Welcome to the Northern Thunder homepage for the first of two Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series events at Mission Raceway Park in 2001. We've posted a race schedule for the event, spectator information and a preview page with pre-entries, weather forecasts and the latest news on the Lordco BC Nationals.

We've got an exclusive report on the Federal-Mogul Dragster entrants on the preview page, courtesy of SpeedZone magazine. Starting on Friday evening, we will post all the results, pictures and stories from the race. We may try to post some updates from the track, but that possibility remains rather doubtful at this time.

One new innovation for Mission Raceway this year is a live web-cam, with four different views of the track. On race days, the cams are augmented with weather conditions. Check it out here.

The official media release for the event is as follows:

Mission Raceway Park will host the Lordco Auto Parts B.C. Nationals, a round of the NHRA Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series, May 4-6.

The event is the second of six in the NHRA's Northwest Division and will feature more than 400 cars, including 250-m.p.h. Federal-Mogul Dragsters and Federal-Mogul Funny Cars.

It is also the first of two events to be held at Mission Raceway Park, with the second one scheduled for June 22-24.

"The races at Mission Raceway Park come at such a critical time in the season," explained Federal-Mogul Funny Car pilot Pat Austin.

"We've got a couple of races under our belts and we've made some changes to our tune-up. Now we need to test those changes but there's no point in testing if you don't have a quality track to run on. And, in my opinion, Mission has as good a racing surface as some of the national event tracks."

Drivers in eight categories: Federal-Mogul (FM) Dragster, Federal-Mogul (FM) Funny Car, Competition, Super Stock, Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas and Super Street -- will comepte for points leading to national and divisional championships. They will also run for a share of the $138,935 event purse.

Gates at Mission Raceway Park open at 7 a.m. each day. Qualifying and time trials begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

FM Dragsters and FM Funny Cars are scheduled to make one qualifying run on Friday, beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday, the two classes will make two passes each beginning at noon and 4:00 p.m.

Eliminations begin at 9:00 a.m. Sunday, with Dragster and Funny Car eliminations starting at noon.

General admission is $10 on Friday and $20 on Saturday and Sunday. Children 12 and under are admitted free when accompanied by a paying adult.

For more information, contact Mission Raceway Park, (604) 826-6315.