutoff was still respectable considering the conditions. Overshadowing the actual eliminations leading to the final round today will be the points battle for the Full Throttle championship, with four racers still in contention for the title. Two of the contenders are on each side of the eliminations ladder, and the first possible meeting between any of them would be Antron Brown versus Larry Dixon in the second round, assuming that both racers advance that far. On the other side, Del Worsham and Spencer Massey can't meet until the semi-final round and if they both get that far, then the outcome of that pairing will determine the world champion for 2011. There
are a few remote possibilities for another outcome no matter what happens between
Massey and Worsham, but the odds of that coming to fruition are very long indeed.
Even with good air and track conditions, setting a new national elapsed time record
that would be worth 20 bonus points is going to be a tall order as the current
standard is 3.735 seconds. We'll keep track of the points situation and update
the standings after each round today to give a running total and breakdown on
each racer's points situation. The
third and fourth racers in the standings, Cruz Pedregon and Mike Neff, trail the
leader by 35 and 40 points respectively and must win two more rounds today than
Matt Hagan, the leader. Either that, or one more round and reset the national
record, but to Leading the points is still Matt Hagan and he managed to open up a small gap during qualifying, going from a one point lead to 12 and making it incumbent on Jack Beckman to outrun him to win the season's biggest battle. Interestingly enough, that matchup will come in the second round (assuming of course) as the teammates will duke it out for intra-team bragging rights and the BIG check in the winner's circle. My darkhorse pick, Cruz Pedregon has a good chance to upset the leaders apple cart but must advance to the semifinal round to do so. He's on the Hagan - Beckman side and if he can beat the winner of their (assumed) second round race, then he would be in position to win the title if he can take the race win in the final round. Pressure or what? But still, it's pretty simple to see just what the obstacles are in his way and if anyone knows how to handle a tight situation it's the veteran Pedregon. Been there, done that so many times in the past. The others in the championship group are on the same side of the ladder and Hight and Capps could meet in the second round, eliminating one of them in the process, then the winner of that match could face Mike Neff in the semifinals. However, if Hagan or Beckman advance past the second round then their points fight is over, no matter what. Before the cars are even warmed up for the first round of eliminations at 11:00, we've got the situation scoped out and all that can happen now is the totally unexpected. It's almost a certainty that at least one of the racers listed above is going to lose in the first round or fall to an unheralded opponent who just happened to have his act together a little better, or left the starting line a little quicker or simply got a little luckier. And that's why they drag race on concrete and asphalt, instead of on paper or sitting at a desk in front of a computer. More news
and views as they happen. Stay tuned for our next update just before eliminations
begin. Top Alcohol Dragster and Super Stock titles have to be determined Sunday as well. The Summit ET Bracket final championships are also going to be played out Sunday. Local Rider Kevin Brennan will battle in the ET Motorcycle title. He gets a round one bye rounds. The weather does look more favorable today.
November 12, 2011 Rain washed out half of the last session of Funny Car at the AAA Finals and the entire Top Fuel 4th round. The full Saturday recap is here.
NW Pro Stock driver Mark Wolfe struggled on Saturday and failed to make the field. His best run was his first on Thursday, a 6.601 that would have but him in the #17 spot in the field, but due to the resetting of the field after Friday, Mark ended up #19. Todd Lesenko, debuting the all new Steve Plueger Monte Carlo this weekend (he drove the Worsham family car the last two events), also failed to qualify. The team is running an entirely different engine combination than other teams, and they will have a few growing pains. The car looks real good, and likely they will test over the winter.
The big Regional news for Top Alcohol is finalized schedule wise. The
two premier classes in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series - Top Alcohol Dragster
and Top Alcohol Funny Car - will be showcased in four regions as part of a new
Regional Championship program in 2012. "During the development of the Regional Program, we worked with several of our Lucas Oil event host tracks and others within the industry," said Josh Peterson, vice president of racing administration, NHRA. "While everyone recognized the importance of the Top Alcohol categories to the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, emphasis was placed on reducing the number of events, maintaining successful events and establishing consistency into the program." As part of the new Regional Championship program, NHRA will pay the Top Five drivers in the series point standings for each class in each of the four regions. Regional Lucas Oil Champions will be based on five of seven events. In addition to the change in points structure for the Regional Program, the Lucas Oil National Championship will change from the current points structure of the best five of eight both at the National and Divisional Event level to seven of 10 for National Events and three of five for Regional Events. The two categories will continue to be featured at 16 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events and television coverage of those races will continue to air on ESPN2 HD in 16 one-hour shows. Competition Eliminator, Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas and Super Street will continue to compete at all NHRA Lucas Oil events. EAST REGION NORTH
CENTRAL REGION CENTRAL
REGION WEST
REGION
November 10, 2011 Thursday qualifying is complete and no real surprises in any of the profesional classes. Robert Hight and Mike Neff are 1,2 in Funny Car. Tony Schumacher is #1 in Top Fuel followed closely by Del Worsham. Mike Edwards has the top spot in Pro Stock and Andrew Hines leads the Bike clan. The shot or (shots) heard around the Pomona Fairplex grounds were two by John Mihovetz in Comp. He went over a second under in his twin turbo 280 cu inch Mustang. with a best of 6.08/236. Only Jirka Kaplan has provided those outstanding types of number in the last few years. Full results are here. Pomona Team Press releases and a few team sidebars. Speedzone sources state the new regional system for Top Alcohol cars will be based on three different regions (West, Central and East) with somewhere around 7-10 races in each region. Points, payouts and other details to be released Saturday at Pomona. Weather for Pomona looks about average cool temps with a chance of the "R" word November 9, 2011 NHRA National event head starter Rick Stewart will start his final event this weeknd at Pomona. He has been the man for 15 years. For many, it is about time. He was a bit theatrical, but was a decent replacement for the legendary Buster Couch. Who will be the next one, rumor has it Division 6's Mark Lyle will get the job. Mark is a very good starter and would certainly be missed up here, but we hope he gets the job.
Bobby Thunder has added to his abbreviated Vegas coverage and incorporated it into an addition to the Pomona AAA Finals preview. Below Wilson added more added to the earlier previews for the Finals including a few changes to the entry lists. A glance at the pre-entry lists
for the fuel categories showed an addition to Funny Car (up from 24 to 25) with
Jon Capps listed driving the Chuck Worsham car that Todd Lesenko wheeled at the
last two events (he's in his own Pleuger-built car this weekend). November 8, 2011 The AAA Finals preview below talks about the Professional, Top Alcohol and Pro Mod classes. Here is a quick rundown for the Sportsman classes battling for the National title. Two classes have been decided and those are Super Comp where Gary Stinnett has clinched the World Championship. In Stock Eliminator, Joe Santangelo won at Vegas and overtook the NW's Jody Lang by one point. Lang still has one more National event to compete at but he already has the maximum three wins at those events so even a win at Pomona would'nt give him any more points. He loses by two points. He needed one more round this past weekend. In Comp, Sal Biondo leads Lou Ficco by two points and has no more races to claim. Ficco still can improve at Pomona and needs to go the semi finals to overtake Sal. In Super Stock, Jackie Alley leads by 47 over the only competitor who can catch her and that is 5th place David Bogner. He trails Alley but a win at Pomona who give him 54 points more and the title by seven points. A tall order to win the last event of the year, but Santangelo did it at his last event yesterday so it is possible. In Super Gas, Peter Biondo leads Mike Sawyer by 43 points. Sawyer can still earn 54 points with a win at Pomona and Biondo is out of races. November 7, 2011 All
Roads lead to Pomona We're definitely in the last lengths of the home stretch now, as the 22-race NHRA Full Throttle Series has finished it's long journey back and forth across the USA, ending fittingly enough where the 2011 drag racing season began at Pomona's Auto Club Raceway some eight and a half months ago. Millions of dollars have been spent......(more) Albertan Todd Lesenko will debut the new Steve Plueger Monte Carlo this weekend. For Lesenko it is his third event in a row. The first two he drove the Worsham family FC, but this coming weekend's ride is the one he and Plueger had planned on having out earlier in the year. The plan is to run a much more aggressive schedule in 2012. The hope is to run all Full Throttle events if funding is confirmed. Another notable driver at Pomonas will be Mike Ashley, he of Lend America fame. He former nitro Funny Car driver and Pro Mod champion will run in Top Fuel this weekend. It is his first foray in the class and first time out in over a year, after his legal issues in the mortgage and lending business. He will be behind the wheel of the Dexter Tuttle Top Fuel car. The final rounds were completed at Vegas and a couple Division Six drivers (one of them Canadian) came away with huge wins. Edmonton Driver Randall Olynyk won Top Sportsman for the biggest win of his career. He bested the 50 drivers in the class. Steve Apted defeated Mike Sawyer in Super Gas and was the best of over 110 competitors in the class. Alberta's Tom Nolan went to the semis in Super Stock before he was defeated by eventual champ Jimmy DeFrank. In TAFC, Clint Thompson runner-upped to John Lombardo Jr. In Top Alcohol Dragster new Division Seven champ Jim Whiteley defeated Division Six Champion Joey Severance. It was a good tune-up race for Severance, and retribution after his round one exit last week at the Vegas National. He heads to Pomona looking to get a win and a National championship. If the Woodburn Oregon driver (and Co-track owner) gets the title he will be the first Blown dragster driver to win the title since Rick Santos a decade ago. Notable in this title chase is the Severance racing team is easily the lowest budget team to come this close to be in the title chase. If they have their ducks in a row, it would be a real cool deal. The only kicker in this deal is the current point leader is another driver who has paid his dues in the class. Duane Shields leads the points and is one of the nicest guys in the class. He has battled in TAD for a couple decades and came real close back in the 90's when he ran a Blown Dragster. He set the ET record for a blown car that lasted for a number of years (5.26) and was #2 in points back in 2002. While it would be great to see Shields win the deal (he is in the driver's seat and sits 44 points ahead), as he is one of the biggest supporters of the class, e is also one of the better funded teams and to see an underdog like the Severance's win would be over the top. It makes me think about the what if… in regards to Shawn Cowie. If any blown car had all their ducks in a row it was the Mundies towing team. He ran class best numbers and looked to be well on their way to challenging in 2011. Next year, if Shawn is ready, will be a banner year in the class, as parity is a close as it has been for well over a decade. Notable at
the last two Vegas events were a couple Canadian TA drivers. New driver TAFC driver
Jordan Pawlick was in the Synoil Funny Car. The previous driver, Ken Webster stepped
out of the seat and will concentrate on his kids racing programs. He also has
a TAD which he may have out in 2011. Don St. Arnaud qualified at both the Divisional
and National at Vegas with his A/Fuel car and John Evanchuk was at the National
and qualified for the field. Roger Bateman ran at the National at Vegas and hopes
to keep his #4 spot in the national standings. He has been driving the YNOT flopper
for the last year, and has been getting it dialed in for the permanent driver,
Annie Whiteley, wife of Jim Whiteley. She debuted this past weekend. She was the
#1 qualifier after the first session and ended up #5 in the field with consecutive
5.6's ET's. November 6, 2011 Round two at Vegas saw 3 of 7 Div 6'ers in TD advance, 7 of 12 in Stock move on , 4 of 10 in SG, 9 of 11 in S. Stock, 2 of 6 in S. Comp. With the time change and rapidly cooling temperatures the NHRA Div director decided to pull the plug on the rest of elimination's Sunday after the first pair of Super Gas ran down the track. James Gallatin was in the left lane and after the finish line he veered hard into the right lane and hit the guard rail. After a meeting with the drivers left, the decision was made to end the day and finish the event Monday In round one of Super Stock at Vegas, 17 Division Six drivers competed and 11 went through to round two including national point leader Jackie Alley. 18 were in round one of Stock and 12 winners went through as well including both Lang brothers. 10 drivers from the NW are in Top Dragster and 7 are into round two. 10 drivers are into round two in Super Gas and six are through in Super Comp. Final qualifying from Vegas is posted. November 5, 2011 In the crazy stuff dept... on another DR site (and it wasn't comp plus), it is rumored that the Lucas TF team will be part of the Al-Anabi team in 2012 with Del Worsham losing his TF ride....That one is right up there. When was the last time it rained in Las Vegas.... Ah, yesterday. Rain ended qualifying Friday half way through round one of Super Stock at the final LODRS event of the 2011 season. Top Alcohol did not get in a run, niether did Nitro Harley. They started qualifying early this morning with Stock. Top AlLcohol will try for their first, of what is now only two sessions at noon (weather permitting). Weather does look good right now on the 1320 living timing. They also have a web cam for all the action. Log on here for live timing and action. November 3, 2011 A
quick note to add with the cool deal with Mark Wolfe. A NW racer (not living here
right now though) is rumored to run in the ADRL next year in Extreme Pro Stock.
He is just tidying up a few details. More when we confirm. Vegas' largest event of the year is up this weekend, the final LODRS of the year. Anywhere from 800-1000 cars are usually in attendance (With that kind of a car count the crew becomes up to 10,000 spectators for the weekend). That and the back gate makes this a huge money maker for the track, and one of the biggest money makers for any drag race period. A close second might be the money made at the CHRR two weeks ago. That event had a reported 45-50k spectators. And in the 300 + race cars and relatively low purses, and you have a monster money maker for the NHRA and the Bowser family. The March Meet is similar. It is calendar time here at SpeedZone Magazine We are hoping for Hemi, Nostalgia Funny Car, Pro Mod, Top Sportsman, Doorslammer and possibly Pro Mod. If your race team is interested in a great marketing tool for you and your sponsors, contact us for the details.
October 30, 2011 What a Sunday at Vegas, when the smoke cleared, the points battles in both Top Fuel and Funny Car are out of this world. There are at least four drivers in each class with a chance at the championship in two weeks at Pomona. Del Worsham won Top Fuel over Spencer Massey by .0018. Ron Capps defeated his team-mate Johnny Gray. Mike Edwards took out Allen Johnson, and in a battle of the Harleys, Eddy Krawiec defeated Andrew Hines. In Pro Mod, Leah Pruett took out Danny Rowe, Tony Bartone defeated first time finalist Shane Westefield. In the TAD final round it was Chris Demke defeating Michael Manners. All the final rounds are posted.
October 29, 2011 What a fast day at Vegas as Mike Edwards shatters the track record in Pro Stock with a 6.594/208.84. Bigger news for NW racing fans is Seattle racer Mark Wolfe qualifies in Pro Stock for the first time. He took delivery of his new Mustang just a couple weeks ago and with Larry Morgan power, he is in the field with a 6.657. He gets to take on Edwards in round one. Del Worsham leads Top Fuel with a 3.79, and Ron Capps get the #1 spot in Funny Car. Hector Jr. takes the top spot in PSM. Tony Bartone is #1 in TAFC and wins round one. Local favorite Joey Severance qualifies #6 in TAD as he tries to get the TAD world title. His hopes take a huge blow when he gets loose and has to lift in his round one race against Megan McKernan. He now has to go to the final and win at Pomona if he wants the championship. Not much pressure right!!!! In Pro Mod, The girls (Troxel and Pruett) had the top two spots until the final qualifier, but in that last session, Brad Personett ripped off a stellar 5.84@256 to jump to the #1 spot. He has basically struggled all year and was released by the Burgess team. I bet he was a pretty happy guy Saturday afternoon!!! Motorcycle rider Joe DeSantis came off his bike on the top end of a 180 mph run, he slid a long ways but was not hurt too bad from reports. He may have a fractured arm.
The Fuel floppers had a wild final session as Terry Haddock grenaded his FC (again...). But the real fireworks came from Johnny Gray as he had a blower let go at 800 feet and that explosion split his body in half and the back half fly close to 100 feet in the air. It was one of the highest flights SpeedZone photog Bob Wilson has ever seen. Final qualifying is posted.
October 28, 2011 A Sportsman gallery from Vegas is here. Qualifying #'s are posted. A very cool season ending party for Jay Mageau. This fundraiser includes the chance to win a awesome red Corvette worth at least 20k. The cost of a ticket is only a 100 bucks. Go here for the details. October 27, 2011 Sportsman qualifying and Thursday wrap-up. Thursday Pro pit report, includes photos. The Press releases are posted for: Morgan Lucas, Larry Morgan, Shawn Langdon, Jay Payne, Mike Knowles and Brad Personnett, Karen Stoffer, Hector Arana Jr. and Sr., Mike Janis, Pete Farber, Ike Maier, Melanie Troxel, Leah Pruett and Erica Ender. October 25, 2011 The ADRL world finals and the Battle for the Belt results are here. October 25, 2011 Vegas Baby!!!! This coming weekend the Big O' Tires Nationals. SpeedZone will be there. Lots happening at the Eagle Motorplex as the Ashcroft Band is adding to the the Motorplex with a Motor-X track, under the CMA sanctioning. It will be on the spectator side and by the sounds of it, much like the big X layouts, rolling hills and natural terrain. Very cool! Also at least one mug bog race as well. At the highway entrance to the track an Esso gas bar and Timmy's express. In their second year under the IHRA banner, the drag strip end is hoping for bigger and better things as the 'Plex goes into their 25th year. Keep note for more stuff happening. October 24, 2011
A CHRR weekend wrap up is posted here with photos. Full results are on these two pages: Top Fuel and Funny Car, Sportsman including A/Fuel, Jr. Fuel, A/Gas Pro 7.0 A/FX, N-1. October 23, 2011 Great finals at Bakersfield as John Hale rips off the quickest run in NHRA Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car history, a 5.58/255 to beat Kris Krabill. Brett Harris wins on a holeshot against Tony Bartone in Top Fuel for a one thou stripe. Cal Tebb goes to the semi finals in Pro 7.0 but goes red there. Greg Howland in the 'Zeus' Funny Car (a NWBB/FC regular) goes to the final but breaks out by .007 too much stripe, a 6.993 on a 7.00 index. Ronnie Lemon gets the win. Les Davenport lost in round one when he rolled the beams. Full pro results are here. The Sportsman class results are here. October 22, 2011 Final TF and FC qualifying from Bakersfield is posted. Round one of NFC is posted. Final qualifying for the Sportsman classes is posted. October 21, 2011 Bakersfield (CHRR) day one is complete. In Funny Car Paul Romine leads with a stellar 5.69/241. 35 cars lined up for day one qualifying, but there is supposed to be 41 cars in the pits. The bump after round one is 6.14 (Dale Van Gundy) and three are outside of the "5's". Top Fuel is led by Jimmi Young with a 5.77. There are 15-17 cars on the grounds. Only one local (Canadians in the NFC class) driver, Claude Lavoie, is in the field so far with a 5.93. In the Pro 7.0 class, Cal Tebb is solidly in the field with a 7.01 (he is #4). Ron Sekura is in also with a 7.07. Joey Steckler just went a tad too quick, a 6.95. Sportsman class results are here. The two Pro classes, TF and NFC will be posted by Bob Wilson later tonight along with photos. October 20, 2011 A few pictures from Thursday are at the results page for Bakersfield. A Thursday gallery is up from Bakersfield. Congrat's to the Eagle Motorplex for being named the IHRA Division 6 "Track of the Year". Also the same kudo's go out to Mike Pople for being named Summit Pro Am "Driver of the Year" in Quick Rod. Bakersfield is just jammed according to Bobby Thunder. He will likely start sending stuff to us this evening. October 19, 2011 We have previewed the Nitro Funny Car class for the Hot Rod Reunion this weekend and placed odds for the 38 entries. Ya, we will likely look stupid after the weekend, but it's not like we haven't before so why change. Take a look. October 16, 2011 A new points leader in both Top Fuel and Funny Car as Jack Beckman wins an all DSR FC final against Johnny Gray. Beckman takes a slim lead over Matt Hagan and Mike Neff. Larry Dixon wins TF over Antron Brown, but he is in second place a few points back of Antron Brown. Hector Arana Jr. wins PSM and Vincent Nobile wins PS, making it a real battle for the rookie of the year in the NHRA. Both those drivers on their game. Full results and photos are here. 4:30 update: From Phoenix.... Two division 6 drivers Ray Martin (Alaska) and Darryn O'Connor (Prince George) were in the Top Sportsman final. Unfortunately for O'Connor, he was unable to compete in the final as he was hit by his semi final opponent in the shut down area. He was not hurt but his car was damaged. A sad day today in motorsports as Dan Weldon, the INDY 500 winner this year, died in a horrific multi car crash at Las Vegas. Weldon was trying to win a 5 million dollar purse at the event, and had moved way up the pack when the accident happened. His car flew over top of another that was involved and ended up in the outside fence barrier at a high rate of speed. Here is a link to the LA times coverage. It is super hot at both Bakersfield and Phoenix this weekend. In a huge surprise, Spencer Massey fails to qualify this weekend after extending his TF point lead at Reading two weeks ago. He will surrender the lead to either Larry Dixon or Antron brown as they are in the TF final. A bit of controversay in the TF ranks as the DSR team was ordered to take off their cowling system installed on their three TF fuel cars. The NHRA sited safety issue as the resason. I call BS to that one! There were no team orders in Funny Car as respective point leaders from both the DSR team and JFR teams were ousted by their own team mates who were further back in the standings. Mike Neff and Matt Hagan were ousted in the early rounds. Johnny Gray and Jack Beckman are the finalists. The top three Pro stock drivers were also early casualties, as Jason Line was defeated in round two, Greg Anderson in round one and Mike Edwards, the #1 qualifier was defeated in round two as well. Erica Enders lost her chance to take out her nemisis', the Summit team as they were early losers. Unfortunately for the young female driver, she shook the tires against rookie Vincent Nobile in the semis. He is in the final against Allean Johnson. Hector Arana Jr. and Eddy Krawiec are in the PSM final. For the pro classes the performance levels at Phoenix (in 95+ temperatures) are light years away from the ultra fast Reading (where the temps were in the 50's-60's) event. They likely will deal with similar conditions in two weeks at Vegas. Results from Phoenix are here. At Bakersfield the temps are also in the 90's, and the nitro teams are struggling to manage the track, but they have an advantage as next weekend will be the same for the CHRR. A/Gas, A/Fuel and 7.0 are running this weekend at Bakersifeld, and aCanadian Ryan Davenport is competing with his dad's hi tech blown alky car in the A/Fuel class. He is in the semi finals. Bakersfield results and photos are here. October
15, 2011 A Bakersfield gallery is here. (Fall Championships) October 13, 2011
Bakersfield has the Nostalgia Nationals. Coverage is here. October 11, 2011 Mission Raceway's final weekend Sunday winners, 'King of the Track' and track champion photos are posted. October 10, 2011 To all the Canadians out there, have a great Turkey Day (Canadian Thanksgiving). Nine NHRA rookie drivers, representative of all four NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series categories, are the eligible candidates for the 2011 Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award, it was announced Monday by officials from NHRA and the Automobile Club of Southern California. The candidates for the prestigious award are, in alphabetical order, Hector Arana Jr. (Pro Stock Motorcycle), Justin Finley (Pro Stock Motorcycle), Steve Kent (Pro Stock), Dominick Lagana (Top Fuel), Vincent Nobile (Pro Stock), Buddy Perkinson (Pro Stock), Michael Ray (Pro Stock Motorcycle), Jerry Savoie (Pro Stock Motorcycle), and Brian Thiel (Funny Car). A busy few weeks in California and Arizona as the Nostaliga Fall Championships and then Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield will keep SpeedZone's Bob Wilson busy. The Arizona Nationals in Phoenix this coming weekend will have a couple photos there sending us action including Bob Snyder. Snyder has put together an amazing web site of DR photos dating back to the mid 60'. This could be one of the best photo sites up there. Here is the link. Then Wilson is in Vegas for the huge Las Vegas Nationals. And finally he is at Pomona for the finals. The ADRL completed their 2011 season with the Battle for the Belts and World Finals at Dallas Oct 21-23. The IHRA completes their season at Virginia next weekend with their sportsman championships. The Box and No Box world titles as well as the rest of the sportsman classes. The Mission Raceway banquet is November 26th at the Best Western in Mission. Tickets are available through the Mission Raceway web site. October 8, 1011 The late Mark Niver will be inducted into the Arizona Motorsports Hall of Fame at Canyon Raceway in Peoria, AZ on 10/29/11. October 6, 2011 Here is the complete entry list for the Hot Rod Reunion. October 4, 2011 Congrat's to Joey Severance who runner-upped at Reading and ran his career best to defeat and knock out the 2011 title aspirations of Bill Reichert in the semi finals. JHere is the full story.oey did lose in the final to the wiley veteran Mike Kosky. Severance sits in third place in the standings and needs two decent nat'l results at Vegas and Pomonato take the point lead and championship over Vegas driver Duane Shields. Reading final pro coverage is here. Gallerys are here (Pros) and here (Sportsman). The CHRR early entry list is here. October 3, 2011 We are sad to inform all the TAD fans that the legendary George Santos passed away yesterday. He along with his sons driver Rick and co-crew chief Jeff had one of the most formidable Top Alcohol racing teams in NHRA history. They had the most dangerous small Block Chevy TAD for almost a decade, until NHRA basically ruled it out of existence. The team then formed an alliance with Jack O'Bannon and Norm Grimes and dominated the class with a BAE combination winning the title five times before the team retired from the sport. George, Jeff and Rick ran (still run) S&S Automotive in the Bay Area. He will be sorely missed. October 2, 2011 The Reading Full Throttle event did not get finished Sunday, as rain hit the track half way through round two of eliminations. Before the rain hit Del Worsham reset the TF National ET record with a 3.760. It was the third time it had been reset this weekend. He is in the semis along with team mate Larry Dixon, Spencer Massey and David Grubnic. In FC, Robert Hight, Johnny Gray, Jeff Arend and Robert Tasca remain. Pro Stock, PSM and the two alky classes were just getting into round two. Local drivers were 50/50 as Joey Severance is off to round two, but Clint Thompson took out the center line cones and was disqualified. The plan is to try and complete the event Monday. At
Mission Raceway, their final weekend of 2011 just got finished and then the rain
started just over an hour later. Steve Kendall won the N.W. Outlaw final race
and finished #2 in the points. The R/U on Sunday, Michael Peck was crowned the
series champion and was awarded the Gary Hough Memorial trophy. Other MRP series champions
were Jim Behnke (Pro), Otto Schulte (Super Pro), Phil Marvetz (Sportsman), Gerald
Patzer ( Sport Compact), Larry Rhodenizer (Hot Rod), Al Omond (Bike) and Rob Charlton
(Doorslammers) .October 1, 2011 Mission Raceway has their final drag racing weekend today and tomorrow. The Canada West Doorslammers and the NW Outlaws are the two major classes in competition. The Doorslammers completed their season Saturday and Rob Charlton was crowned the champion despite not competing this weekend. He is in the Caribbean. Terry Langdon Davies needed to win the event but he went out in round two. He finishes 30 points back and Kevin Lance finishes in third place. The NW Outlaws got in 1 1/2 of their qualifying runs before rain hit. Mike Peck has the point lead and needs to advance to round two to win the series. Dane Lachelt and Steve Kendall have an outside shot at the win. Their web sites (links on the right column) will have the full results. The Reading Full Throttle event is on this weekend. The Pro classes as well as Top Alky and Comp are the only ones running this weekend due to a very wet Sportsman pit area. The Sportsman classes will run next weekend. Here is the final qualifying results. September 28, 2011
September 26, 2011 The newest motorsport facilty in the NW is construction well underway. It should be opened in the early Spring of 2011. Paving and concrete will be laid this fall. It is just South West of Seattle in Shelton Washington. Here is the link to the track. It is being built to NHRA specs but there is no word on the sanctioning yet. Beside that one, I here of another in Oregon on native land, so a lot less restrictions. This one is a large facility like the one in Shelton. September 25, 2011 The ADRL event (Ohio Drags V) saw Mike Castelanna (Pro Nitrous) and Alex Hossler (Pro eXTREME) get wins in the top two classes. Cary Gogorth (Pro Stock), Grant McCrary (10.5), Lee Adkins Jr (Pro Mod), Scott Wasko (TS) and Trevor Wilson (Jr.) were the other winners. Results are here. At Dallas, the Full Throttle finals saw Cruz Pedregon, Spencer Massey, Jason Line, Michael Phillips, Tony Bartone and Chase Copeland get the pro classes wins. Full results are here. Ashcroft had their season ending weekend Saturday and Sunday. They also had their pot luck award's night Saturday. We will have the final results and final points standingss up in the next day or so. September 21, 2011 The ADRL is at Norwalk this weekend (Speedzone coverage is here) and the NHRA is in Dallas, (SpeedZone coverage is here). September 19, 2011 8:00pm update: Shawn Cowie went in for his long awaited ankle surgery and it went well. He will be in the hospital for a few days but hopefully it heals well and his recovery can take the next step. 2012 is not that far away (just my supposition). The Greater Vancouver Motorsports Pioneer Society 's (GVMPS) 2011 Inductee ceremony and social event is October 9, 2011 at the Croatian Culture Centre. Go here for all the details and the inductees (it includes 'Madman' Phillips). Team Eagle had a pretty good weekend at the IHRA Summit ET Finals at Castrol RAceway on the weekend. The team finished third in the overall standings. Andy Closky had a huge weekend winning well over 5K. He took two gambler's races and the No Box race Saturday. Rae Caswell won the big one, as he took the Box title and earned a trip to the IHRA world finals in three weeks. If he does the trip and wins that one, there will be well over 25K in cash and prizes. Full results are here. September 18, 2011 In race one of the Full Throttle countdown, Matt Hagan dominated qualifying and the first three rounds of elimination's. He also got the win in the final but the win light was in doubt until Mike Neff struggled at half track. Neither car ran what they were running earlier, but Hagan had enough in the tank to get the win. The two drivers lead win Neff having a 22 point lead. DSR team mates Antron Brown and Spencer Massey were in the TF final, with Brown getting the win. DSR had six drivers in the two semi finals, making it one of the most dominating events in that team's history. Kurt Johnson got the surprising win in Pro Stock, as he defeated a red lighting Jason Line. It was Johnson's first win in three years, but comes too late as he did not make the countdown, He is only running for pride, but a couple wins in the remaining events will go a long way. The countdown point leader heading into the race, Greg Anderson was ousted in a round one upset. Eddy Krawiec won Pro Stock Motorcycle over a red lighting Karen Stoffer. It was an all girl final in Pro Mod, as team mates Melanie Troxel and Leah Pruett squared off. It was the rookie driver Pruett who got the win in a great side by side battle, 5.84 to a 5.91. Full results are here.
Mission Raceway's second to last weekend saw the Saturday race get completed but the Sunday race was rained out just after round one. Go here for Saturday's results. The Mega Ford weekend final rounds are posted on the MRP page as well. September 17, 2011
Yesterday's memorial/celebration of life for Gary Hough was one I will not forget. The stories told were ones that were to be expected from a person who was so well liked. The service was jammed packed with standing room only. His legacy will last a long time based on the love in that room. RIP Gary... You will be missed. Go to his tribute page for more stories.
September 16, 2011 ADRL driver Bert Jackson's service was today. Here is the ADRL link. We will be away for most of the day in Kelowna for the service for Gary Hough. We have more updates to his page. September 15, 2011 We finally have the results posted for the bracket classes and the exhibition cars at the Smoke Fire and Thunder race at Mission the last weekend of August (30 photos are included). September 13, 2011 More stories and photos are added to the Gary Hough Tribute Full results from the Medford divisonal are posted (coverage sponsored by JBS Canada). The Memorial service for Gary Hough will be held on Friday, September 16th at 1:00 pm at Springfield Funeral Home on, 2020 Springfield Road, Kelowna, BC. Cremation. Interment at a later date. The final NW Outlaw race scheduled for Mission Raceway has been postponed until October 1-2. September 12, 2011 The Gary Hough tribute page is up. If you have any photos or stories, send them to us. We will have the memorial service details soon. The first US Nationals gallery is posted. Photos are added (for the final rounds ) at Indy. Pro page is here. Sportsman page is here. A gallery from the Smoke Fire and Thunder event at Mission two weeks ago is posted. September 11, 2011 8:00pm update Medford winners for the final Div six Lucas Oil event are: TAD Joey Severance, TAFC Brian Hough, Comp Randy Jones (Canadian Dale Giroux r/u), Top Dragster Mike Hilsendager , Top Sportsman Randy Johnson (Canadian Mike Williams r/u), Super Stock Jackie Alley, Stock Mike Loge, Super Comp Kyle Rizzoli (Canadian Mike Shannon r/u), Super Gas Val Torres, Super Street Josh Dalrymple, Motorcycle John Widmann. Severance wins the Div 6 TAD title, Jeff Lane wins Comp and Abbotsford's Al Omond wins the Motorcycle championship. A few others are close to being decided but drivers can still head to Div 7 to pick up points. 9:00am update On this anniversary day of remembrance in the USA for those taken in the 9/11 attacks, take the time to think about what the military does world wide to protect us, and remember those who needlessly lost their lives. If the fans and friends/colleagues of Gary Hough want to send us photos and stories, SpeedZone will post a page in memory and dedication to Gary Hough. Send all you memories to speedzone@telus.net, and we will post them up. September 10, 2011 An extremely bad weekend of drag racing both locally and South of the border.
Locally, a real bad one up at Thunder Mountain Raceway, as one of my local racing heroes, Gary Hough, was killed in his injected Nitro FED. Gary went off the end of the 1/8 mile facility while testing his new car in preparation for the North West Outlaw event next weekend at Mission Raceway. I can't believe this one!!! Gary and his wife Clara are awesome people and I am just crushed by this. He has been a huge hero of mine because he was truly old school. Last year, he fulfilled one of his dreams and raced at the Hot Rod Reunion, in his bad ass blown altered. He was one of the top qualifiers in the 7.0 class.
He built this waay cool injected Nitro FED (RH Race cars) and was getting close to getting that deal sorted out. You know Gary would tell anyone who knew him, that if there was a good way to go, it would be behind the wheel of a nitro car, and Gary, you likely got your wish!!!! God speed to Gary, and to Clara and his family and friends, may your strength hold you together.
Down South, ADRL Pro Stock driver Bert Jackson was killed after a horrific crash at the finish line in Rockingham N.Carolina. According to reports, Bert hit the wall near the 1/8 mile stripe and then the cars throttle stuck WO, and full power, ricocheted off the wall again and ended up off the end of the track into the forested area. He was pronounced a short time after the crash.
On a much brighter note, Mission's Mega Ford weekend started off good Saturday with a pretty decent car count (120+) of Ford bodied/Powered or a combination of either. Glen May was out for the first time this year and had a decent first lap in his Cranberry Connenction Pro Mod Truck. Tom Rathmeyer was out with his Blown 'Stang, Howie Steven and Dal Sangha were also out testing. Medford's two day LODRS event is up this weekend and Brian Hough (not relation to Gary) leads TAFC and Joey Severance is at the top in TAD. Al Omond is trying to wrap up the Division title in Motorcycle and he is #2 in the qualifying ladder heading into Sunday elimination's. The US Nationals coverage is here. This weekend at Mission Race is the Mega Ford event with everything Blue Oval. September 8, 2011 9:00pm update: The Divisional six Et Finals results are posted With the issues here, I have finally got the Pro Street BAD DOG shootout story complete with photos. Go here. Lots of other updates coming including Div 6 Summit ET finals and the BIG GO! September 7, 2011 Lots of updates to do as the site is finally back in action. I am looking for another host though as I don't want this long of a delay to happen again. Sept 6, 2011 The Canada west doorslammers has a new url for the time being, so does the NW outlaws. www.canadawestdoorslammers.net www.nwoutlaws.net Lots of updates to take care of as server issues had absolutely plagued us for the last five days. Check back Wednesday night the the start of many updates. Note: all links to other pages on the site are being worked on. August 31, 2011 An edit to the NWBB/FC group not running the second session on Saturday. I talked to the president (Randy Parker) of the club today and that group's contract is only for the Sunday portion of the race. Saturday is an option for all members. SpeedZone apologises for any confusion on them not running. The BAD DOG Pro Street story is complete. The rest of the classes tonight and photos as well. August 30, 2011
The BAD DOG shootout coverage has begun. Coverage is here. The Canada West Doorslammers story is up on their site. August 29, 2011 One of the most successful feature event weekend's at Mission Raceway culminated with Tim the "Iceman" Nemeth defeating Mark "Mr. Explosive" in a career best run 5.800/248.7 to a respectable 6.02/238. While both drivers won two of four match races, the final run by Nemeth, a career best and within 1/1000ths of a second of a 5.70 pass was the quickest of the weekend by either driver, gives the Can vs US battle to the Canuck. Derek Snelson made a bonus run Sunday and went 6.15/253 in his Jet Camaro. The wheelstanders of course made the kids and young at heart cheer wildly. In the BAD DOG shoot-out Pro Street final, Garrett Richards defeated Dale Pedersen 6.45 to a 5.63. The Outlaw 10.5 winner was Paja Agatonovic over Dean Branham running consistent 7.1 - 7.2 all weekend long. Favorite Dale Moznik had an engine fire in the first round and could not stage the car ending his weekend. The SpeedZone oddsmakers for the winners show we don't know squat or maybe they are the odds for teams not to pick. Both winners were picked as middle of the pack favorites. If you picked them and bet your buddy's with the odds you can thank me later. Ron Huegli (Tiki-Man) won the NWBB/FC clash with his fourth victory of the season in the series. He defeated first time finalist Todd Swinford. The Canada West Doorslammers saw Mike Bedsworth get his first win in a couple years. He defeated rookie member and first time series racer Jamie Toews. Full results for the BAD DOG race is here. Results for everything else at Mission is here. August 28, 2011 A great day at MRP with one of the biggest crowds I have see at the NW facility. It seemed larger than the National Open crowd for their Saturday night show, and the fans were treated to a pretty good show, there were a few glitches, but overall I would rate the Saturday show an 8 out of 10. The hype with Chuck Haynes and his new Jet Dragster turned out to be a flop, as he never turned a tire on either run. Starter issues plagued the team on the first run and then Chuck's crew chief shut off the dragster just when it looked like he was ready to run. There was some smoke and a few sparks coming out of the big exhaust tube. Andy Beauchemin went 285 on the last run in his Jet. Derek Snelson won the battle of the Jet Funny cars going 255 in his best run, and Kevin Therres went 230 for his best run. The Wheelstanders put on a good show with Ed Jones in the Fire Truck wowing all the kids and young at heart. The BAD DOG shoot-out was a pretty good show that looks to be a two car battle with Garrett Richards and Yvonne Lucas duking it out. Both were in the 6.30's The Can vs US Nitro Funny Car is split after two runs, with Mr. Ex Mark Sanders winning run #1, with a 6.01 and Tim Nemeth returning the favor with a 6.02 in run two. Nate Gagnon ripped off three 220 mph blasts all at 6.50 or better in his Nitro Harley. The NWBB/FC group only made one run Saturday night, as they felt the dew made the track too slick for the final round. They may have had a point, as half the fast cars that made runs were aborted and half made good runs. The Doorslammers were as usual very solid and Mike Bedsworth and Terry Shuflita were both in the 7.30's to lead the 21 car field. For the rest of the competitors, the bracket classes are just running one points race on the weekend from their usual double header, so eliminations are today. They did run a Gold Card race that did not get completed last year, and that was for all the Team Mission competitors. There was or is a bit of controversy in that deal, as the eventual winner, Warren Jacobson was on the original team, but did not travel or compete at the actual the event in Woodburn. So many competitors felt he should not have been in the Gold Card competition. If they did feel that way, it certainly should have been brought to the attention at the start of race Saturday, not when it was down to the later rounds and the eventual final. SpeedZone will not take a stand on this either way, but since it was mentioned to me by a few racers in the series. I thould it should be made public, for what I am sure will become a hot topic on the message boards. The only question I have is this: Has a precedent has not been set? The full report on the Lanz Racing Jet weekend pages will begin later this evening.
August 26, 2011 10:00pm update....... A huge car count for this weekend's event at Mission Raceway as the pits were completely full by 5:00pm. They had to turn cars away for the Street Legal event tonight. The stands and the fence line had at least 2000 spectators lined up and sitting. The imports and domestic racers put ona decent show and there were even 25-40 VW's of all vintages. One street bike ripped off numerous 165mph blasts and a Honda Civic went 145 mph. The BAD DOG Pro Street qualifier saw a half dozen cars make attempts and Garrett Richards had the track sorted out to the tune of a 6.39/225mph. It will be a fun weekend. A BAD DOG shootout preview is posted as well as the odds for the two classes (purely for your entertainment, no betting please...ya right) The weather for this weekend's "Smoke Fire and Thunder" event at Mission Raceway looks stellar. The weekend starts off today with a test n tune (mostly bracket guys) during the day. Tonight the Mopac Street legal race runs with round one of qualifying for the "BAD DOG" Shootout going at 7:00pm. At the Boston Pizza across the street from the track the "Warhawk" and the "Canola" Jet FC's will put on a display. August 25, 2011 6:00pm update: We are proud to have Lanz Racing and Atrysten Plumbing and Heating sponsoring the coverage this weekend here at SpeedZone for the Smoke, Fire and Thunder event this weekend at Mission Raceway. Click the link for coverage to the Smoke, Fire and Thunder event Two Jet Funny Cars will be on display at Boston Pizza in Mission Friday evening. Head down for a pizza and a couple 270 mph beasts. A great article on Mark Wolf at Comp Plus. One I was thinking about doing but obviously dropped the ball on. Mark you deserve all the press you can get. Hopefully someone out there with the financial wherewithal has the foresight or insight to help out a two person team who is as dedicated to the sport as any low dollar guy (playing in a high dollar sport) can be. Click here for the story. And click here for a link to Mark's email if you are interested in sponsoring his venture. August 24, 2011 The Canada West Doorslammer web site is updated from the last weekend's race including the point standing's. I just got off the phone with Rob at Diversified Metal Works and he said Steve Nicholson will debut his new 63 Corvette this weekend at the BAD DOG shootout. August 23, 2011 Updated feature cars at Mission this weekend. The NW Nostalgia Funny Car group is back for the second time this year. 600 foot burnouts, and side by side six second runs are their forte. And then just so the kids (and adults) don't get bored, a five bike motorcycle stunt teams will entertain you during the down time. They likely will be one or two nitro Harley's as well (Jim Schellenberg is confirmed) It is a jammed packed weekend, and for $25.00 a day (kids under 12 are free), you will not find a better deal! Click on the BAD DOG logo above for the most current list of participants. August 22, 2011 10:00am update. It is a star studded race this coming weekend at the "Smoke, Fire and Thunder" event at Mission Raceway this coming weekend. There are two Canada VS U.S.A. match races. In Nitro Funny Car, a battle between the "IceMan" Tim Nemeth from Chilliwack BC and "Mr. Explosive" Mark Sanders from Maple Valley Wa. Then there is a U.S.A. vs Canada Jet Funny Car match-up with Derek Snelson in the "WarHawk" from Seattle and Kevin Therres from Saskatchewan. Chuck Haynes is bringing his new Jet Dragster and the Volcano Jet as well. He will try and break his 312mph MPH record. The Ed Jones "Firetruck" Wheelstander will race Rick Marcum in his Chevy Pick-up Wheelstander. The BAD DOG Shootout two race series wraps up at Mission as well and it is expected to be huge. A dozen Pro Street cars and 6-8 10.5 Outlaws will battle! The Canada West Doorslammers round out the feature race car list. They compete in their second to last point race of the year and they expect 20-30 cars in the 8.70 and quicker all door-car field. August 22, 2011 At the Eagle Motorplex on Sunday, Mike Peck was the big winner in the NW Outlaws. In Jr. Dragster Chloe Carre defeated Bradee Lowe, Allen Hamm won No Box over Al Stefiuk and Al Quigley won Box against Rae Caswell. In the correction dept., Al Omond, the point leader in the Motorcycle Divisional standings is from Cloverdale not Chilliwack. Seattle's full Divisonal results are posted courtesy JBS Canada. Shawn Cowie made his first appearance at a Drag race since his accident in April. He and fiance Taylor had a great time and were overwelmed by the support. Shawn absolutely can't wait to get back to the action. August 21, 2011 At the Eagle Motorplex we should rename this year's event 'Moth's in the Desert' instead of 'Thunder in the Desert' because as soon as the lights were turned on the moths were unbelievable. They stayed up in the lights (except they liked my van for some reason) The evening show was a great time with five of the NW Outlaws running in the sixes including three drivers in the 6.50's. The first two rounds of qualifying are lead by Barents Murray who went 6.508/213. Dane Lachelt is #2 with a 6.54 and Steve Kendall is #3 with a 6.58. This is a huge payout event for the first year series with over 2000 to win. Summit Custom Brokers are the sponsor this weekend. Mike Peck is #4 with a great 6.89 in his FED. That run for the short wheelbased digger was in the heat of the afternoon. Marty Zazula rounds out the 6 second cars with a 6.96. The winners in day one of the triple header (they are running two races Sunday) were Bradee Lowe over her brother Baillie Lowe in Jr., Brian Barby won Box over Rae Caswell and Glenn Fillingham won No Box over Stephen Closky. Reaction time differences in all three finals were less than .02, and all were stellar lights. Jr was 2/1000ths difference for the brother and sister final round. At Brainerd International for the Full Throttle event Matt Hagan (Funny Car), Del Worsham (Top Fuel) and Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) lead Pro Qualifying. At Seattle for the fifth of six Division six LODRS events, Joey Severance won TAD over Chilliwack Hugh Ridley's TAD (driven by James Butler) and Keeter Ray won TAFC over Steve Gasparelli. Chilliwack's Al Omond won Motorcycle for his third win in the divisional series. He has a commanding lead in the points and anyone who wants to catch him will have to go out of Division to have a chance. Gig Harbor's Robert Matthews defeated Medicine Hat's Mike Williams in Top Sportsman. Shawn Herbst defeated Kelowna's Mike Shannon in Super Gas, Tom Koenen defeated Speedzone Magazine sponsor Dave Barcelon (Truck town) in Top Dragster. Super Street winner was Tom Manfred over Dave Wakefield, Kyle Rizzoli defeated Tom Gresham in Super Comp. In Comp it was Jeff Lane over a red lighting Dale Giroux. Congrat's to Terry Spargo for a semi final finish. Super Stock winner was Ryan McClanahan and Stock winner was Toby Lang over a red lighting Eric Waldo. Mission Raceway has the Canada West Doorslammers running this weekend along side the CMRDA group. We will have results from their event on Monday. August 20, 2011 4:00pm update The BAD DOG web page is up with all the results from race#1 at Seattle last week. Next weekend is race #2 and it should be a good one. As many as a dozen Pro Street cars, maybe more will be in attendance as well the biggest field ever of Outlaw 10.5 at Mission. Click on the logo below to go to the exclusive page for the BAD DOG Shootout
Contender pages. We are working on a web page dedicated tot he "BAD DOG" shootout at MRP next weekend. Yvonne Lucas and Roy and Dale Moznik are working hard to put together the premier Pro Street event in the North West. We will have their web page up and live later this weekend as well as a preview to the final event at Mission Raceway next weekend and the results from the Seattle event last week. August 20, 2011 Spokane is hosting their annual Fire and Thunder event with Jet Cars and Funny Cars as the features. In a single pass last night Darin Bay driver of the 'Devastator' Jet Dragster crashed on the top end and rolled his car. According to Cindy Gibbs, track manager, Darin was alert and talking after the crash. He was transported to Spokane Sacred Heart Medical centre hospital to be checked out. August 17, 2011 This weekend the Canada West Doorslammers are at Mission Raceway running with the Canadian Motorcycle Drag Racing Assoc. Weather looks hot and the racing should be great. The Doorslammer sponsor is OMH: 'Ogilvie Mountain Holdings'. August 16, 2011 A quick note from the IHRA event this past weekend. Peter Gallen absolutely shattered the Nostalgia Funny Car record set 9 month's ago by Canadian Tim Boychuk at the NHRA Finals. Running under the same rules as the NHRA runs (Peter is one of the few East Coast drivers to run under the NHRA Heritage rules). He ripped off an off the charts 5.557/251 to obliterate the 5.63 run by Boychuk. Tim still holds the MPH record at 257 though. It was incorrectly reported by another online drag racing news site (DRO) that Gallen was running IHRA rules for the race; as in bigger blower mag and pump, but he was running legal according to my sources. Congrat's to Peter the the Poverty Stricken team! Paul Romine is another from the East who wins and runs hard, he came West and won at Boise last week. August 15, 2011 A huge weekend coming up at the Eagle Motorplex as their annual "Thunder in the Desert" night race August 20-21. The feature class is the NW Outlaws. This group is an all out "run what you brung" assoc. that includes Dragsters (FEDs and REDs), Altereds, Doorcars and even Funny Cars. The event is sponsored by Summit Custom Brokers and there is close to $5,000 in prize money for the race. A minimum $2,000 to win and $1,200 for runner-up. Go to their web site for all the info on the series. The Rocky Mountain Funny Car assoc had a busy week with the Hot August Night event at Edmonton last Wednesday and then the Annual Provost Alberta drags at their airstrip Saturday and Sunday. Go the the Rocky site for all the action, photos and results. Go here for photos from 'Hot August Nights' courtesy SpeedZone contributor Sheryl Ogonoski. Great photos Sheryl! A big announcement last week (that I should have posted earlier) is local Turbo and Comp standout Mark Wolfe has sold the Turbo 'Bird (to a Canadian) and will take delivery of a RJ Pro Stock Mustang. It will have Morgan Ford power and Mark hopes to make at least two National events at the end of the year. Vegas and Pomona likely. I heard Mark wanted to make a switch to a naturally aspirated combo and run B/A (Pro Stock is exactly the same set-up as B/A, just extra weight for B/A, 350 lbs for a 500 cu.in engine) if he sold the Thunderbird, but if the Pro Stock thing goes well, then who knows. I know the Ford program is the toughest one to be competitive in in the class but Morgan is making decent power and has qualified at every event this year. If you are interested in helping out the only guy in the NW attempting Pro Stock then give Mark an email. August 14, 2011 At the first Bad Dog shootout this weekend at Seattle here is qualifying for Pro Street and 10.5: Outlaw 10.5 1. Dale Moznik 6.853/202/.36 Pro Street Yvonne Lucas won in the final of Pro Street running a career best 6.31/223. She defeated Garrett Richards in the final round. Dale Moznik won 10.5. We will try and get full elimination results and some photos from event organizer Yvone Lucas. At the Night Fires in Boise, only 6 TF FED's turned out, but a large 19 car field tried for the final 16 car eliminator in FC. Paul Romine is #1 and Jason Rupert is #2. NW drivers MArk Sanders is #3 with a 5.95, Tim Boychuk was not firing on all 8, as the best for the Leong tuned ride was a 6.01, and Mark Hengtes is #8 with a 6.06 in the Bucky Austin tuned Arrow. Darrin Bay is #15 with a 6.20 in Twig Zeigler's Satelitte. 11 Pro Mods made the trek to Boise, as the WCOPMA series saw a great 6.29 bump spot. and a stellar 5.98/237 by Bret Williamson in the Williamson/Gore Studebaker. Local NW nitrous hitter Dennis Radford actually failed to make the show, but was inserted into eliminations. Rain affected the final IHRA Nitro Jam this weekend (at Martin Mich) with only Friday getting completed. They are trying to finish today. Local Tom Padilla in the Nasty Benjamin Altered went low ET in the Fuel Altered's with a 6.27. Peter Gallen again dominated in Nostalgia Funny Car, with back to back 5.70's. Mission's
final big race of the year is in two weeks, as the Smoke Fire and Thunder
event is scheduled. Four Jets, two Wheelstanders, and two Nitro Funny Cars in
a US vs Canada battle. The NWBB/FC's are back for the second time this season.
The other big feature at MRP is the final Bad Dog shootout event for Pro Street
and Outlaw 10.5. As many as 14 Pro Street comptitors are expected.
August 11, 2011 A pro gallery from Seattle is posted. A Sportsman (and TA) gallery from Seattle is posted. August 10, 2011 Port Alberni winners , runner-ups and semi finalists are posted. Plus a bunch of photos. Bob
Snyder was the the Funny Car Nationals at Marion County Raceway last weekend.
"The 4th Annual Funny Car Nationals had 32 funny cars show up with 31
of them hitting the track. After 2 rounds of everybody running the finals were
set in Injected and Blown classes. The Snakebite of Mike Klontz was to go up against
Bob Rosetty in the Rollin Stone car. Injected was to be the Poison Arrow vs the
Rainmaker but a heavy duty rainstorm came through and washed out the finals".
We will post a gallery of this event. August 9, 2011 The Seattle Pro wrap up is posted. Sportsman final round results are posted. A gallery from Port Alberni is here. Winners are posted. Photos are added from Seattle qualifying. August 7, 2011 Canadians at the NW Nationals: It was a great day for BC driver Mike McKeigue at Seattle as he wins his first Final in Comp Eliminator. The Fort St. John driver defeated another first time finalist, Casey Plaizier from Edmonton. The three other drivers from BC in Comp all went out in round one. Steve Lowe from Langley went to the semi finals in Super Street. In Super Gas, Abbotsford's Marv Wiebe went out in the 1/4 finals. Calgary's Ken Mostowich went to the final of Super Comp where he was defeated by Brad Plourd. Richmond's Rick McKinney lost to Jody Lang in Super Stock (Lang doubled up in Stock as well). McKinney defeated New West driver Mike Nottingham in the semis. Calgary's Ashley Bart lost in round one of TAD. James Butler in the TAD owned by Chilliwack's Hugh Ridley ran a career best 5.46 but lost to Cody Perkins. John Evanchuk from Edmonton lost in round one of TAFC. Calgary's Roger Bateman lost in the second round. Pro winners were Tim Wilkerson in Funny Car, Del Worsham in Top Fuel and Jason Line in Pro Stock. Joey Severance won TAD and Alexis De Joria won TAFC over Brian Hough. Results are here (Pros) and here (Sportsman) At Port Alberni, Kevin Lance won in Doorslammer over first time finalist Rick Limb. Brent Murray ran as quick as 6.50/212 in his dad's TAD. Cal Tebb made three wild laps in his Alky Flopper on Sunday. Phil Ruskowski went over 200 a couple times in his high gear only nitro FED. It was along one at Port on Sunday, as a few oil downs and mishaps lengthened the day, but it was an awesome weekend overall. Well over 7,000 spectators and 300 race cars were at the Valley Airport. It was one of the funnest events I have attended in along while. Many other towns in the NW could look at the model for this event and have a great once a year deal. Bill Surry and his team do a fantastic job. I must make note also of the the event souvenir program. It was as well written and laid out as any magazine I have seen in recent memory, Darren Willis should be very proud and deserves a pat on the back, a job well done! We
will have full results on Monday or Tuesday. August 6, 2011: Day two looks similar weather wise for Seattle (a bit more sun in the afternoon though) as the cool temperatures will give fantastic performance levels for all the naturally aspitated classes for the second day in a row. The TA classes should also run quicker as well, mind you, the run by Chris Demke in TAD was almost perfect. He is the second driver in history to run a sub 5.25 pass, with his 5.246/272 lap in round one Friday. Cody Perkins and Joey Severance both ripped off 5.32 ETs. The first driver to do a sub 5.25 pass is not in competition this weekend, it is BC driver Shawn Cowie who went 5.243 earleir this year. He normally would be at this event, his home race, but an April accident on the highway in Tennessee with a drunk driver ended his season. He is recovering and is looking forward to being back out there for sure. It is a bit surprising that Jim Whiteley and a couple other West Coast teams are not in attendance this weekend. The Seattle Sportsman coverage is here. The biggest problem for the big boys as stated by Bob Wilson in the Seattle Pro report, is HP. There is too much of it in the cooler sea level type conditions here at Pacific Raceway. While it is supposed to be a bit warmer with more sun peaking through, the first round of qualifying today(the 3rd of 4 rounds) will provide an idea of how the crew chiefs have adjusted to the stellar high HP conditions. Pro Stock is loving it though. If they run prior to noon there is a slight chance of two or three sneaking into the 6.50 range or better. Hopefully we get internet at Port Alberni later today to update all the happenings at the 'Thunder in the Valley'.
9:35pm Update: Looks like it was a stellar day at Seattle for the naturally aspirated hot rods; as in Pro Stock and Comp (cool cloudy day from reports). 14 of the 15 Pro Stock cars in attendance were in the 6.50 zone after Friday's two rounds. In Comp, Bob Marshall runs the quickest and fastest run in B/AA ever. A mine shaft 6.919/198.73 (actually corrected to 1500 feet). Dale Giroux is a few hun back in his B/AA (a 6.951/197 lap) Terry Spargo put in his old 707 and runs his best et in a while, a great 6.63/209. Jirka Kaplan clicked it early or had troubles down track and runs a 6.42 at only 179. Northern BC driver Mike McKiegue went .598 under in his C/AA. But, the big news is .... Mark Wolfe sits #1 in Comp wth a great 6.380/224.06 in his turbo Thunderbird. Awsome buddy! Sportsman coverage is here. The leaders in the pros are John Force 4.12 (only 6 fc's even ran in the 4's Friday). Greg Anderson leads in PS 6.541/211.16. Edwards went the same et, but was 1/2 mph slower. In Top Fuel, Del Worsham leads with a 3.830/319 blast. Pro coverage is here. August 5, 2011 Click the Alberni valley logo for weekend coverage
Click on the logo for Pro Coverage for the NW Nationals
Click here for Sportsman and Top Alcohol coverage. August 3, 2011
The biggest NHRA event in the NW is up this weekend at Pacific Raceway. The O'Reilly Auto Parts NW Nationals in Seattle. SpeedZone has two photo/Journaliasts there. We also will be at Port Alberni this weekend for the biggest drag race on Vancouver Island. "Thunder in the Valley"
August 1, 2011 It's a Canadian Civic holiday today up here north of the 40, and here in BC, we celebrate BC Day (very original). The weekend wrapped up at Mission Raceway with Sunday eliminations at the 20th annual Langley Loafers event. After a huge rain storm Saturday night and into Sunday morning, racing got underway just after noon......more here... (Photos are added as well including a huge wheelstand by 'Wild' Bill). At Sonoma, Ron Capps got his first in this season, and the first in a long time for the returning to NHRA crew chief tandom of Tim and Kim Richards. He defeated Tim Wilkerson. Antron Brown got the win in Top Fuel over Tony Schumacher. Pro Stock saw Greg Anderson defeat new point leader Mike Edwards. LE Tonglet defeated Mike Phillips in Motorcycle. SpeedZone
is tentatively planning on heading to Port Alberni for the "Thunder in the
Valley" event. The CWDS teams are heading to the Island as well as A few
feature cars like Cal Tebb's GTO Funny Car. It should be a great event. July 30, 2011 The Langley Loafers event at Mission Raceway has one of the largest car counts and shown n shine car numbers in recent memory. The Outlaw class is the biggest ever (around 20 including 6 Canada West Doorslammer regulars), but the feature class, the AA/Supercharge assoc. is very small (only six cars) and that is disappointing. Howard Anderson leads with a 6.76, Scott White is #2 with a 6.81 and Troy Owens is #3 with a 6.85. Canadian Brent Harris is #4 with three runs in the 6.90's, the best being a 6.92. 'Mad' Mike Molea is #5 with a 7.23, but he had with issues with his second and third runs. The sixth driver escapes me. Only having six cars when there is no other Gasser assoc. running due to the cancellation of the class in the NHRA, there would be an excess of Gassers looking for a place to race. I can not think of a reason why the group can't field at least 8 cars for an event that has been a solid supporter for over a decade. Something has to be done! At least the top four cars (and likely Molea on Sunday should put on a good show. Cal Tebb from the Rocky Mountain Funny Car assoc is also here along with Hank Weultjes in his 41 Willys from that group. Tebb ripped off two stellar passes, a 6.75 @ 208 and a 6.74 @ 209. Hank had a few troubles today and should have the issues sorted out Sunday. Reg Deforest is also here with his blown altered. Sunday should prove to be a pretty good day, with lots of awesome really cool cars in competition a great car show as well. At Sonoma, the NHRA Full Throttle tour is in race two of the Western swing. No Top Alcohol classes are in attendance which is a huge mystery for this reporter, but huge fields of Top Sportsman and Top Dragster are in competition. In Top Fuel, Tony Schumacher leads with a 3.819/321. John Force is #1 in Funny Car with a 4.06 and Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) is #1 for the second race in a row. He went 6.538/211. Pro Stock Motocycle is lead by Hector Arana Jr. with a 6.88 Back to Top Sportsman, the top five drivers are all Div 6 competitors. Craig Olson with a 6.25, Barry Daniluk is #2 with a 6.42 and Craig Cawte is #3 with a 6.59 Craig Olson Jr. is #4 with a 6.63 and Curt Geise is #5 with a 6.74 July 29, 2011 The Pro Street coverage from the National Open at Mission is posted, including the historic 5.99 by Joe Delehay. The Langley Loafers Old Time Drags are on this weekend at Mission Raceway. One of the oldest events at the track and one of the best. The weather looks good (not to hot) so make it out to MRP this long weekend. The Sonoma National event is also on this weekend in NHRA drag racing.
July 28, 2011 12:;30 am update. A Robert Hunter gallery from the National Open at MRP is posted.
July 27, 2011 11:45 update. A special photo page from the Open is here, it includes Pro Street and Funny Cars. July 27, 2011 The Nitro Funny Car story and all the photos for the floppers are posted. The Pro Street and Comp story's will be up Wednesday night. July 26, 2011 10:00pm update. The first gallery from Mission is posted (Bill Jeffery photography) A Woodburn Divisional gallery is posted. July 26, 2011 Mission Raceway National Open Sportsman final round results and photos are posted.
July 26, 2011 11:00am update: The Rocky Mountain and BB/FC Funny Car story for the MRP National Open are posted. Nitro Funny Car and Pro Street to come. July
24, 2011 10:00pm
update. What a great weekend and a great Sunday at MRP! Tim Boychuk continued his dominance at MRP, but it was close in the final. Darrin Bay was just a few hun back of Tim in the final round. Boychuk did go 250 in the semis (5.72 ET). Norm Kolwich almost had a dream debut weekend for the RMNFC group. He lost in the final against Eddy Plaizier when he broke out by .02 (went 6.88 on the 6.90 index). Ron Huegli absolutely dominated the NWBB/FC group with two 6.85's on their 6.85 number. In the final he went 6.88 to defeat Randy Parker. The full story starting Monday. Special thanks go out to Joey's Place in Edmonton for their support. Kudos to JET Equipment and TDN Constructors for the support of this historic event at Mission Raceway. This event will grow! At
Denver, Force, Massey, Allen Johnson and Karen Stoffer won the Pro classes in
the Full Throttle tour. Full coverage starts tomorrow A plethora of fiberglass graced MRP Saturday evening after the time trials and qualifying started off and continued throughout the day at the JET Equipment and Tools and TDN Constructors group Canadian National Open. Four Bracket classes, Three Super Classes Top Comp, Stock/Super Stock Combo, the CPSA along with one of the largest JR Fields in recent memory at Mission Raceway started at 8:30 am and continued until the fans got their first glimpse of what was in store for them beginning at 5:30 when all those retro Fiberglass bodies rolled out onto the 1320 foot launching pad. The fans started…… July 22, 2011 Friday testing for the National Open saw all the Rocky Mountain flopers make hits. And it unfortunately did not all go as planned....More here........ July 21, 2011 Sorry for no updates today, one reason is we buried a very special Aunt today and it was very tough for the family. Secondly, with my internet functioning at less than half throttle (Dial up until Friday at the earliest), it is difficult. My week was spent securing sponsorship for the huge 32 funny car poster. It is done and will be picked up Friday. Thanks to the Rocky Mountain Funy Car Assoc, the NWBB/FC assoc., JET Equipment and Tools, Joey's Place Paint and Restoration, Coast to Coast Concrete, Bucky Austin Racing, Ace Manufacturing, TDN and Mission Raceway. At the track late this afternoon, the full field (10) of Rocky Mountain floppers are already at the track, 6 of the 11 or 12 Nitro cars are there as well. The Lordco sponsored Comp Shootout will se around 8-10 cars in attendance and Pro Street will have an 8 car field as well. Updates throughout Friday will commence in the early afternoon. The weather looks real good, finally! July 20, 2011 11:00pm update. I configured my 'puter with......dialup... can you believe that! It is slow, but until they provide me with a new router it is the best I can do. Got the poster sent off to the printer, thanks to MRP for using their wifi. ANd it will be picked up Friday morning. Here is the rough look (without the credits and drivers names). Here is the first page for this wekend's National Open. The feature story for the 3 local papers and their internet sites starts off the weekend's coverage Sorry for no email replies this morning, my internet is down at home (a bad router) and telus will not have one sent to me until Friday, so I am doing updates at wifi locations for the next couple days. We are just finishing up a huge 32 funny car poster for this weekend. Wait till you see it! July 19, 2011 A quick note on this weekend's Nitrofest Funny Car event. There will be a silent auction to raise funds for Canuck Place Children's Hospital. If you have a cool item or anything that you think might help raise funds for the auction plese bring them to the track (to Tim and Nancy Nemeth's trailer, right at the front of staging, closest to the tower) on Friday or Saturday so they can be added to the list. It will be greatly appreciated. July 18, 2011 2:55pm update. Just got word from TDN Constructors CEO Nancy Nemeth that they will be running a raffle for the Canuck's Place Children's Hospital fundraiser this weekend as part of the National Open. The TDN company is a provider for Canuck's Place Hospice and they have a family coming out to the track and they are raising funds this coming weekend for Canuck's Place. There will be a silent auction and autograph session with an all new 30+ funny Car poster debuting this weekend. A practice tree with fans getting a chance to "Beat the Tree" against some of the drivers in attendance. Here is the release for the raffle: TDN Just received the raffle approval from the gaming commission, so now we can advertise it! I’ll do up an official poster for this and forward it to you, but for now here’s the details.
Prize: “Crew Member for Sunday, July 24th” for Tim - The Iceman - Nemeth Nostalgia AA/FC Team Winner will get entry to Sunday’s race, they will get to hang out in Tim’s pit on Sunday, they will get to ride in the tow vehicle and stand on the starting line with the team during our runs, they will get to ride in the tow vehicle with the team to pick up Tim at the end of the track, they will get an “Iceman” T-shirt. Ticket Sales: Saturday, July 23rd. Ticket Prices: $2 each or 3 for $5 (Minors are not permitted to purchase raffle tickets.) Prize Draw: 8:45pm Saturday night – just before final qualifying round of the Nitro cars. Winner must be present at the time of draw to collect their prize. If winner is not present, we will keep drawing tickets until a winner comes forward. Raffle License #: 36016 – Know your limit, play within it.
Silent Auction will be happening throughout the day. SpeedZone
signed our event coverage sponsor for this weekend's "Jet Racing/TDN Constructors"
National Open. It is Joey's Place Paint
and restoration. This weekend's race Friday night will be a lot of fun, as the track is hosting a huge Funny Car corral BBQ. Ace Manufacturing, Boychuk Ventures/Troy Lee Funny Car and Jolly Rogers Racing are the sponsors of the BBQ. It is open for all the Funny Car teams in Attendance for the event. The race of the year is only a few days away and we will again bring up front the two sponsors responsible for bringing THIS event to you, deserve as much press as possible, so we will bring back the release posted a few weeks ago.
Coquitlam British Columbia, - JET Equipment & Tools Ltd. is pleased to announce its agreement to be the Title Sponsor of the upcoming Nitro Funny Car Spectacular at Mission Raceway Park July 23 and 24. JET and TDN Constructors Group, have partnered with Mission Raceway Park in an attempt to field the first 16 team Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car race in Canadian history. These 16 cars, coupled with a potential 20+ alcohol cars should result in the first ever 32-car field of funny cars in Western Canada.
Go to the Jet web
site for more information on their company.
July 16, 2011 The best news I have heard lately and the news so many race fans have been hoping for is the news that Shawn Cowie is heading home this weekend. After three solid months of recovery, Shawn is at the point where he is able to maneuver more freely. His back and neck brace is off and he is off antibiotics. Everyone is very exciting in the family. Shawn is a bit concerned as he knows there is a lot of work yet to do, and he does not want to be a burden for those close to him. For those concerns Shawn, this is what everyone wants. You need some normalcy as do Taylor, and your family. He will have a physiotherapist coming to the home and likely he will be going to rehab as well. Keep up the hard work; we are all so proud of you. Shawn still has surgery's in front of him, but these procedures will be a piece of cake buddy. Keep up the good work. Woodburn Divisional is up this weekend. We have a photographer on site (Bill Jeffery), to sent us all the action. A good field of Funny Cars, but a small TAD field. Friday results are here. Here is a short note about next weekend's National Open and the 32 Funny Car fieldheading to MRP, and all the competitors. A few comments have been made about the River situation at MRP. Yes the water level is high, but it is not as high as three years ago at this time, and the level is receding. At no point is the water up to a danger zone, there is no worry at all.
July 14, 2011
We have a big feature planned for the biggest race in the NW (Funny Car wise) in a couple decades.
July 11, 2011 10:30pm update. The Pro Street story from Mission is posted. Photos Tuesday morning. 3:00 pm update. The Pro Mod story from MRP is finally posted. The Pro Street and other CPSA classes will be up tomorrow. The Mission July 2-3 race results and final round photos are posted. July 11, 2011 At the Eagle Motorplex, Steve Kendall takes the NW Outlaws win and moves up to third place in the standings. He defeated race one runner-up Dane Lachelt. Full Eagle results and photos from the weekend are here. Mike Neff, Greg Anderson and Del Worsham all take wins at Chicago. For Neff it marks Team Force's 200th event win in their history. Del Worsham gets his fifth win of the season and 30th overall for his career) for the A- Anabi TF team. He further extends his lead just as Mike Neff does. Greg Anderson's win over Erica Enders (she is a win waiting to happen) was his second of the year and 67th of his career. He sits second in the standings behind teammate Jason Line. LE Tonglet won in PS Motorcycle. It was his second of the year and puts him in fourth place in the standings. The other winners at Chicago are here:
July 10, 2011 Division Six did not do too well in the Allstar event yesterday at Chicago. Only one driver from the NW advanced past round one and that was Mark Faul. He went on to win Stock, but he was part of the team as a blocker only (no points). Division Four won and Division Seven was the runner-up. It came down to the the Super Stock final between a driver from those two Divisions. Slate Cummings won the final giving the win to the South Central. It is their sixth ever. Div. Four was looking for their first ever. BC's Rob Harrison in his first ever Jeg's race lost in round one to Joey Tanksley. Mike Neff, Greg Anderson, Spencer Massey and Hector Arana Jr. lead Pro qualfying at Chicago. Frank Manzo and Chase Copeland were the TA leaders in qualifying. At the Eagle Motorplex this weekend, Dane Lachelt leads the "Summit Brokers NW Outlaws" qualifying with a 6.50/216. Steve Kendall is #2 with a 6.58 (a career best in his new Spitzer RED). Race one winner Mike Peck is #3 with a 6.97. One more qualifer this morning before eliminations get underway round 12 noon.
July 8, 2011 Mission Bracket results from last weekend are here. July 7, 2011 The NW Outlaws are at the Eagle Motorplex this weekend. There should be close to 10 cars this weekend for the event, if the guys contacted make the race. It's the Jeg's allstar weekend as the NHRA heads to Joliet for the Full Throttle event, Route 66 Nationals Div six is represented by: A pretty good looking team. Last year was one of our best finishes in a while as we Div 1 and Div 5 tied with 1300 points and Div 6 had 1000 in third. TAD
- Mike Austin July 6, 2011 The Canada West Doorslammer web site is updated. This weekend SpeedZone heads to the Plex for the second NW Outlaw race of the year. Looks like around a 8-10 car field. It should be a real fun weekend as it is their annual Christmas in July event. I am without email today and part of yesterday as I am at our lakehouse. Use my gmail email account if you want to reach me. I will be back home Thursday night. July 5, 2011 Here is the official release from Jet Equipement and Tools Canada as they prepare for their first major event sponsorship for a major Drag Race in Canada.
Coquitlam
British Columbia, - JET Equipment & Tools Ltd. is pleased to announce its
agreement to be the Title Sponsor of the upcoming Nitro Funny Car Spectacular
at Mission Raceway Park July 23 and 24. JET and TDN Constructors Group, have partnered
with Mission Raceway Park in an attempt to field the first 16 team Nostalgia Nitro
Funny Car race in Canadian history. These 16 cars, coupled with a potential 20+
alcohol cars should result in the first ever 32-car field of funny cars in Western
Canada.
Go to the Jet web
site for more information on their company. July 4, 2011 Second update from Medicine Hat. Jamie Clerf, former SpeedZone assoc. editor won non electronics Sunday race worth 5k (don't know the split neg by the two finalists). Congrat's go out to Stefan Kondolay for his double win and runner-up at the Medicine Hat Big Buck Bracket bash. Winning over 10k on the weekend from what I hear. SpeedZone
hopes all Canadians had a great Canada Day weekend, and Happy Independence Day
to all our American friends south of the border. Pro Mod had an
all blown final round, as two Alberta cars faced off. Wade Sjostrom running his
career best 6.50 in qualifying defeated Dale Bristow in round one, Mark Wolfe
in the semi finals and Joe Delehay in the final round. Delehay broke on the burnout
in the final. He defeated Perry Thyr in round one and Terry Spargo in the semi
finals. ombo).
Saturday results later. The full report on this race will be posted over the next
couple days. July 2, 2011 10
Pro Mods and 9 Pro Street cars attempted to qualify Saturday for the MRP Doorcar
Shootout. 22 Doorslammers also trying to qualifying for their 8.70 minimum. Joe
Delehay leads Pro Mod with a 6.22/235 and Mark Wolfe is #2 with a 6.49. July 1, 2011 A pretty good field at Mission with 10 Pro Mods and 10 Pro Street cars on the grounds. The Hitters in each class and a preview is here. A few of each made runs today, and the Pro Street class had a single qualifier Friday evening, along side the street legal program. Hopefully some of the spectators Friday night show up tomorrow and Sunday. The doorslammers will have their biggest field of the year as well over 20 cars are on the grounds.
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