Some detail and highlights from some very impressive early season Canadian stuff happening in drag racing….
TAD Tower of Power — The word “focused” certainly comes to mind quickly when you mention British Columbia’s Shawn Cowie. The Surrey-based driver of the super potent and talented Mundies Towing sponsored TAD collected his second major NHRA Lucas Oil Series title of the season last weekend when he prevailed at the Pacific Region’s Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event held a Phoenix. In a very tell tale and titanic head to head final round match up with top class rival (and defending 2017 NHRA Lucas Oil World Champion) Joey Severance — Cowie won handily with a lap of 5.261 secs at 277.26 mph. And in case you are counting that was Cowie’s 22nd win at the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing series regional/divisional level and it was his 4th career trip to victory lane at Phoenix’s Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. (Photos by Bob Johnson)
More March Meet Muscle — The potent Edmonton-based Hodgson/Papirnick Pacemaker AA/FC team attended last weekend’s weather plagued 60th annual March Meet at Bakersfield. The team, who are both the defending 2017 March Meet event champions and also the overall NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series World Champions had yet another strong event as they advanced all the way to the final round before losing out to Bobby Cottrell. Driver Ryan Hodgson continued his team’s seemingly always competitive propensities at the fabled Auto Club Famoso track. He qualified #6 in the field (5.708 secs) and then beat fellow Canadian Tim Boychuk, Paul Romine and Ryan Konno in earlier competition. *For more details on FC racing at the March Meet check out our report within our co-production NitroFCCanada.com site) (Photos by Marc Gewertz)
On the Cusp — Brantford Ontario’s Jeff Chatterson is now on the cusp of competition with his new injected nitro TAD class car. The determined racer made some test runs at Bradenton Florida recently where he made three very solid and impressive laps including a best time of 5.470 secs at 265.48 mph. Jeff is migrating his participation in the NHRA TAD category to injected nitro from a supercharged car this season – with help from the same car’s former driver “Dyno Dave” Heitzman. Jeff is entered now for the back to back events coming at Gainesville — this weekend’s Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series race and then next weekend’s Amalie Oil Gatornationals. (Photo courtesy of Bryan Epps)
Posted by Bruce Biegler