British Columbia’s powerhouse Top Alcohol Dragster championship contenders again show the right stuff!…..
If Shawn Cowie ever decides to relocate from his home base in Surrey BC to Concord NC – I think people may quickly understand.
The highly talented racer continued his winning propensity at fabulous zMax Dragway near Charlotte when he prevailed again at NHRA’s 10th annual Carolina Nationals last weekend.
In the championship final round Shawn overcame a significant starting line advantage earned by his opponent Corey Michalek to take a 5.295 secs 272.39 mph to 5.399 secs 267.27 mph – come from behind decision.
That victory was not only the third national event title of the season for Shawn’s very formidable Mundie’s Towing-backed race team — it was also his third consecutive win at this particular facility. Shawn had entered the race as the defending 2016 event champion and he also won there during NHRA’s Four Wide Nationals event late last April.
The team which is now being guided mechanically by tuning wizard/engine builder extraordinaire Norm Grimes, combined some great performance with some very toiling work while earning Shawn his 9th career win at the NHRA national event level.
After qualifying #4 (5.263 secs) within the very competitive field – Shawn had taken the measure of three other all injected nitro cars raced by Mia Tedesco, Duane Shields and Dan Page in earlier competition. But while beating Page in the semi final round – the team did suffer some significant breakage – necessitating a major effort to make repairs in time for the final versus Michaelk.
“I can’t believe we got the win.” said Shawn in a post race FaceBook post. “Our consistency paid off – but honestly making it up for the final wouldn’t have happened without the hard work of my team and a lot of our competitors. We had the Hool’s,, Rick Levelling and the Fox Racing team all jump in during that thrash. It shows again that sportsmanship in drag racing is unreal!”
For Cowie this win may very well prove to be very championship consequential too as it enhanced and kept his potential path to becoming the 2017 NHRA Lucas Oil World title alive. Cowie sits third in points as that season long chase winds down to it’s final few races.
Posted by Bruce Biegler
DragRaceCanada file photos by Bruce Biegler & Gerry Frechette