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The latest update as of August 29, 2010
Mission Raceway Park "Smoke, Fire & Thunder"
I've got to be out the door to Mission Raceway in barely 45 minutes, so there's no time to even begin posting some results or anything more than a very, very few pictures (which might be a bonus, considering the "quality" of my work). However, we can report that Trevor Lowe reset his own track record in Pro Street, with an awesome 6.16 pass at 228.69, then backed it up in the evening with a 6.18 at an even better speed of 229.29.
Following up the great performance in the dark was Kelowna's Neil Lachelt, who jumped up hugely from his afternoon hit of 6.34 at 217.97, with what I believe is his career best, 6.26 at 217.08, initiated with a .990 sixty foot time. Good on ya, Neil!
The performance beat continued with some great runs by the Pro Street group, including a 6.53 - 214.08 by Garrett Richards, with the truck's body staying intact, another career best, by Ken Sihota at 6.57 at 207.37 and a very strong 6.49 - 214.33 by Alberta's Barry Daniluk. There were some great runs by the Canada West group too, but until I sort out who's who (hey, Dean, got a minute?) their numbers will have to wait until later today.
Rounding out the performance parade were the jets and they certainly didn't disappoint. The two jet funny cars, of Kevin Therres and Derek Snelson, gave contrasting shows, as Therres made huge burner pops and clouds of exhuast smoke, while Snelson had virtually none, but when the lights went green, it was Snelson in the performance department. On both runs he ran away from the bio-diesel car, which didn't run slowly, but was outclassed by Snelson. First time up, it was Snelson with a 6.07 - 263.15 to outdistance Therres' 6.59 - 232.97. And in the finale, it was Snelson again, with another 6.07 at 255.17 this time, to easily cover Therres' 6.53 at 234.96 mph effort.
Been waiting for the big numbers? The Chuck Haynes team certainly didn't disappoint, as the only thing he left on the table was the tantalizing possibility of a 4-second jet car pass at Mission. Maybe some other time, as his best lap was "only" a 5.12 at 312.71 mph in the final. Yeah, not enough fast enough to eclipse his own track speed record of 314 mph. His team-mate, Edmonton's Andy Beauchemin, was left in the kerosene and dust cloud with his two passes of 5.65 at 280.14 and 5.63 - 280.54. Good numbers, and a great fire show, but not in the same league as Haynes' 5.17 - 312.71 and final run of 5.12 at 313.28.
Despite my dire predictions of the crowd dwindling away with the late-ish start of the feature cars, nearly everyone hung in until the final passes of the night. Helping that of course was the locking of the back exit gate to vehicle traffic and closing the spectator crossover bridge as soon as the jet cars entered the staging lanes. Still, it all worked out, the weather cooperated, oildowns weren't too numerous, and despite a few near misses (hello, Russ Parker!), the race day went off without a hitch. We can only hope today is just as smooth.
Just realized that I've neglected to mention the Funny Car numbers, as they did come out and make two qualifying passes. Not sure why there's qualifying, as they all run in "eliminations" but their 4:45 pm session saw six cars down the track and best numbers from Matt Driscoll's nasty black '71 GTX at 6.49, with an early shutoff speed of 186.87 mph. Everyone else was in the 6's except for Russ Parker in his rarely raced "High Bucks IV" Mustang.
When they came out for the evening session, everyone turned up and the numbers were all over the map, ranging from a best of 6.64 at just 193.59 by Canadian Brent Murray in his "Damn Yankee" car (think about that for a moment) to Russ Parker's anyway-but-straight and nearly upside down lap of 8.95 at 90 mph. In between were a solid bunch of 6-second, 200 mph passes to set the stage for today's final qualifying session and eliminations.
Looks like there's no time to post any pics this morning, so I'll just post and run now. Much, much more later today and tomorrow. Stay tuned!
To see previous updates go to the What's Old page