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Mission Raceway National Open July 22-24, 2011 (Coverage here presented by Joey's Place Paint and Restoration). July 23, 2011
...... con't from the home page.....Corey Sekura blasted out a 6.68/205, his quickest ever. Brother Ron, was beside him but he had a forgetable run. He had to pedal the car, and then at 700 feet the car nosed over blew out the burst panel. Unfortunately it was not just the panel that let go. The bottom end suffered extensive damage, as he kicked the rods out of the new Chevy II.
Not enough spare parts for the damage caused. Then later in the day, Corey made another couple laps and he went 6.88 in his last one and then it too suffered damage, to the valve train. Whether or not they can salvage one bullet out of the two has yet to be seen.
Eddy Plaizier went a couple high 6.80's right where he wants to be. Cory Kincaid ripped off a great 6.91 (right on their 6.90 index this weekend. He also had a solid light with his new B&J Spec Rite drive system. Cal Tebb went 6.97 in his second lap, I missed his first one. I also missed Joey Steckler's first hit, his second he had to pedal the Corvette and he slowed to a 7.1.
David Brant made two hits, running a 7.17 best and then getting real loose on his second.
Al Weich went 7.70 n his first and then got loose in the same spot at Brant. Norm Kolwich went 7.17 at only 150, so he will be in the low 7's or high sixes soon. His second lap he had to pedal the car and he lifted after the pedal job at 100 feet.
Arvid Fonstad had the wheels up and he turned in a 7.17 also.
In the Nitro Floppers, only Sitko's and Mageau made runs. Troy Sitko was completing his licensing and he made it look easy with a 6.07 and a 6.17, both career marks for the rookie nitro team. Jay Mageau had his chute pop open at 45 feet.
In the other classes, a couple good Pro Street runs were posted on Friday. Garrett Richards was the first guy down the track and he went 6.65@215 mph.
Dale Pedersen clicked it off early on his first lap but it was likely at least a mid 6.50 as the scoreboard read 6.9 @150. His second run was a pedal job as he got more aggressive.
Roy Moznik went into tire smoke off the starting line on his lone lap. Joe Delehay did the same as Moznik.
Steve Horne banged the blower on his run and it lifted the blow by hatch on the hood. In the comp class, Marshall Dawson made his first run in a few years with his AA/AM Firebird.
The first one was a lazy 7.99 sounding real fat but the car runs with mufflers and no zoomies so it is a real different sound. His second run did not sound any crisper in fact it was real lazy and struggled down track. They did end up with some valve train damage.
Terry SPargo is trying to sort out his Fuel injection system and it did not respond like he hoped on his lone run. He clicked it off early and went a high six.
There
was a huge BBQ Friday evening after the testing and all the Funny Car teams participated.
Close to 200 drivers/owners and crews had lean beef 1/2 lb burgers, Sirloin burgers,
smokys and Hot dogs with a number of different salads. Thanks to Boychuk Ventures,
Ace Manufacturing and Jolly Rogers Racing.
The Racing event of the decade is this weekend at Mission Raceway. Drag
Racing as an organized sport has been around since 1950. Since that time it has
evolved at an amazing pace. And many are of the opinion that it has gotten to
complicated and dangerous. The danger and the overall speed is what attracted
the fans to motorsports to begin with. One of if not THE most popular types of
cars in drag racing is the Funny Car. It originated in the 1960's and has become
THE most watched class in Drag Racing. Names like Jungle Jim, John Force, Don
Prudhomme, Twig Zeigler and Gordie Bonin are legendary in the class and that era
of race car is now the fastest growing class in all of drag racing. The 70's and
80's were legendary in the NW, as the 32 and 64 funny Car shows invaded Seattle
and Portland. Western Canada has never had a Funny Car field this big! In
2010, Mission held on this same weekend, a Funny Car show that saw 24 cars compete.
And all of the cars were THE same body styles made popular from the late 60's
to early 80's. The show played to a great crowd, and the idea was put into the
Mission Raceway staff and a couple local race enthusiasts (myself included) to
see if it was possible to bring back the 32 car show. With sponsorship from Jet
Equipment and Tools and TDN Constructors group, Mission has managed to attract
just over 32 Funny Cars (34 at press time) for this weekend's Jet Tools/TDN Constructors
Nitro Fest. There are three classes of Funny Cars competing this weekend; the
absolutely mind blowing Nitro Funny Car class, the ever popular Rocky Mountain
Party…..er….. I mean Funny Car Association and the NW BB/Funny Car Assoc.
The 34th car is none other than one of the most popular Funny Cars of all time,
The 'Jungle Jim' Nova. Two Nova's were built at the same time, in 1969, Jungle
Jim and Clare Sanders were the drivers. Dave and Sally Bany bought the cars a
couple years ago and restored them, and they are bringing the 'Jim' car to Mission
for this event. It is absolutely a piece of history. The
Rocky Mountain Funny Car Assoc. is one of the most popular groups anywhere. They
get booked at many NW tracks and event track in the South as a few members have
the ability to travel the longer distances and they flat out put on a great show.
Loud music, hot back up girls and party atmosphere highlight their 'shtick'. Oh
ya, they are the kings of the 1320 foot burnouts. The Sekura team is mostly responsible
for the car free fun factor that many groups should look at and model themselves
after. Team leader Ron Sekura leads with the patented ¼ mile burnouts.
He has been known to blow up the engine on the burnout (certainly not intentional),
that is how dedicated he is to entertain the fans. He won last years race and
will debut the teams new Chevy II. The Nitro Funny Cars are the main players this year; we have attracted between 12-16 of the 250 mph monsters. It will be the biggest gathering of Nostalgia Nitro Cars (NFC) ever in Canada and adding in the other two Funny Cars classes, there are well over 30 on the grounds this weekend. The Nitro Cars are lead by defending champion and world record holder Tim Boychuk in the Troy Lee Designs Trans Am. His holds the ET and MPH record of 5.63/258 and ran five low 5.70's here at Mission Last year. Co-owner of the car Ron Hodgson was the owner of the famous Bubble-up Race team from the 70's and 80's. The newest John Force clone,
Mark Sanders was the runner-up last year and he brings highly touted and 20yr
old son Jake as the tuner to try and take away Boychuk's dominance over the last
year. Sanders car the MR Explosive Nova is a crowd favorite. Twig Zeigler is a
name well know in the NW and his Satellite is a very close replica of the famous
Pizza Haven car he flipped upside down at Seattle a couple decades ago. Bucky
Austin is a name synonymous in the NW as he is the winningest driver in the NW
in a Funny Car. The NW Hitter is one of only four drivers to have run in the 5.60's
and as an owner tuner he now has one of the premier drivers behind the wheel.
Mark Hentges, multiple National event winner drives the "BAR NW Hitter"
Arrow. Steve Plueger is one of the biggest names in Funny Car racing from back
in the 70's -90's and he brings two cars to Mission. The Jolly Rogers Mustang
driven by Alberta's Todd Lesenko. His other driver is also from Alberta, and it
is Mike Grekul in the Plueger and Gyger Mustang. Steve Plueger is also one of
the tuners to get an NFC into the 5.60's. Mike Savage behind the wheel of Jim
Broom's Candies and Hughes Cuda is a real threat and has numerous five second
time slips. Jay "The Prospector" Mageau has along lineage in racing
as Jay's pop, The final driver in the class this weekend is local favorite Tim Nemeth. His Mustang has made waves in the last year running numerous 5 second time slips and qualifying #8 out of 30 cars at the March Meet in Bakersfield California in March. Tim and wife Nancy has been a staple in the sport over the last 15 years, and their business TDN Constructors group is one of the sponsors for the event this weekend. Nancy Nemeth, as if running the day to day operation of TDN is not enough has taken on a very special project, fundraising for Canuck Place Children's Hospice. Nancy
along with Tammy Boersma, Trish Johnson and Carly LaFave are running a Triathlon
in September at Cultass Lake and all the funds raised at that event as well as
the special auctions and raffles at the Mission this weekend will go directly
to the Hospice. This is a very special charity for Nancy and many Canadian's and
she will have one or two families that benefit from the Hospice at the track this
weekend. They are having a raffle with the winner getting to be "Crew Chief"
for a day. The raffle is Saturday and the winner will be announced Saturday evening.
The winner will be a crew member for the "IceMan" Funny Car team on
Sunday. As well as the raffle, there will be many racing items up for auction,
a signed Canucks hockey stick, John Force collector items, tools from JET Equipment
and racing prints, as well as other items.
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