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"Thunder in the Alberni Valley"
August 11, 2008 Notes from "Thunder in the Alberni Valley"............. Photos highlights/gallerys and more results to come Tuesday. The drag race at Alberni is a special event for sure in the Island community, but it like most other sports, take a back seat to West Coast fishing. The Alberni Inlet is right in town and is only 25 miles from Barcley Sound, one of the meccas for West Coast salmon fishing. All the boats, marinas and the shops themselves are geared toward fishing. The town itself surprisingly large for a city of 20,000. They certainly are a tourist town, with all the charters, water side quays, Uclulet and Tofino an hours drive and obviously the famous Long Beach. Sproat Lake is huge, with it being the home base to the world famous massive MARS water Bomber. Hockey will take a front seat come early 2009, as the World U-17 Hockey challenge with 10 international teams including all four regions from Canada are represented. Russia, Sweden and US are some of the other powers set to compete as well. On the drag racing front, The Alberni Drag Racing volunteers lead by Bill Surry work very hard in bringing a fun weekend to fans and racers alike and they do their job well. Mark Bog the very capable race director, veteran starter Steve Manning and his trusty assistant Al make sure the starting line is prepped as well as an airport can be. Long time Drag Racing fan, Moe Jones and his brother (forget his name, sorry) are also on the starting line. Other than the rain interruptions and the unfortunate crash by Dal Sangha Saturday, the race did go off without too many hitches, but the large car count did keep racing going until 8:00pm Sunday. I am glad we had hotel accommodations Sunday night. There are a good number of strong running race cars from the Island, and this appears to be the only race they attend other than the 1/8 mile stuff at Western Speedway. Having the twice a year Sechelt drag racing event on the same weekend (very similar race, on an airstrip, 1/8 mile event) as Port Alberni is really bad timing for these special races, but the airport authorities are likely not too in-tune of the drag racing demographics, and give weekend that likely suit their operations. It did not appear to affect the crowd, as it was a very busy place for sure. The Wheelstanding 57 pickup of Murphy, Grocock and Kunz were the headliners at Sechelt and hopefully they had a good weekend. I am not sure if there are any improvements the volunteers could make to put on a better event, on a once a year used facility, but that being said, with safety concerns in the forefront in drag racing with the recent accidents and deaths on the big tour, that appears to always be on my mind. Perhaps the Friday could be used to spread a couple more barrels of VHT and get a bunch of old tires and drag the surface area. The non profit organization does put alot of money in their coffers (My own assumption based on numbers), and they do many improvements, spend tons on advertising, pay the doorslammers and ex cars very well (also did generously donate a large amount of money to the Dal Sangha rebuild fund). The starting line does have white airport markings right near the groove, that could perhaps be taken off with a thinner or lacquer for the race and then repainted after the event. Temporary guard rails are an unlikely option and whether or not it would have minimized the damage to Dal's car, I don't know. Last year there was a similar crash in the same spot. None of this commentary is meant to be bashing in any way it is just a few ideas for the volunteers to look at. Should a racer with a car like Dal Sangha's run on a oft used track, I am not really qualified to answer that. And please don't get me wrong, I am not judging his team in any way,as they are a team I admire and respect greatly, these are rambling thoughts as a result of the weekend's happenings. Drag racers take risks every time they race down the track, and even relatively innocent looking mishaps like Eric Medlen's (his crash was not violent looking by any stretch of the imagination, as it was tire and chassis vibrations were the ultimate cause of his death). You can never predict what can happen even in the best possible conditions. Do I think events like this one should happen, absolutely!!!!! It was one of my most enjoyable weekend's spend at the drag strip. With the hospitality of Dean Woods and his team, (in their awesome new race setup), the AVDRA and their hospitality, Marcy and beau Chris, all the 'Slammers (special thanks to Dayle), Duane Grosart and the "Murphy Grosart" team's hospitality as well, you can't help but leave an event like that with a great taste in your mouth. The final grade for this event is: "Hospitality" 9 out of 10 "Racing" 7 out of 10 "Fan support" 10 out of 10 "Fun factor" 8 out of 10 "Media pressure and dealing with others in the business and access", 10 out of 10 (because their was no politics) Final grade 86% Would I come back agian? For Sure!!!!. Photos highlights/gallerys and more results to come Tuesday.
August 11, 2008 Just a small recap below. Full story as well as a couple gallerys Monday evening. Whar a great weekend on the Island for the 'Thunder in the Alberni Valley" once a year drag race event. The Regional municiple airport transforms into a very busy exciting dragstrip with packed pits area, with over 300 race cars 4-5000 spectators a day and as layed back attitude as you can have for a event drawing this many people and race cars.
Saturday was a day most race track dread, as rain came and went at least 5-7 times throughout the day, and a very unfortunate crash by Dal Ssngha in his new Turboed Mustang,
but the race officials perservered and all qualifying efforts for the Canada West Doorslammers got in as well as 2 or 3 exhibition passes by Duane Grosart, Brent Harris, Leon Aines, and Brent Murray in both his rides, a top alcohol dragster and his blown Fiat altered. The Super Pro, Pro, Street, Modified and Bike classes all got two or three time trials Saturday as well.
Sunday saw no rain delays, just one major oil down by Aines and a minor timing glitch when the doorslammers were running first round. Full doorslammer results are here. Full final results for the bracket cars when I recieve them
Race Date and times for 2008 Drag Races Friday August 8th, Tech for Pre-registrations
Rain-out info The carshow will run on Friday, Aug 8 rain or shine. There will be no rain-out date for the drag races. Racer Info Class Descriptions Important Note! This year we have lowered the time-break from 8.90 to 8.70 for the doorslammers payout.
PRO - all cars 11.49 + quicker MODIFIED - all cars 11.50 + slower STREET - all street legal cars, with closed exhaust, street legal tires, current registration and insurance (no permits). No support vehicles or pit crew allowed. (The pits are open, so if your friends pay as spectators they can join you in the pit. the only difference is they will not get a restricted area pass) Keep in mind that there is no ET restriction in this class, as long as your car abides by the NHRA rules for its time. DOOR SLAMMERS - Vehicles capable of reaching the ¼ mile in under 9 seconds, reaching speeds in excess of 300 km/h Drag Bikes - Experienced racers only. Limited field. All entrants must contact: Ken Morrison (e-mail madmanracing@shaw.ca) to enter All entrants must abide by NHRA rules for the time the car will run. This will be strictly enforced and there will be NO exceptions. Please read the NHRA rulebook. All NHRA rules apply. For vehicles running 11.49 or faster, please check the NHRA rulebook for further rules/restrictions.
1. No support vehicles or pit crew allowed. Your friends can come
in as spectators and join you in the pits but will not get a restricted
area pass. (The restricted areas are the staging lanes and track surface)
For more info contact Ron Mani by phone (250-724-0187) or e-mail CWDS Winner: Zak Clarke R/U: Grant Klohn Street "A"(14.99 and faster): 1. Robert Burnett 2. Graham Taylor 3. Wade Crewe Street "B" (15.00 and slower): 1. Ted Dimitrov 2. Chad Miller 3. Ivan Frydecky Modified: 1. Don Mcdiarmid 2. Les Welburn 3. Dario Corlazzoli 4. Dave Beecroft Pro: 1. Cory Thompson 2. Garth Wright 3. Blair Criddle 4. Al Jennings Super Pro: 1. Steve Veitch 2. Joe Mura 3. Dean Woods Bike: 1. Rob Kent 3. Dean Flahr 4. Keith Newport
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