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The latest update as of August 29, 2003
Motorsport Madness... Part Two! at Mission Raceway
Another weekend is fast approaching, and on the menu, besides more of that unreal summer weather we've been having this year, is another major event at Mission Raceway Park. This time it's Motorsport Madness... Part Two! aka: the Pro Mods return.
Backing them up will be the Canadian Pro Street Association's "Street Car Shootout", a Stock/Super Stock combo eliminator and Top Comp. Plus a Friday night street legal party and a Saturday night Pro Street Cruise-In at the Mission Boston Pizza. Sounds like they've got a full meal deal on tap for Saturday and Sunday of this last big race weekend of the season.
Here's the advertising feature promoting the event, as published in this morning's edition of the Vancouver Province:
The essence of drag racing is rivalries, between drivers and teams and cars, and nowhere will that be more graphically demonstrated than this weekend at Mission Raceway Park.
It's "Motorsport Madness," the biggest doubleheader of the season, the Pepsi Pro Mod Challenge Presented by The Province, and the Mopac Streetcar Shootout Presented by Boston Pizza.
For fans of race cars with doors it doesn't get any better than this. The Pro Modified cars are drag racing's most popular class, and Mission has become THE track on the West Coast to see these 225-mph cars and trucks in wheel-to-wheel combat.
You want rivalries? How about Canada vs the USA? Out of the 13 entries, seven are from the Great White North. And in true Canadian fashion, we have to battle amongst ourselves, too.
From Richmond comes Glen May and his Cranberry Connection Ford Ranger. Trevor Lowe will represent Agassiz and the Fraser Valley with his veteran '57 Chevy. And Jay Syvertsen comes out of Surrey with his radical '55 Chevy pickup.
The rest of the Canucks are flatlanders from Alberta and Saskatchewan, including the West Coast Pro Mod points leader, Glen Kerunsky, in his wild '57 Chevy, and the current quickest supercharged Pro Mod car in the country, and Mission track record holder at 6.25 seconds, Rick DiStefano and his gorgeous '53 Corvette, (pictured above) both from Calgary.
And then there are May and Calgary's Joe Delahay, both of whom want to leave Mission claiming to have the world's fastest race truck. May's Ford and Delahay's Chevy will be loaded for bear this weekend.
You want more? How about Chevy vs Chrysler vs Ford, all represented in the Pro Mod field? Old-style cars from the 1930's and 1950's vs sleek new models? Supercharged alcohol-fueled engines vs carbureted gasoline and nitrous oxide-burning ones? Just about every pairing on the track in qualifying and eliminations will have some sort of natural rivalry built right into it.
The most intense rivalries are the personal ones, born of many match-ups on the track and perhaps a little bit of animosity off it. Such is the case in the Mopac Streetcar Shootout which will see the return of the two fastest Pro Street drivers in Western Canada, fierce local rivals Glen Braid and Don Murray.
Braid will be debuting his all-new eagerly awaited '66 Acadian Canso with supercharged small-block Chevy, while Murray has made significant upgrades to his '56 Corvette with the monster nitrous-snorting motor. The goal is to not only beat the other guy, but to be the first street-legal, licensed car to run in the 6-second range and/or over 200 mph, which would make for huge bragging rights. It could happen this weekend at Mission. Several dozen of the region's fastest street-legal cars in five other Canadian Pro Street Association classes will also compete.
Completing the program will be the Canada West Doorslammer Association with the "Junior Pro Mod" cars, Stock/Super Stock Combo Eliminator for the wheelstanding muscle cars, the fast 7-second Top Comp cars, and the latest round of the local Summit ET Bracket Racing Series.
This will be one of the most action-packed weekends of the racing season at Mission, a true racing happening for the hardcore fan. Qualifying for the Pro Mods will be held on Saturday at noon, 2:00 and 4:00, followed at each time by all the other classes, while final eliminations will commence Sunday at noon. Admission is $15 each day, including pit pass which will get you right up close to the cars and drivers.
written by Gerry Frechette
Rick DiStefano (near lane) vs. Joe Delahay (far lane) at Mission Raceway Park
So just why are we having a major Pro Mod race at Mission one week after a Lucas Oil Series divisonal event? Poor planning? No, nothing bizarre or arcane; just Yakima, Washington's Renegade Raceways being deemed incapable of hosting an NHRA Division Six event at too late a date to reschedule it at any other facility, like Calgary (which doesn't have NHRA-approved insurance), Edmonton (which belongs to the other association), Ashcroft (which just doesn't have the stature to host such an event anymore).
I'll be back with some more rambling thoughts on this page later day, but in the meantime I've got an awful lot of blanks to fill in on the Lucas Oil Series event at Mission last weekend? Remember it? So do I.... but the details are fading fast, so I'd better get them down on a page before they're gone.
To see previous updates go to the What's Old page