Canada’s Hyde Racing Team emerge very lucrative ($!$!$) champions for one of drag racing’s single most prestigious independent race events….

The Stratford Ontario based Pro Mod team, which features aspiring driver Spencer Hyde as its driver reinforced that notion within all sports – if you can just get yourself to the dance floor — amazing things can happen.

The team proved that and much more when they took the first place payout ($100G) during the recent Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod event – which was completed March 6th at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida.

While Spencer’s event win was probably initially pegged with long odds by Vegas oddsmakers entering the event – it was full on reality at the conclusion.

“I think the whole story is pretty cool,” admitted Spencer.  “We were one of the later teams invited and in fact we qualified on the bump spot (#32) by .001 second. We were the first pair on track in round 1 – but got our lucky round out of the way — because Tommy Gray had a red-light.  Then we got three holeshot victories in a row to get the final round.  We put it all on the line then and managed to run our personal best ET racing against Kurt Steding (3.643 secs).  I mean, you can’t make that stuff up!”

“The whole team worked tirelessly all week — we tested like crazy Tuesday > Thursday,” Spencer continued.  “The data we had from racing here at the Snowbirds (December 2021) was basically irrelevant.  We had to start over to find something that would run good in the heat.”

“The truth is we had to  change engines, transmissions, converters, rear ends, welding headers, and even had to weld one of the main chassis tubes Saturday night after Q4 — until 2:30 Sunday morning.  I can’t thank my crew guys enough, they won this race, not me! This is truly a team sport.”

“It’s still a little overwhelming — my phone has been ringing off the hook — I’m not use to this kind of attention, but I can promise you the love and support we have got from everyone makes it all that more special.”

“A huge shout out to Wes Buck and Drag Illustrated who knocked this race out of the park!,” he emphasised.

Spencer Hyde had previously earned some very special recognition within the Drag Illustrated entity within drag racing —  being included within Drag Illustrated’s 2021 edition “30 Under 30” Issue – in December 2021.

Spencer Hyde out ran Kurt Steding in the final round by a 3.643 secs 205.51 mph to 3.652 secs 207.15 mph count – to gather “$100 Large” !!

An important added dimension to Hyde Racing’s early season trip to Florida was Spencer also finishing up his Top Fuel licensing process.   That happened within the “Paton Pathway” in their Top Fuel car at Gainesville Raceway the weekend before.

“So the entire trip was an incredible experience,” he beamed.  “Getting my Top Fuel Licence with the Paton Family team was amazing. That team is no joke, they have good parts and even better people and I’m thrilled about it.”

Posted by Bruce Biegler

Photos by Phil Hutchison