The father and son duo of Eric and Matt Latino continue to do the right stuff in NHRA Pro Stock. The Port Perry ON natives both qualified well: Matt at #3 (6.533 secs) and Eric #8 (6.545 secs). On raceday, Matt went to the 2nd round before losing out to World Champion Dallas Glenn while Eric lost out in a round #1 tussle to Erica Enders.

Quebec’s Daniel Mercier was the single Canadian car entered in Top Fuel at Gainesville.  Daniel did battle gremlins most of the weekend but did qualify #16 at 3.885 secs — before losing out in round #1 to eventual event winner Josh Hart.

It is not too often that we can report on multiple Canadian driver names entered for NHRA fuel FC fields — but that did happen at Gainesville!  So great to see Todd Lesenko (Edmonton AB) back as driver for Jim Dunn Racing — Todd’s first “go” back was a DNQ with a 4.433 secs best.  Spencer Hyde’s first class fray of the new season came in this great Jim Head looking FC (below photo).  Spencer (Stratford ON) qualified 14th and took out Paul Lee in round one – but in the next frame lost a close one to Alexis DeJoria (4.040 secs to 4.066 secs).

The province of Manitoba was represented by the highly determined team of Donna and Tom Patterson who raced at the prestigious Gatornationals event for the first time in their careers.  With her T/D, Donna qualified #9 at 6.207 secs) and won her first round. Tom qualified his cool ’94 Camaro #6 for T/S (6.531 secs) but could not out run his competition in round #1.

Two truly excellent Mopar cars from Canada graced the Gatornationals’ Super Stock event field.  Wendall Howes (from New Brunswick) was the top finishing Canadian overall at the race going to the final four with his SS/IA – losing out narrowly on a breakout to event winner Dan Fletcher.  Ryan Boniferro (from Niagara Falls) entered his Can-Am Stock/SS circuit regular  SS/FA ’69 Cuda (below) but his event bid ended in round one.

TAD class competition did include two very formidable racers from Canada with McKenna Bold (above) from Red Deer AB and Jeff Veale from Selkirk ON., both qualifying.  McKenna and Jeff, who each have NHRA national event wins to their career credits —  could not repeat that previous success this time out however.

British Columbia’s Justin Bond did enter his JBS Equipment Pro Mod car at Gainesville – but did not drive it.  After breaking his foot recently, he tasked  substitute Travis Harvey for the event.  The team was unfortunately unable to complete their Round 1 pass due to a mechanical issue discovered on the starting line after the burnout.  Harvey did win the FTI Showdown for qualifying in qualifying.  Justin reported his intention to drive the car at the next race (at NHRA Phoenix – March 20-22).