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Sunday May 9, 2004 Finals, (Murdoch photos) Sunday#1 and Sunday #2 Sportsman Gallery , Saturday Sportsman Gallery, Friday Sportsman Gallery Sunday Top Alcohol coverage is here May 11, 2004 Update on Rod Souza's Truck Trailer and Race Car fire. Good morning Dean, I stopped to help Rodney and Ross
Souza on Sunday night.
Sunday dawned with a major downpour and slowly subsided by around 11:30. By the time the surface was dry, everyone at the track was itching with anticipation. In Comp, three of the top qualifiers were gone
in round one, including local Bruce Perkin, who again left the line
way late giving him no chance to get to round two. Perkin's engine
builder Mark Stewart also went out early after qualifying #3, Tom
Tucker also had an early exit. Rick Distefano cut a
COMP ELIMINATOR
STOCK ELIMINATOR SUPER COMP SUPER GAS
TOP COMP
Saturday Galleries are up. Top Alcohol and Sportsman
In the "UBS West Coast Hemi Shootout" presented
by Pioneer Chrysler (Mission, B.C.), Harry Holton set the
world on its ear with a record breaking 8.56 152 in the last qualifier.
The team and fans were stoked, but Harry, Phil and Comp was a great show with 25 cars on the grounds and 18 of them .500 under or better. Nine were better than .600 under their indexes. Steve Wilmoth leads with a .695 under best. Rick Distefano debuted his new Corvette Pro Mod and run 24 over and 20 over with the new OD rules and ran between 6.30-6.32/225 on every lap. The latest word on Lonnie Fricke is that he is SOOORRRRE. Go to DRC for all the results.
What is coming out of the back of Tupper's Ford. In Stock, Randy Hutchings stayed #1 and Joe Sorenson could not run better than his 10.002 best from Friday. Corey Thomspon went 11.12 (.81) under in the family E/SA Firebird. Joe Collette leads the Kerker motorcycle 11 bike field with a .003 rt The Super Classes ran three shootouts Saturday and thhere are the results of each class: SUPER COMP (8.90 Index) SUPER GAS (9.90 Index) SUPER STREET (10.90 Index)
It will be a race that will be talked about for a long time, and I for one must congratulate Mike Rice for making a great three TA session call, for listening to the racers and starting this Top Sportsman Shootout, and for expanding the field to 48 cars. For Mission Raceway for allowing Mike to run the event to its conclusion as late as 9:00pm.You all are to be applauded to making this day truly a "Super Saturday" (good segway Jamie) Friday May 7, 2004
The day had it all Friday at the Mission Lucas Oil event. Quick and
fast runs, career bests and record runs. Unfortunately for as good
as parts of the day was, it also had its negative. Of course, the
weather is on this list, after all it is Lucas Oil time at MRP. Mission
must feel snake bitten. The rain date last year was this very weekend
and it was beautiful after the original first weekend of May was rescheduled
due to the weather. So this year, Mission makes the decision to move
the event to the second weekend and what happens, it was a great weekend
last last week, and this weekend well you know the story. It is only
Friday, and the forecast is for better weather tomorrow and Sunday.
Top Alcohol and Dragster were the main victims in today's run order,
as they were next in line when it was called at 6:30pm. The unfortunate
part about the TA classes, as they would have gotten their day in
if it wasn't for the Comp qualfying. 8 of 25 cars (two involved in the accident) both dg'ed) and 15 others yet to run.. 1 6222 E/SMA Mark Stewart, 8.683 9.34 -0.657
In Stock, Joe Sorenson (left) came the closest to history here with a 10.007 out of his A/SA Camaro. Oh so close! If the weather is like it is supposed to be the est of the weekend he has a great chance to become the second 9 second Stock car to put the number up at MRP. Randy Hutchings actually leads the field in his M/SA pickup. 43 cars in Stock made a qualifying attempt.
Here are the top 16 after two rounds. 1 681 Shawn Cowie, Richmond BC, Victory-KB 6.758 202.65
202.65
Dale Giroux, above. John Evans, below.
Bob Marshall (below)ran a best ever 7.36 @ 185
Saturday photo gallery is
here In Top Alcohol, Greg Tacke arrived and Kim Parker confirmed she will attempt to qualify in TAD making the field. And I expect two or three more funny cars on Saturday Morning. Here are the cars on the property as of 7:00pm Friday: TAD 1. Joey Severance TAFC 1. Bucky Austin Friday 8:00am Weather is not looking too great for Friday but if the moisture stays away then the track will be lightning fast. Qualfying begins with Stock eliminator and then Super Street, Super Gas and Super Stock with the Hemi Cars running last in Super Stock as part of the "Hemi Shootout". Top Alcohol goes in the afternoon as does the Doorslammer shootout and the Super shootouts. Check back at the end of the day for all the action here at the Zone! May 6, 2004 Thursday Test n Tune 150 cars were on the grounds testing and another 150 were setting up for what will probably be a 400 car Lucas Oil event at Mission Raceway. Beside the TOp Alcohol Dragsters and Funny Cars which are the features, the '"UBS" West Coast Super Stock Hemi Shootout' presented by Pioneer Chrysler goes Friday and Saturday. Also on tap. is the TCS/Lucas Oil Doorslammer Shootout and the Electronics shootout. Stock eliminator goes first thng Friday morning, with the first round of qualfiying for the Hemi Cars as the fifth group. Top Alcohol goes at 3:00pm.
Terry Sherrill ran mid 8's
Booker had a wheel up and then very loose 8.95
Jared Jordan wheeled the Belvedre to a 9.12 that was o=all over his lane.
Michael Ogburn struggled all day and on his three attempts he never got past 300 feet. In the final one, he broke the transmission. Teammate Jerry Jenkins ran a career best 8.69. Got some clarification from Julie Jordan on the engine stats for the team. The trusty Timex powerplant is in for a refit, and has been replaced by "Sea Biscuit" and "Exlax" is the other motor. Don't ask!
Roger came back into the funny car trenches after a long......pardon me no layoff, driving the Dickison car. He WILL BE THE driver for all the national events this season. To say he was happy to be in the car today was an extreme understatement. He told me the nieghbout were getting pretty pissed at him as he has spent his long boring non racing spring manicuring his lawn and garden aand they were tired of having their lawns look like "Malcolm in the middle's" lawn. The TAFCs on the property Thursday totalled eight, with five of them being solid five second performers.
Steve Federlin got one monkey off his back when he ran a Mission career best 5.46 but broke a rocker shaft on the lap. As he stated, "he is snakebitten here and will run until I get the monkey off my back". All the hitters in TAD are here except Greg Tacke (expected tomorrow) and Don Hudson who does not look to be an entrant. Greg Lawrence did show making it three tough A/Fuel cars and 9 tough BAD's.
Bob Meek tried to get in a lap but could not get past 40 feet before loosing the belt.
Dale Giroux and Mark Campbell launching hard in TOp Comp.
Mike Ferderer with new K n N livery.
Bob Kokotailo had transmission problems.
Layne Wooley ran a 7.91 best.
Rash shook on every lap.
The new Kondolay ride will run Super Gas. Guys, its a doorslammer, put some power to it.
|
00000Sunday
Coverage 00000
May
10, 2004 380 cars raced on Sunday at Mission raceway, they
ended racing till dusk, as the event never got underway until 1:30pm
due to you know what. The job the North West NHRA crew (lead by Mike
Rice) and the Mission Raceway staff accomplished was nothing short
of miraculous, given the weather and incidents (one major one) through
the four days of racing. 
great
.003 light and ran 6.33 in round one but went out in round two. By
the time the fifth and final round rolled around, it was Gary Anderson
on the podium with a .024 light and an early shut off as Adam Bowdish
red lit his chance away. When both cars saw the red light and the
win light on, they clicked it early, and it was very erie so hear
(or not hear) two cars coast down track from 300 feet in the growing
darkness. Top Comp again showed that the Doorcars can compete
with the long skinny guys, when Dave Jackson got his second win in
the class with his high seven second Chevy II. He defeated Jeff Devey
in the final round. Jackson had a great .009 light and was 1/100th
off his 7.93 dial in. He won from the last, #48 qualifying spot. A
total of 18 doorcars were in the 48 car field. Super Stock winner
was Sean Cour over Gary Faul. Cour had a great .010 light but it wasn't
necessary as Faul red lit. Stock 
eliminator
was almost a big party, but local Cory Thompson just failed to get
his first eliminator win, when Sean Kennedy took the stripe. Cory
did a fantastic job on the weekend with the Evan's racing team as
he went three rounds in the Super Comp dragster as well. The Super
Comp final was possibly the coolest sportsman class on Sunday,
when the brother's Drzayich battled in the final round. Adam has been
on a streak, as he ended up hot at the end of 2003 and it carried
over to 2004. He won at Boise three weeks ago and his luck continued
at Mission as he took a 2/1000ths stripe over 'bro Mike. Mike had
the better light, with a .016 compared to Adam's .050, but the 8.916
by Adam was five inches better than the 8.952 at the finish line by
his older sibling. Super Gas winner was Mike Coltrin, the Mission
August winner and 2003 div 6 #2 points finisher. He got by a 1/1000ths
red lighting Chad Barclay. Locals, Stefan Kondolay, Bill Kondolay,
Marv Wiebe all were first round casualties. Jeff Jackson won Super
Street when he defeated Tom Manfred 
on
a holeshot when both drivers ran 10.92. A very cool win in Kerker
Motrorcycle, as good buddy Brett Hordeman got his first Wally
in the class. His stellar .011rt on board Keith Newport's bike was
too much for Joe Collette the Boise winner. Super Pro was won
by Martin Rachel despite Ken Orser's perfect light in the final round.
Orser got way loose just off the line and could not recover in time
to catch Rachel, who looks to be back to 2002 racing form.
Sportsman
pit notes. Notable in the class was Rash Dhaliwal (left)
going 6.75 in round one of Top Comp with his fast Supercharged Mustang.
Ya he broke out, but I don't think he was to upset about it. A lot
of title defenses have not gone to plan, as the second and third place
finishers in 2003 are striking back with a lot of wins and runner
ups already. In Comp, Anderson finished in second place in 2003 but
got the win here at Mission, 2003 champ Bowdish, was the runner-up.
Jeff Devey the top Comp r/u last year was a finalist here at Mission.
In Super Stock, Sean Cour got the win and is on his way, after finishing
second last year. Adam Drzayich is obviously on a massive role, with
back to back wins after a third place point finish last season. Mike
Coltrin finished in second place last year and has his first win of
the year. Stefan Kondolay has struggled. Jeff Jackson finished third
last year and got the win here. Tom Manfred is right there though
as he runner-upped here and won the title in 2003. 
SUPER
STOCK
SUPER
STREET
KERKER
MOTORCYCLE
Saturday
May 8, 2004 Super Saturday at Mission Raceway
............in what was quite possibly the best one day
of racing at the lower mainland facility, records and big crowds were
the story. The last funny cars went down the track at close to 9:00PM
(as they waited for around 15 minutes for the sun to set, ALA Seattle),
and they were runs worth waiting for, As Bucky Austin (left) ran to
form with a great 5.63 @ 255, and then to end it John Weaver went
5.67 @ 250 in the dark. In Top alcohol Dragster, The best was saved
for last as we saw a side by side 5.36 @ 270.26 by Mark Hentges and
a 5.38 @ 264 by Joey Severance, to end a session that included a 5.43
by Steve Federlin and a last ditch 5.33/267 by Mitch Myers to put
him at the top of the ladder. The field saw three cars in the 5.30's,
three in the 5.40's and two in the 5.50's (what a couple of dogs).
Two others ran 5.50's but failed to make the cut. Local favorite 
Paul
Julien, drove the tires off his car running a best of 5.68 and doing
a power drift in on other run ending up in the other lane. The most
unreal lap in the TA classes was a unanimous choice; Mike Cofini (Right)
had one for the highlight reel that hopefully Larry Pfister got on
film because words can't describe it. He wheel stood the car and then
drifted left before the car hooked back up and went up on two wheels
before he brought it back under control. It was a day to remember
in Top Alcohol. All the numbers are at 
Michael
were hoping for more as they did not want to do the big tear down
for only 2/100ths off the record they already had. The first round
of the shootout appeared to be scripted for the Ogburn team as all
four Hemi Coast Hemi team mates advanced to the semis. Jared Jordan
in the big BA car was a casualty though when he had some some serious
valve train damage. Jerry defeated Michael in the semi final the Harry
got another single due to Jared's breakage. The final round, the thought
was that Jerry would leave on Harry but Harry would outrun him on
the top end, but it was over early when Jenkins left late and then
went into a massive wheelstand and came down hard enough to punch
out the oil pan. Harry spun the tires and ran an 8.80 to take home
$3600.00 dollars of the $6000.00 purse. Of note, Michael ogburn had
a perfect light in round one but gave up his $100 dollar bonus to
Jim Isherwood who had an .013 light Friday and a .012 light today
but did not get the money either day. Raybourn got the bonus on Friday
with a .011 light. The Super Stock ladder was lead by the Hemis in
the top five spots. 
Top
Comp kicked ass as did the Top Sportsman Doorslammer Shootout. Top
Comp had 52 cars trying for the 48 car 8.19 min bump. We had 51 of
the cars run quicker than the minimum and the bump ended up to be
an awesome 7.97. Glen Braid got in on a last ditch 7.75 and Frank
Nelson ran a last ditch 7.93 to bump out Shane Molinari, Don Murray
and Bob Kokotailo. Molinari did not go home empty handed though, as
he walked away with the TSC/Lucas Oil cash in the Top Sportsmen shootout
for the second straight race. He defeated Ken Tupper in the final
round by less than 1/100th of a second. Shawn Cowie is the #1 qualifier
with a 6.70 best and takes on Jeff Devey. SpeedZone Magazine's John
Evans faces Scott Taylor in round one. Evans ran in the 7.30's all
weekend so far and has had a number of great lights through qualifying.
other
unfortunate incident of the day, and that was Comp competitor Lonnie
Fricke (left) having a horrific crash at the 1200 foot mark in his
B/A Cutlass. Qualifying with Rob Harrison in the other lane, Fricke
started to drift left in the left lane from about 500 and by the 800
foot mark he was 90% out of the groove. I am just guessing but the
way it looked to me, is that when he finally got off the throttle
and started to corrected back to the right, the car unloaded and took
a sharp veer to the right and got up completely on his side right
in front of Rob Harrison. Harrison wisely turned to he center of the
track just avoiding Fricke, and Fricke smashed the right side concrete
(below) barrier just as Harrison drove around him. Lonnie crossed
the finish line upside down and tripping Harrision's timer with an
8.18. Rob was forced to take out the center timers in order to avoid
what
would have been a horrible two car crash. Luckily, Fricke was not
terribly hurt and refused transport to the hospital, but said he knew
he would be very sore tomorrow. The repairs to the Wall took close
to 75 minutes and by the time it was completed, the rain had begun
and it was apparent it would not let up within the time required to
dry and get in the final laps of the day so it ended on that sour
note.
On
to the highlights. The UBS West Coast Super Stock Shoot-out
presented by Pioneer Chrysler. While only seven hemis cars are competing,
the quality makes up for quantity. The cars (the West Coast group)
in the 8.60's. Michael Ogburn and Jerry Jenkins both run an 8.66 best
and Harry Holton lays down an 8.63. Jenkins goes 153.6 as well. The
fastest ever for a "AA" car. Dave Raybourn (right) runs
an 8.73 best and Jared Jordan goes an 8.96. His career best lap. Rounding
out the field is Mike Booker who went an 9.09 best (he admitted he
missed his tune-up) and Jim Isherwood (below) who went 10.04 in the
big 3700 lb SS/EA. One more session tomorrow and then into elimination's
at Noon. The top five cars on the Super Stock ladder are the hemis.
Terry Sherrill leads the rest of the Super Stocks with an 8.39 in
his SS/AM Cavalier. A total of 35 Super Stocks got runs in on Friday.
Qualifying resumes on Saturday.
As
stated earlier, Comp competitors were making their first qualifying
attempt when Fricke crashed and Mark Stewart (left) is the leader
with a 65 under 8.683. Four of the first eight cars were better than
60 under making the start of what would have been one of the best
divisional Comp field in history. 
Top
Comp was lucky enough to get two runs in before weather or other
negatives stopped them. And history of sorts were made today when
the first ever 48 car qualified field was set. With the marker of
8.19 being the minimum the #48 car in the field (Don Murray) is in
with a 8.170. Shane Molinari, the winner of the Shoot-out three weeks
ago at Boise also ran under the 8.19 (8.189) min., but is not yet
in. Two second second cars, Frank Nelson and Glen Braid are also not
in son I expect the field to be in the seven's or better. If it was
a 32 car field like last year the bump sport would be siting at 7.61
after the first two sessions. My guess is that if they get two more
hits in, then the bump will be in the very low 7.90's. Great job all
you Top Comp racers! Leading the field is Shane Cowie (as expected
with a 6.75. Sitting #2 to the delight of many fans here from the
lower mainland is Rash Dhaliwal (above) in his new Pro Stock style
Mustang. Rash ripped off a 6.85 and an awesome 206 mph. Three of the
top four qualifiers are door cars and #3 is Todd Horner (left) in
his 
700
inch Grand Am. He went a career best 7.06 @ 195 mph. Frank Tamez is
next with a 7.23. Other locals to make a career best hit include Brian
Barling, (7.28), Dale Giroux (7.31), John Evans (7.36) and Bob Marshall
(7.36) 
