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The latest update as of August 20, 2003


A preview of this weekend's event at Mission Raceway

Another beautiful day on the west coast, which by the way, is enjoying one of the best summers in my memory... and that's going back quite a ways (as my "friends" are so fond of reminding me of). But I'm already running late and the clock says I've only got five hours to wrap things up for the day before heading back to work. Let's see what we can accomplish in that time though.

First up is the media release produced by Gerry Frecehette on behalf of MRP, reproduced with their kind permission.

Summer Nationals Drag Races This Weekend at Mission

The biggest drag race of the summer rolls into Mission Raceway Park this weekend, with the running of the Summer Nationals Presented by Lordco and Lucas Oil Products of Canada Inc., Round 6 of the 2003 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series in the Northwest Division.

From Friday to Sunday, the premier race track in Western Canada will rock with the area's top sportsman drag racers in head-to-head action.

Topping the list of entrants are the awesome Top Alcohol Dragsters and Funny Cars, 3,500-horsepower monsters that run the quarter mile in 5 seconds at over 250 mph! Some twenty of these cars are entered, each looking for a qualifying spot in their respective 8-car fields.

Many of these cars and drivers are nationally competitive, and are racing for the points that could get them into the NHRA Top Ten in their classes. Indeed, Bucky Austin from Tacoma currently leads the national points in Top Alcohol Funny Car, and will attempt to add to his lead with a victory at Mission.

Of special note is that this will be the last appearance at Mission of veteran Funny Car team Bateman and Reynolds from Calgary, who for many years have provided fans here with memorable performances despite racing on a tight budget. They would like nothing better than to go out on a high note before they park their car for good.

The action will be non-stop at the Summer Nationals, and when the Dragsters and Funny Cars take a break, a few hundred of the best sportsman racers in B.C. will take on the invaders from Alberta and the West Coast of the U.S. in several different eliminator categories.

It's three days packed with racing action, starting each morning, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, at 9:00 am. The feature Alcohol Dragsters and Funny Cars have qualifying sessions at 3:00 pm Friday, and noon and 4:00 pm Saturday, and their first round of eliminations goes Sunday at noon.

Friday's admission of just $10.00 includes pit pass, while Saturday and Sunday admission is $20.00 each day, plus $5.00 for pit pass. Mission Raceway Park is located on Highway 11 between the Mission Bridge and the Lougheed Highway. For further information, call the track office at (604) 826-6315.

Mike Cofini 
vs. Brandon Johnson J. Glenn Miller 
- SuperWebHost.com

Left: Brandon Johnson (far side) vs. Mike Cofini in the T/AD final at Mission Raceway earlier this year. Cofini took the first NHRA Divisional event victory of his life in this race. Since then, he's gained some extra sponsorship help from Mopar, repainted the car and has stepped up the tuneup considerably. He will definitely be a player this weekend.


Right: Warming the tires in his refurbished SuperComp dragster is our "host with the most" J. Glenn Miller of SuperWebHost who has rebounded very nicely from a series of disasters in the last year, including a crash on his motorcycle and the theft of most of his dragster equipment.



In other developments, I did fill in some of the blanks on the Seattle Carquest Nationals page and will continue to do so as soon as I get this page uploaded. With any luck the Seattle story should be finished (or very close to it) by the end of today. Then all I have to do is get going on the video from that event and get ready for my last visit to Mission (this year) later in the week. It's going to be busy. Stay tuned, etc....




To see previous updates go to the What's Old page