May 27, 2003

Canadian National Open at Ashcroft's Eagle Motorplex (photos by Dean Murdoch, copyright speedzonemagazine.com) more to come tonight.

Sunday final results.

160 racers came out for the first Division 6's National Open of the year. The Eagle Motorplex hosted the first of five Opens this year (including the double header at Bremerton). Wally's were handed out in 11 classes in both bracket and NHRA classes. Super Gas and Jr. Dragster had the largest car counts with both over 20 cars competing. The Jrs. and the Super Gas and Super Street all had double headers (the Super Street/Gas classes due to association races and the Jrs. because they won't be running at Bremerton). Many of the top running in Division six were on hand being it was the Memorial Day weekend in the US. Division hitters like Mike Seekins, Don Elgin, Al Omond, Martin Rachel and Mike Shannon were all on hand to race for the money and the Wally.

Saturday qualifying and race #1 for the above mentioned classes all got in before the rain hit right at the end of the day. The only two classes that did not get finished Saturday were the two gambler races. In Jr. Lightning (fast jrs.), Darren Barton kept on winning at the "Plex, as he defeated Cody Scheu. That was Darren's third win of the year at the 'Plex. Thanks to the Barton's for running a SpeedZone decal on Darren's car. In Jr. Thunder, Brandon Rachel got his first ever win in the Jr's., And the win came in only his fifth or sixth race. His victory was over Tanis Brown. In Super Street, Al Hampton got the win in race #1 against Craig Bickel, and Mike Shannon defeated Dave Stobbe in Super Gas on Saturday. Due to the rain hitting the track Saturday just before the final of both gambler's race, the finalist's decided to split the money instead of running on Sunday.

In Sunday's eliminations, Starting with the Jrs., Cody Scheu (above left) got revenge from his Saturday r/u and took the win over Ashley Bart in "Lightning", and Kelsey MacKay-Smith (above right) defeated a red-lighting Derek Rose in "Thunder". In High School, Joseph Hunter cut a great .022 light and got the win for Cache Creek Sec. over Jessica Wind from Abbotsford Sec. In Sportsman, perennial 'Plex winner, Dave Copeland got the victory over Skipp Parsons from MacKenzie. Pro saw SpeedZone Magazine's own Jamie Clerf (left) get his first win in three years, and also moved up to first place in the points, taking out a red lighting Nicole Brandner. Nicole took over sole position of third with her r/u finish. Great job Jamie! In Super Pro, Peter Berreddsch defeated Al Quigley went red by 1/1000ths of a second. Quigley still took over the points lead in Super Pro with the r/u finish. In Sled/Bike, Miles Hauer (right) from Seattle defeated his good buddy and SpeedZone Sales Exec. Al Omond in the final. Omond was deadly on the tree all weekend, as he was cutting .001, .002, and even a perfect light leading up to the final round but a major clutch problem in the semis, made Al doubtful of a close final, but he managed to duct tape the crotch rocket together, and actually left on Miles, but he was unable to run his number, and Miles took a 2/100ths win. In Stock Super Stock Combo, Don Elgin defeated Open hitter Shawn Kvaas with a great 9/1000ths package. In Super Street, Craig Bickel got his second r/u of the weekend, this time to Martin Rachel in his multi-purpose Malibu. Martin ran in two or three different classes this past weekend, and won on a double break out Sunday afternoon. Super Gas winner on Sunday was the young gun in the class, Stefan Kondolay (left). Kondolay was never worse than .014 on the tree, and covered Tom Horsley by 2/100ths. Thanks to the Kondolay's for running the Speedzone decals this weekend. Super Comp had a very disappointing field with only 10 cars competing. Tom Papp in the "silver shorty", defeated Mike Pople in the double break out final. Notable was Cory Thompson getting his first Super Comp round win over a very tough Mike Seekins. Finally in Top Comp, Mike Seekins (below) did double duty driving in the two top classes and got the win here, taking Mark Campbell to the limit with a 1/1000ths victory in the final. Campbell had a bit of excitement after the run though when he failed to get stopped in time and ended up in the sand trap. No damage though. Notable in Top Comp was Jay Syversten finally getting the handling woes fixed in the high powered Pro Mod Truck. Unfortunately he kicked the rods out, on what would have been a low 7/ high 6 second pass in the final qualifying session.

Here are the final results from Sunday:

Top Comp: Mike Seekins over Mark Campbell 7.761/.018rt - 7.689/.001 rt

 

Super Comp: Tom Papp over Mike Pople 9.003/.010 rt- 8.936/.054 rt

Left: Papp and Pople

 

 

 

Combo: Don Elgin over Shawn Kvaas 12.47/.009 rt - 12.06/.056 rt

 

Super Gas: Stefan Kondolay over Tom Horsley 10.079/.010 rt- 10.057/.049 rt

Right: Kondolay and Horsley

 

 

 

Super Street: Martin Rachel over Craig Bickel 11.035/.019 rt - 11.031/.024 rt

Left: Rachel and Bickel

Pro: Jamie Clerf over Nicole Brandner 12.191/.028 rt - 12.121/.-013 rt

 

 

Bike Sled: Miles Hauer over Al Omond 8.865/.032 rt - 9.672/.026 rt

Sportsman: Rob Copeland over Skip Parsons 15.967/.068 - 17.725/.187 rt

Super Pro: Peter Bereddsch over Al Quigley 10.879/.099 rt - 11.290/.-001 rt (right)

High School: Joseph Hunter over Jessica Wind 13.946/.022 rt - 15.669/.244 rt

Jr. Lightning Saturday: Darren Barton winner over Cody Scheu

Jr. Thunder Saturday: Brandon Rachel winner over Tains Brown

Jr Lightning Sunday: Cody Scheu over Ashley Bart 9.918/.041 rt - 9.271/.133 rt

Jr. Thunder Sunday: Kelsey MacKay-Smith over Derek Rose 18.332/.081 rt - 13.481/.-005 rt

Friday Preview. 225- 250 race cars are expected to converge on the Eagle Motorplex this weekend for race #1 of the five race Division six National Open Series. The National Open series has been contested for four years now and is the biggest series in the Northwest next to the Lucas Oil series. The headline class in the series is Top Comp the fastest growing class in drag racing. It has been expanded in other Divisions in North America as Top Sportsman (the door version only class of Top Comp). Top Comp is open to all cars, Dragsters Door Cars, Altereds, and Funny Cars that can run quicker than 8.19. They run on a 5/10ths tree and allow electronics. Other classes include Stock/Super Stock combo, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, Super Pro, Pro, Sportsman, Bike/Sled, High School and Jr. Dragster. The track will also run the National Dragster Challenge in conjunction with the event and Super Street and Super Gas will run double headers. Gates open today at 2.pm for parking with racing all day Saturday, with qualifying and time trials for all classes and Sunday qualifying and time trials until noon with eliminations starting at 1.pm.

Other national opens in the series are being held at Bremerton for a double header event, Mission Raceway and Prince George's North Central Motorsport Park.