CSCN – Street Fighting Showdown!
Canadian Fast Street Car racing proponent Joe DaSilva along with his event sponsor Matco Tools hosted a rousing version of the Canadian Street Car Nationals last weekend at Cayuga Dragway – Toronto Motorsports Park….
The event, which is regarded as the season pinnacle in Canada for this genre of drag racers, played out under near perfect weather conditions over three days.
Joe DaSilva
The event featured competition in a variety of classes some of which were thinly attended mixed in with others that were rock solid. The weekend program also featured special appearances by a number of Pro cars all of which tried to take advantage of some excellent track preparation to do some testing.
Unfortunately the events’ marquee Super Street 10.5 category did not draw to anywhere near pre-race car count expectations. Class runners did however still produce some ferocity.
Pre-event favorite Mike Yedgarian (North York) did full fill his desire to win his first title at the Canadian Street Car Nationals, taking the Super Street 10.5 title driving Steve Lazzaro’s spectacular turbo-charged Pro-Line Racing Camaro. Yedgarian’s final round win was rather ugly however. His machine suffered major driveline damage during its victory lap, defeating teammate John Carinci whose car stalled on the starting line.
Mike Yedgarian and "Team Pro-Line" collected an overdue first CSCN event win.
Because of the small Super Street field, two entries driven by Billy Glidden and Mike Stawicki, optioned to stage a best of 3 10.5 Tire Outlaw match race for the fans and for bragging rights. That pairing did produced some record fast times, not the least of which was a 6.07 secs and 237.89 mph speed by Stawicki. Mike was driving a Pro Mod car owned by Jay Santos which had been outfitted (for the first time) with smaller tires for this event. That ET is reportedly the quickest and fastest ever seen on 10.5 inch tires.
Mike Stawicki & Billy Glidden faced off in a special 10.5 tire Outlaw Showdown
Super Street racing also included the debut for an unreal new all Canadian built Chevy Camaro owned by Mike Carrabas (Brampton ON) and driven by Jerry Mitrovic*. That turbocharged car which features some real trend setting advancements unfortunately had a rather auspicious start. The car hammered the guard wall during its first ‘full pull” off the starting line. Some damage to the front end has thus set back the team at least temporarily.
(*Editor’s Note: DragRaceCanada will post an additional Hotzone feature on this car – coming soon!)
There were some timely big wins this weekend at Cayuga. Saturday’s schedule included a “King of The Street” title win for New York State-based racer Bill Suitor who claimed an impressive victory driving his street legal ’70 Chevelle which he races too in 8.90 class competition.
New York's Bill Suitor wheeled his '70 Chevelle to the "King of the Street" title
Markham’s Mark Azevedo claimed a very hard fought win in the EZ Street class driving his nitrous-injected ’68 Chevelle. Mark topped Steve Falle’s Mustang in that class final. 15 cars had answered the bell for the first round of EZ Street competition.
Mark Azevedo scored a hard fought in EZ Street with his nitrous-injected Chevelle
Sunday’s concluding “Champion of Champions” event went to 8.90 racer Rich Mason (Brantford) who collected a very cool and very expensive limited edition Matco Tools box by running his ’68 Nova closest to his index overall in the shootout that featured all individual eliminator winners.
Rich Mason had a very lucrative weekend -- taking the 8.90 class and the Champion of Champions shootout
Other 2011 CSCN Class champions were: Wayde Mahoney (Pro Stock), Ernie Zambri (Pro Comp), Randy Mounce (Open Comp), Rich Mason (Xtreme Street), Tim Kennelly (Wild Street), Frank Van De Peer (Mod Street), Randy Nunn (Real Street) and Doug Kiehn (12.90). The Bike/Sled title went to Chris Bondi.
The Pro Stock event winner was Wayne Mahoney (from Milton)
The popular Can-Am Stock/Super Stock series held an event within Sunday’s schedule with that win going to Tony Valerio in wheel-standing crate-motored Chevy Camaro.
Can-Am Stock/SS circuit winner - Tony Valerio
Fans attending the 2011 Canadian Street Car Nationals witnessed a number of exhibition runs by some testing Pro cars, including the Pro Mods of Kenny Lang, Jason Kelso and Pete Farber as well as the Pro Stockers driven by Mark Martino (NHRA) and Tony Pontieri (ADRL).
Fans also got to see the track debut for an all new Canadian-based nitro Nostalgia Funny Car – the “Pony Up” ’73 Mustang bodied machine owned and driven by Gary Kraus. (DragRaceCanada will have more on that car in the near future too).
Posted by: Bruce Biegler
To view DragRaceCanada’s very extensive CSCN Photo gallery click: HERE
Photos by: Bruce Biegler & Mark Ackert
