in the world of drag racing
| June 25, 2005 Saturday photo page from the Rocky Mountain Nationals 
The IceMan cometh? Or in this case, goeth... as an unidentified race fan fills his cooler with free ice courtesy of a local lodging establishment. Actually, we have a bit of a beef with our hotel as the ice machine refused to cough up even one cube for our dry and altogether too warm "cooler" this morning. 
Very cool license plate in the hotel parking lot on this Dodge Magnum. At least it is for a died-in-the-wool Mopar fanatic like myself. Can't wait to test drive the new 2006 Chrysler 300 SRT with the upgraded 425-hp Hemi. It should be lethal.... at least for me, according to a local media pundit. 
To quote crew chief Ken Sitko: "Maybe this isn't the best time to be putting on these new Stage V BAE heads (ex-Bucky Austin and very low mileage) but if we don't, we probably won't qualify. I'll just have to check with our fuel system consultant (Sean Brown of Les Davenport's Acceleration Enterprises) and see how much more juice we'll have to put into it." The logic works for me and let's hope it works for the Sitko Family Racing team today, as they'll have to run a career best in their alcohol funny car to have a chance to qualify for this ultra-tough 8-car field. 
I took almost this exact photo a year ago at this event, and titled it "escaped lunatics take over drag strip and sit in the rain in the grandstands" but this year I'll go a little easier on the Edmonton race fans, and simply wonder what in the heck these people are waiting for? The NHL lockout to end? 
This picture, taken at 4:00 pm indicates a complete lack of on-track activity, as the rain continues to descend and increase in intensity. With the cool temperatures, the prospects of drying the track and getting some racing done today and somewhere between slim and none, with the smart money being on none. 
Sheletered under the tower, the track drying equipment sits at the ready, just waiting to go into action. 
"Fuel with attitude" is the Torco motto and it's prominently displayed on the Foley & Lewis trailer. 
Not allowed in the NHRA world, these Jr. Funny Cars have found a home in the IHRA system. Two of them were on hand to make exhibition runs at this event. 
Here's the front view of the car. 
Snug and dry under the canopy is Trevor Lebsack's beautiful "Tenacity" Funny Car. 
A triumvirate of Edmonton alcohol racing assembled in the rain: (left to right) Serge Dion (currently without a car after selling his Top Alcohol Dragster to a New Zealander), John Evanchuk (racing his Red Wolf car in IHRA trim this weekend), and Ken Sitko (crew chief of his son Nathan's Funny Car). 
This was quite a shocker to see track owner Kim Reeves (left) with her hair gone, but it went for a good cause "Cops for Cancer" on the starting line, and raised nearly $5000 for the very good cause. Supporting her in baldness was standout funny car racer Rob Atchison. That's probably all the stuff we're going to shoot today, as it's now nearly 6:00 pm here in Edmonton, the rain is still falling, the skies are quite dark, the temperatures are dropping, and I'm hungry and tired after just two days of attending the race. Go back to the What's New page to access the other photo pages. |
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