NOTE: Click on the thumbnails to display the full-size images
Saturday's Photo Gallery
Looking much more like a drag strip pit area than a truck stop parking lot, the cars, trucks and trailers have moved in and filled up the space overnight. On the right, again Gerry you were right: they really do mow the track here at Race City.
After last night's street meet, the Race City crew worked overtime to get the track prepped; it's been sprayed all the way past the 1/8-th mile mark and looks much better than yesterday. At the ready are the paramedics, tow truck and tire-dragging tractor. Hopefully it's a long slow day with little business for any of them.
First up on our pit tour is the '55 Chevy of Cory Kincaid, one of the stars of the Rocky Mountain Nostalgia Funny Car Association. Here's two views of the car, looking really sharp and nearly ready to run.
Before we move on, it's time for a bit of a political statement by the Kincaid team - look closely at the extreme right side of the photo on the left and see the X-ed out "association" decal. And to the right of that is the spare bullet in Kincaid's trailer. Hat to pan, ready to rock.
Next on the agenda is Cal Tebb's '69 GTO "Judge" looking very sharp and bright in the sun. It's an almost stock appearing body on a hard running car.
Open wide and say "aahhh". On the left it's Cal Tebb's Pontiac with Chevy power and on the right is Cory Kincaid's Chev with Chrysler power. Huh? Hey, that's funny car racing.
Looking really sharp is Corey Sekura's (this weekend, as he and brother Ron switch seats regularly) '69 Camaro and on the right is Ron's '82 Trans-Am showing some serious battle scars after a run-in with the guardwall at Ashcroft last weekend. Ouch! indeed.
Looking so much better on the "shiny" side is the Sekura Trans-Am, while in the next pit area is team leader Joey Steckler with his very cool-looking '69 Corvette. To show their professionalism, all the cars are pitted together, with four of them forming a sort of midway effect. Well done.
Pointing in opposite directions are Cal Tebb's GTO, and Sherrie Bodnarchuk's Superbird.
Still in the trailer is the almost-new '63 Corvette of local racer Gary Gummow. We can't wait to see how good it looks outside in the sun. Next to his trailer is a still-unidentified blown Corvette with "Tarzan" on the door. More on both these cars and drivers in our pit report.
Another view, this from the side, of the unknown Corvette. Now we move on to another Blown Renegades car, a blown big-block Chev '23 T altered.
Here's a car that is attempting to fill a gap in the Renegades show, but as you can see it doesn't have a blower. It also has trouble, lots of it, getting started as these guys spent quite a while getting it fired up. We should have more details on this one later.
Two more shots of the "Tarzan" car, one has even got a door on it.
The shot on the left is a waste as it was just too dark inside Gary Gummow's trailer (and I was just too lazy to hook up the flash) to get a good shot in the dark. We'll try again after he's unloaded it. And how could we resist getting a snap of Bodnarchuk's tow vehicle, one of the smallest wagons you'll ever see. Update: They put a show sign out in front of the car to let us know it's a '48 Crosley Fleetline Master Deluxe Station Wagon. Quite a big title for such a little car, eh? Apparently they built 17,000 of these little gems that year, but where have you ever seen one before?
Before we know it, the staging lanes are open and filling fast as the track is ready to go just before noon. Looks like it's going to be a great day for a drag race, and tomorrow's forecast is even better.
Turning the clock back about 50 years, we've got some shots of a beautifully restored flathead ford powered dragster from the early days of the sport. It's part of a display up on the concourse at the top of the grandstands.
Two more pics of this orange ford dragster. Looks a little crude compared to today's cars, but it was state-of-the-art during its era.
Next to it, is something more familiar to me, an injected early model Hemi in a flamed car called the "Widowmaker".
Back to the ontrack action now, with cars actually making passes for the first time this weekend.
Two more views of the track before we take a break, with the left side showing another pair of cars launching, and the right side depicting the track empty, along with the grandstands.
Last pic from the batch is this sweet-looking yellow pickup truck, zipping past us behind the tower. On the other side of the tower, it's time for more qualifying by the sportsman cars, so it's time to check out the camera on the starting line.
Time for some of the heavy iron, with two big rigs pulling out of the staging lanes to assault the track. And I do mean assault, as seen in the next pic as they start their burnouts.
No, it's not the sky darkening, just two diesel monsters putting half a tonne of particulate in the air as they both bomb the throttle. With that out of the way, it's time to look across the track to the Kevin Therres Jet Funny Car trailer.
Two more views of the Kevin Therres car, from the side and looking down the throat of that big jet engine.
Another pair of shots of the jet funny car, getting an even closer look at that big thrust machine.
Moving on to the concourse, we get our first look at the recreated Sinclair & Fjallman junior fueller. And another one.
And a few more as we move in for a close look at the car.
Befoe we move along, just one more shot. This car is truly photogenic, and wait until they do a "cackle" later today. Even more pics I'm sure. Turning to look behind we see the Widowmaker again, this time without the cleaning crew attending to it.
One more look at the Widowmaker, a little closer this time, before we move back to the funny car pits where we find Sherrie Bodnarchuk's crew hard at work polishing the car while she sits in the shade enjoying a cold beverage. Way to go guys.
Over in the Sekura brothers pits, the hurt car (notice the "ouch!" on the side) sits in the sun, while working in the shade of the awning is Jim Attwell's crew chief, setting the valves on the Scarlett Fever dragster.
Two more shots of the Attwell car, the quickest and fastest blown alcohol dragster on the grounds this weekend. The only one too.
Another couple of Gummow shots, with the crew working hard to get it prepped.
And it's Gary Gummow himself, pumping the brake lever as they bleed them. Just down the road is the very nice looking sportsman truck of Gary Hymas.
Another view of the flame job on the side of Hymas's truck and next door to that is the only competition coupe (you can look up the term in the history books) I've seen in a very long time. Definitely old school. Definitely fun.
And one more from the other angle of this Fiat coupe. Before we move too far away, we've got to present a lession in "Drag Racing 101". Can you spot all the mistakes in this picture? Starting with the un-narrowed rearend so the tires stick 6 inches outside the fenders, the lopsided body, the flimsy wide-stance wheelie bars, the fuel pump hanging down, etc, etc. I did see this car go down the track, not too badly, but he broke out by 3-tenths in the first round.
Before the 5:00 fireup, all the funny cars lined up side-by-side in their pit area. Very nice touch folks. And here's a look at Sherrie Bodnarchuk's car with the "hood" up.
Moving down the line, we get to Joey Steckler's flamed Corvette, body up and ready to warm up. Moving out to the track again, we couldn't help but notice some very squirrely burnout tracks, most of them made by the diesel trucks I think.
Not sure whether this pit position was allocated by the track, but one enterprising soul has got one of the best pit spots on the property on a chicane on the road course - return road. Finally it's time for the long awaited fireup/cackle by Gordie Bonin in the Sinclair & Fjallman junior fueller. They've fired the car a few times already this week, but have had trouble getting it to run hard and clean on all eight. Maybe tonight.
Continuing with the action at the nitro cackle.
And even more cackle shots. Everyone in the crowd (and there were at least 100 people standing around it) was enjoying the show immensely.
The show finally over, Bonin slides back out of the hot seat, and takes off the nitro gear under the awning.
As soon as the junior fueller cacklefest finished, the Rocky Mountain Funny Cars all fired up in unison, lined up side by side as what seemed like almost everyone on the grounds attended. A great show by the funny car teams and well appreciated by the fans.
Good thing that the feature cars aren't in the lanes yet, because we've got the first serious down time of the weekend, as the crews get busy dealing with an oildown in the left lane. And by the time they finish, the funnys are not only in the lanes, but lined up behind the burnout box, ready to fire the first pair.
While the funny cars waited, the official starter for the event, candidate for city council Shane Keating gave a short speech that went over well with the crowd. After the speech, the national anthem played while the teams waited to fire up and get the show underway.
In the other lane, waiting just as patiently, is the '55 Chev Bel-Air team of Cory Kincaid. And the rest of the funny cars are lined up behind them in the staging lanes.
Waiting and watching for the action to begin is the crowd which has been slowly building throughout the day. As the action is almost ready to begin, an escaped lunatic named Moe Putney (side note: he must be crazy, he takes photos for Don MacGowan of QuickTimes magazine) finds himself a great vantage point on the centreline of the track, about 150 feet out. Are you kidding? Rules? What rules?
First out of the burnout box is Cory Kincaid, lighting up the tires for the first bigtime burnout of the weekend. And running down the track in the other lane is one of the cowbell girls for the Sekura brothers.
Backing up under capable direction is the '55 Chev funny car of Cory Kincaid. Then he stages and gets ready to launch.
Before we move on, it's time for another backup girl pic, this one doing the work for Kincaid. With both cars staged and Steckler pulling into the burnout box in the background, we're well underway.
While Cory Kincaid launches on the left, Sherrie Bodnarchuk burns out on the right.
Joey Steckler backing up on the left side, then staging on the right side against Sherrie Bodnarchuk.
Now it's Steckler staging on the left, and Bodnarchuk launching (the throttle's just opening) on the right.
Getting a big rise from the crowd is the sight of the funny cars coming back up the return road, with flags flying and crews hooting and hollering. On the other side of the column is Ron Sekura laying down a big burnout in his Trans-Am.
A couple of backup shots now, with Cal Tebb in his big orange GTO Judge on the left, and Ron Sekura in the Trans-Am on the right.
A pair of pics of Ron Sekura here, almost identical, but he's staging on the left and launching (notice the wide-open butterflies) on the right.
On to the Blown Renegades now, and first out of the burnout box is Shawn "Tarzan" Belechowsky in his late 80's (I guess) Corvette. He's burning out (left) and backing up (right).
Backing up in the other lane is Dwayne Treleaven in his blown altered, while Belechowski stages on the right.
After a troubled launch, Belechowsky broke right away and pulled over to the wall, close enough to the starting line to allow the crew to push him out of the way. After he was safely out of the way, Jim Attwell laid down a strong burnout in the Scarlett Fever dragster before making his solo pass.
Another two shots of Attwell, backing up (after the burnout) and moving forward (to stage) in his very sharp looking Scarleet Fever car.
Reversing the run order from the first round of qualifying, the Blown Renegades were first up in the second session, with Dwayne Treleaven leading off with a strong burnout and looking good coming back.
One more shot of Treleaven's altered, staging and getting ready to leave, while on the other side is "fill-in" Gary Gummow, really just out testing his almost new car, getting very sideways on the burnout. I know it's a pretty fuzzy shot, but I just had to include it.
Two more pics of the gorgeous '63 split-window Corvette Top Sportsman car of Calgary's Gary Gummow. He just brought the car to knock the winter rust off before heading to Edmonton for next weekend's IHRA Rocky Mountain Nationals.
One last shot of Gummow's car leaving on a troubled pass, running way too rich and stumbling to a 6.88 pass (1/8th-mile) before losing an oil line in a cloud of smoke at the finish line. Tough start to the season. On the right side, we've got Cal Tebb burning out to start the second qualifying session for the funny cars.
Two more backup shots, with Sherrie Bodnarchuk's Superbird on the left and Cal Tebb's GTO on the right.
Another photo of Cal Tebb, this time launching hard enroute to a low qualifying 4.85 pass, while Corey Sekura burns out in his Camaro funny.
On the left we've got what looks like another escaped lunatic shot, but it's actually one of the Sekura team backup girls rattling her cowbells on the way down to back up brother Corey in the Camaro flopper. And here she comes guiding the car back into its long hot rubber tracks.
Already celebrating and getting the crowd up and shouting is the Sekura crew on their way down the return road to pick up brother Corey. Meanwhile, to the right, we've got Joey Steckler burning out in his purple flamed '69 Corvette funny.
Another backup shot and a launch pic, both of Joey Steckler's '69 'Vette. Great looking and hard running car.
With the blown alcohol cars out of the way, it's time for the main event, with the Jet Funny Car of Kevin Therres, being driven by recently licensed (and former crewman) Ross Crampton. In the left pic, the fireup procedure starts and on the right, the burner pops are started.
More burner pops out of the '07 Corvette Funny Car, with a bit of a flame show thrown in for good measure.
And there she goes. With a firesuited safety crewman holding down the Christmas tree, and photographers ducking for cover, the big jet lights up and thunders down track with a mighty roar. On the right side of the page we've got one of the later round competitors in the catch-all King of the Hill race, Gary Hymas in his sportsman truck burning out.
Our last two shots of the evening show Gary Hymas launching his truck and an unidentified purple dragster backing up after a hard burnout.
That's it from Race City; tomorrow we've got the final day of the Father's Day Funny Car Classic