K&K Tries ADRL Alternative 

They were very conspicuous by their absence to say the least.  Stratford’s K&K Racing Team who are true mainstays at Grand Bend Motorplex, optioned out of last weekend’s IHRA Mopar Canadian Nitro Jam…..

The team which had attended every single Mopar Canadian Nationals event since inception back in 2000, winning it once, surprised a lot of people when they were absent from the Top Sportsman entry list for this years Grand Bend event.   The team, also defending Napa Quick 32 series Champions, choose to take their slick nitrous-injected Dodge Status to the ADRL event at Martin Michigan instead. 

The Ontario-based K&K Racing Team was in action at ADRL Martin

The Martin race marked the first time that the doorslammer-orientated ADRL circuit offered the Top Sportsman eliminator as an official class, something which they will continue to do going forward.

By attending, team owners Kevin Wicke and Kevin Zimmer will go into the drag racing history annuls with a footnote — the first ever Canadian TS particpants in ADRL racing.

“It is a new class for the ADRL which they are trying to get going,” confirmed team driver Kevin Wicke.  “This was by invitation only and some 120 teams did apply; but only 21 were picked.  We feel honored to be one of them because this field was just great representation of all the quality cars around here. Everyone at ADRL treated us really well.”

Kevin Wicke

Wicke and Company qualified 11^th for the 16-car field with a run of 4.451 secs to the 1/8^th mile.  They won their first round over Scott Wasko but were then dealt out by Charlie Whittenburg who dropped a near perfect .001 RT on them in round two.

“There is certainly a different mindset required to go 1/8^th mile racing too,” Kevin added.  “You have to be very sharp driving because there is no room for any top end games.  Our set up is currently for ¼ mile racing and we would probably make some changes for the future for ADRL racing.  The ADRL has a good thing going and it’s safe to say that we’d like to come back.”

While Wicke and his mates did heap praise on the ADRL, their reasons for not attending Grand Bend’s IHRA event were – maybe not quite so rosy.

“It really does feel strange not to be racing at Grand Bend this weekend,” Kevin admitted.  “That is my home track (only ½ hour away) and we have absolutely nothing against Grand Bend Motorplex.  We ran IHRA for a lot of seasons but for me personally and for my team we just don’t like where they have gone.  They keep talking about “the Sportsman racer” but the reality is – it is now more of a circus over there.   All the real high end TS racers are long gone.  The IHRA deal just doesn’t feel right for us anymore.”

There it is again — that word “Circus”.  We seem to hear that a lot….

Posted by:  Bruce Biegler  (Bruce Biegler Photos)