Canadian Nitro Nationals Final Wrap Up

Cayuga, On (July 5 2010)  Sunday’s racing action at Cayuga Dragway concluded this weekend with some of the best racing Canada had to offer.

The Quick 32 Sportsman Series saw Buddy Forrest of Rochester, NY, with his Morgan Forrest Racing dragster, line up against Rob Gray in his  Wilson & Gray Racing 2002 Cavalier. With almost identical reaction times, Forrest’s quicker 7.18 ET to Gray’s 7.35 ET put himself in the Quick 32 Napa Auto Parts winners circle at the end of the day.

The Pro Modified Racing Association (PMRA) finals saw none other then the car to beat all weekend of Mike Stawicki and his G-Force Race Cars sponsored 68 Firebird. The Medina, NY racer would look to face former Quick 32 Sportsman Series racer Derek Hawker who has stepped up to the Pro Modified ranks this season. Stawicki took round wins over Paul Noakes in the first and Gary Irving in the second, while Hawker faced three time champion Bruce Boland in the first round, moved on to the second round to put Caledonia, ON racer Terry Brown on the trailer, and the finals were set.

With Hawker waiting for Stawicki to show for the final , word came that Team G-Force Race Cars could not make the call due to parts breakage from the previous run.
The Hawker Construction backed 1963 Corvette made the solo run with a 6.32 ET @ 224 mph to put Derek Hawker in the winners circle for the first time.

The Top Fuel dragsters took to the track for their final run of the weekend. The first pairing saw Canadian fan favourite Todd Paton line up against Mitch King out of the Mitch King Motorsports camp. It was a wild ride for the Tim Hortons sponsored driver, getting out of the groove and nearly tagging the left retaining wall, Paton demonstrated his excellent driving skills by keeping the family dragster off the wall and crossing the finish line first over Mitch King to a standing, cheering crowd.

The last pair saw another local favourite Fred Farndon in the Nitro Express dragster face Spencer Massey in our final taste of nitro for the weekend . Problems with Farndon’s dragster on the starting line gave the win to Massey which wrapped the Top Fuelers for the day.

With the two Jet Dragsters left to make their final passes of the events the fans were treated with some spectacular smoke and fire shows once again by Belleville, ON racer Lou Pereira “The Terminator” with Lou’s brother Manny handling the Crew chief role for the popular Jet Car. In the other lane was Danny Sullivan’s “Chicago Rush” and the crew of the Buckhurst boys getting the job done for Danny for the challenge against the Canadian driver . The Jet Dragsters got lined up to the staging lights by none other the Cayuga Dragways own Track Manager Neale Armstrong ,who is also a licensed Jet Dragster driver. With the full force of the jet engines maximum thrust the dragsters put on great side by side run in the five second range at close to 300 mph to the standing room only crowd.

As the Canadian Nitro Nationals came to a close for this July holiday weekend , kudos go to Cayuga Dragways Track Manager Neale Armstrong and the track management for securing this event by booking in the Nitro Funny Cars of Dale Creasy and Jack Wyatt and the four Top Fuel Dragster’s of Canadian standout Todd Paton and Fred Farndon and our USA friends of Mitch King and Spencer Massey. Also with the popular Pro Mod car’s of the PMRA Series, with 3000 hp wild door slammers, and the Quick 32 Sportsman Series of Top Dragsters vs. Top Sportsman  door cars and Cayuga’s own racing program, the event had something for everyone in the stands to enjoy.

With the success that this event delivered in the absence of the AHRA , this proves that this could be a annual event that would be supported by the Canadian drag racing fan.

Dale Boeru
Canadain Drag Racer Magazine