Feb. 9th proved to be a proud and impactful day for Canada within the state of California….

While the professional sports of golf and drag racing most certainly differ greatly — last Sunday did produce similar results for two prominent young Canadian participants from British Columbia.

Pretty much about the same time that Nick Taylor (from Abbotsford BC) was claiming a prestigious win for the PGA’s marquee 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach tournament — a bit further south in SoCal — it was Shawn Cowie (from Surrey BC) who was also claiming victory.

Cowie, driver of the highly potent Mundie’s Towing Top Alcohol Dragster — started off his 2020 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Race season campaign with a bang, when he continued his “ownership” of Auto Club Raceway in Pomona.  

Shawn Cowie’s Mundie’s Towing team got off to a great season start — by winning he prestigious 60th annual NHRA Lucas Oil Winternationals.

For the 4th time in his career, the skilled racer won the highly reputed Lucas Oil Winternationals title.   When Cowie outlasted his opponent Garrett Bateman in the championship round — that also marked his 6th career national event win at Pomona (including two Auto Club World Finals events).

Right out of the gate — Shawn’s talented race team — who had finished 2nd in final NHRA Lucas Oil World Championship points 3 years consecutively — appeared as determined as ever at the Pomona opener.  In fact in the very first session on Thursday they sent a message when they qualified #1 with both low ET and top speed (5.181 secs at 280.08 mph).  From there on they pretty much dominated.

Shawn Cowie’s 19th career NHRA title included both low ET and top speed.

After a first round single (13 cars entered) Shawn drove past his injected nitro car opponents Jerry Kumre and Dwayne Shields in rounds one and two before facing Bateman in the final.  In that race Bateman’s injected nitro car did experience some tire shake — and that ultimately allowed Cowie’s run 5.352 secs 278.35 mph to prevail. 

This win was the 19th time at the NHRA national event level in Shawn Cowie’s career — and it did provide some perfect early momentum for his team’s 2020 NHRA Lucas Oil world championship pursuit.

Posted by Bruce Biegler

Photos by Bruce Biegler & Bob Johnson