More Chatterson Collateral! — Brantford-Ontario based Chatterson Racing had a strong showing at IHRA’s first “Triple Crown” event held at Darana Raceway near Columbus Ohio.
After wheeling his injected nitro car to the pole in qualifying for that 8-car field (5.254 secs) driver Jeff Chatterson, who had earned a big win at this facility last summer – advanced to the final round again.
Jeff topped Dan Dietrich and Meagan Smith in rounds 1-2, but as drag racing fate would have it – a premature/red light start in the final paved the way for opponent Rachael Curl to earn her first ever IHRA event title.
“We’ve been picking away trying new things & the car has finally come around,” Jeff relayed post race. “In the 1st round we got lucky – because we had some ignition issues — but we thrashed to get them resolved.”
“I think we had the car to beat in the final — but I was too amped up I guess after many delays.”
Jeff added, “I’m very proud of our team and of our son Ryan. He is doing an incredible job getting our car back into running in the 5.2 secs zone!”

That Davenport Touch! — Canadian drag racing “Hall of Famer” Les Davenport showcased his expertise once again within TAFC class racing.
During last week’s IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series event (Darana Raceway Ohio) Les racked up both a win and a R/UP placing within the event ’s TAFC eliminator.
In the championship round it was Ohio’s Phil Esz taking the victory over Canada’s Stan Sipos (Victoria BC)
by a 5.452 secs to 5.552 secs margin. Both those team cars are overseen by Les Davenport.
Esz – who is the current overall points leader for TAFC in IHRA, qualified #1 and also set both low ET (5.456 secs) and top speed (259.37 mph) for the category.
Sipos (photo below) advanced to the final after qualifying third (5.522 secs).

NHRA Divisional Dividends — Some recent Canadian participation highlights from within NHRA’s Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series events.
At Yellowstone Montana last weekend, Dunmore Alberta’s Aaron Steinkey did achieve a drag racing first for himself by winning for the first time at the NHRA LODRS divisional level.
For Steinkey, who is a 5X career winner within NHRA’s higher ranked National event level racing, this victory came in Top Dragster class car competition.
At Yellowstone, Steinkey prevailed after a 5-round T/D tournament, winning from the #15 qualified position. In the Championship round he delivered a .003 RT with a 7.33 secs (7.30 dial in) to defeat Kendra Larson.
This LODRS race also included two more Canadian final round appearances – both delivered by Saskatchewan-based racers.
Bill Cawsey (from Regina) placed R/UP for Super Gas (attitude corrected 10.30 index) racing and Sheldon Erfle (from Saskatoon) was R/UP for Super Stock driving his GT/JA Olds Achieva.
Further East last weekend did see yet another Canadian final round appearance with Rick Stroud (from Douglas ON) coming close to victory — from  the LODRS race at Maryland International Raceway.
After accumulating 5 round win lights — Rick faced Steve Furr (photo below) in the event’s S/G finale but despite a superior .003 RT — Stroud took “too much stripe” with a breakout 9.880 secs to Furr’s winning 9.914 secs.

Family Affair Project Car — Both a pretty neat story and final product from within the Mountjoy Family Racing team from Ontario.
Some Canadian drag racing history dating back to the 1960’s does include team patriarch Bob Mountjoy who with his partner at the time campaigned the “Blue Max” — which was a small block-powered front engine dragster C/D with a canopy on it.
Fast forward and over the last 2.5 years, Bob’s grandson Scott (+ entire family) have dedicatedly worked and have recreated that car — unveiling it to him — just recently!
The car which is “almost identical to the original,” according to Scott Mountjoy, will be available to the public for viewing at both future car shows and also on some planned exhibition runs later this summer.