Mission Raceway Park - NHRA Canadian National Open - July 22 - 24, 2011

Sunday Report

NOTE" Click on the thumbnails to view the full-size images

AA/FC Nitro Nostalgia Funny Car - Round One

This "race report" will be somewhat of a "hybrid" - combining the results with photos applicable to each run or pair of runs. And for even more pictures and verbiage, check out the photo gallery.

With the first round of Funny Car eliminations scheduled for noon, there was no urgency on my part to be at the track early, especially after last night's late finish, with the BB/Funny Cars completing their second round of qualifying at 10:30pm. After the invocation by the RFC chaplain, and the national anthems sung by Angelina Boychuk, the show got going ten minutes early with the first strains of nitro combustion music drowning out the final line of "Oh Canada".

Leading off with the nitro cars, the first pair out of the lanes featured Todd Losenko in the Steve Pleuger-owned "Jolly Rogers" Mustang versus Mark Hentges in the Austin & O'Brien Arrow. Losenko took the victory easily with a 5.89 - 243.30 pass against Hentges' close 5.92 - 232.61 effort.

A real blast from the past, in the form of the Twiz Zeigler car, now driven by Darin Bay faced off against the Pleuger & Gyger car that's being chauffered by Edmonton's Mike Grekul this year. Following up his strong (5.78) qualifying effort, Bay laid down a 5.89 - 243.30 to easily dispatch a tire-smoking 15.42 - 58.89 coaster from Grekul.

Another all 5-second battle ensued in the next pairing, with Washington State's favourite flopper fanatic, Mark "Mr. Explosive" Sanders putting down a very solid 5.90 - 239.61 number, only to lose to Mike Savage's slightly better 5.83 - 248.92 blast in the "Candies & Hughes" tribute car.

Chilliwack's Tim Nemeth brought out his newly-repainted "Iceman" Mustang to face Edmonton's Nathan Sitko and didn't disappoint all his local fans as he cranked out a very good 6.00 - 243.90 to drop Sitko's tire-smoking and slowing 14.57 - 76.00 pass.

The final race of the first round featured a pair of Edmonton cars, with the high-dollar Tim Boychuk machine matched against the decidedly more budget- oriented operation of Jay Mageau. Boychuk made short work of Mageau's "Prospector" with a low e.t. of the round 5.78 - 248.41 to seriously outrun Mageau's career best and very good 6.06 - 237.49 pass.

With ten cars in the round, the fans were treated to six 5-second passes, two very low 6-second laps and two tiresmokers. Included in the 5-second laps were a pair of very close side-by-side 5-second battles. Quite an entertaining round of racing to say the least. For the second round, the pairings are Tim vs. Todd Losenko (Boychuk with lane choice), Darin Bay against Tim Nemeth (Bay holding lane choice) and Mike Savage on a bye run. The racing should be even closer.

Northwest BB/Funny Cars - Round One

Following hot in the tire tracks of the nitro cars, the Northwest BB/Funny Car Association came out for the first round of their "Chicago-style" (ie, everybody makes two passes, then the quickest two meet in the final) eliminations. Leading the way were the hottest car on the circuit this season, the Ron Huegli "Tiki Warrior" Monza against the newest, and still in primer, "King Kuda" of Randy Parker. Showing that he hasn't lost the knack for making horsepower, Parker carded a 6.78 - 205.57 to cross the finish line first against Huegli's slower, but winning 6.85 - 202.02 pass> Say what? There's a little thing called a "soft" index of 6.85 that the NWBBFC guys and gal run on, and if you go too quick, you lose. Go waaay too quick and you really lose, as in points and money.

The next pairing was a bit of an odd one, with a Canadian (Brent Murray) driving the "Damn Yankee" car, matched against an American (Shane Harter). Murray was still having handling problems as he crossed the centerline again (did it yesterday too) and gave the automatic win to Harter with a solid 6.91 - 202.02 lap.

Two Yanks this time, and it's defending series champion, Greg Howland, crosses the finish line first in "Zeus" against Mr. HighBucks IV, Russ Parker. Unfortunately, Howland's excellent 6.81 - 202.79 is a little too quick for the index and it hands the win to Parker's 6.94 - 201.79 timeslip.

In the picture on the left we've almost got side-by-side burnouts with Royce Taylor in the background and new driver Todd Swinford in the "Photo Op" Datsun in the background. They weren't quite so close at the finish line as Swinford's 7.65 - 193.21 clocking wasn't even close to Taylor's excellent 6.74 - 210.62. Hold on though, it's another breakout loss and Swinford takes the true winlight.

Yet another breakout pass, and this time on a single run, as Don Harter goes a hair too quick - even with the chutes out early as his scheduled opponent, Kim Parker, was unable to show after kicking out all the rods in last night's qualifying action. For the record, Harter turned a 6.83 - 173.97 on this lap.

Rocky Mountain Nostalgia Funny Cars - Round One

Despite appearances, Joey Steckler did have an opponent in this first heat of the Rocky Mountain Nostalgia flopper gang, but we just never got a shot of Arvid Fonstad in the near lane. Adding insult to ignoring, Fonstad lit the winlight with a 7.04 - 194.09 to take out Steckler's close 7.07 - 195.99 time. With these cars running on a "hard" 6.90 index, they both were well within the time boundaries.

After helping him through the licensing process and giving him lots of moral support, Cal Tebb and his "Bad Goat" showed Norm "The Rookie" Kolwich no mercy as he pounded out a 6.84 - 188.27 to easily cover the out of shape and shutoff 10.28 - 85.93 effort. But what about the index Cal? Oops.... looks like Kolwich has won his first competition round in his '53 'Vette.

After a troubled year or so with very few good runs, Cory Kincaid finally saw his luck change, due in part to a new B&J quick-drive transmission and put down a 6.91 pass last night, then continued on the right path with a winning 7.22 - 194.78 win over newcomer David Brant's 7.48 - 114.85 early shutoff.

Taking the remains of two damaged engines and cobbling together one running unit, then switching drivers, the Sekura Brothers, with Corey at the wheel, took on Eddy Plazier in his one-of-a-kind '37 Chevy. Despite a valiant effort by Sekura at 6.97 - 197.36, Plazier took the winlight with an almost on the index pass of 6.91 - 195.88

With only two Nitro Harleys in the pits, it was a pretty thin show, but Damian Cownden did his best to entertain with this wheel-up, torqued over pass that lit up the scoreboards BIG TIME, with a 6.43 - 211.51 number.

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