10th annual Doorwarz edition kicks Mission Raceway season into high gear……
This spring and summer so far at Mission Raceway Park has been difficult for weather.

A few races have been cancelled already and the marquee event of the year which is usually the LDRS Nationals had to be rescheduled to September 10 and 11th (tentively). So a lot have been watching the weather to see what will happen to the 10 edition of Door Warz which saw 2 of the 3 days with beautiful weather and the Sunday rained out.

The weekend also had to finish off a previously rained out June 4/5 race with Door Slammers (Derek Scherk winner) and Limited Street (Vanessa Richards winner).

Now for the good news! Bahrain Racing, currently of the most successful NHRA Pro Mod teams has made the trek all the way from Calhoon Georgia. Justin Bond who is a resident of Mission BC is making a homecoming appearance along with his partner Khalid Al Balooshi. Both have been highly successful these past 4-5 years in Pro Mod and currently Justin sits in 5th with Khalid in 10th in points in the Fueltech Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by D-Wagon.

Justin brought along his Pro-charger ’69 Camaro while Khalid was at the helm of his supercharged 2022 Camaro this weekend with 9 others competing in this weekend’s West Coast Pro Modified competition.

The 2022 edition Doorwarz event did include some extra star power with the prominent NHRA FuelTech Pro Mod Series regulars Kahlaid alBalooshi and Justin Bond grabbing event headlines.

Keeping this all in mind that this race is a 1/8 mile event and not a ¼ mile in which they usually run There was actually only 8 Pro Mods (at least what I counted) and it was later decided that the (3) 10.5 cars that entered, would join into competing in Pro Mod to make for a larger field. One of the 10.5 cars was last years Door Warz 9 winners, Nick Duda who had won the Pro Mod title by beating JR Lazic’s Bunker car, was keeping up with the big boys in 4th in Qualifying after Friday but ran into mechanical failure. So the 10.5 cars were capable of taking on Pro Mod as you never know what can happen in racing!


But as it turns out, it was not Justin Bond’s weekend to walk away with a Door Warz title belt as Khalid was the fastest qualifier of the event with 3.754 and eventually beating Justin in the semi final.

But there was a dark horse awaiting Bahrain racing on the other side of the bracket with veteran Dean Bettenson. Bettenson (based for Red Deer AB) qualified 2nd prior to eliminations in his 2017 Camaro on Saturday and had a very strong car the whole weekend with a 3.762 in qualifying.

Come the final, we see Khalid and Dean in the finals lined up, and the excitement was peaking in the grandstands to see if Dean Bettenson from Red Deer Alberta can pull off an upset win against one of the most potent Pro Modified teams in the world. Both cars run hard down the track evenly and in the end it was Bettenson ahead (3.765 @ 195.95 MPH with RT of .051) by inches at a stunning .0014 advantage over Khalid Balooshi (3.764 199,51 with RT .053) to win the West Coast Pro Modifed at Door Warz 10. Bettenson was awarded the title belt for this years Door Warz 10 for his accomplishment.

Defending WCPM series champion Dean Bettenson and his talented team claimed top honors for the Doorwarz “X”

Outlaw 275 (running 1/8 mile) kept us all entertained with one of the largest fields we’ve seen on the lot. One can only imagine if the vaccination restrictions were lifted at the border as to how many others would be on the property. Generation 5 Wiz kid JR Lazic (same JR Lazic that was runner up in Pro Mod Door Warz 9) has attained a beautiful ’63 Nova 275 with a beautiful Orange paint job. He was absolutely tearing it up all weekend long being the number one Qualifier but the Rutland BC native fell short in the Semi finals It would be a battle of the Alberta Camaro’s with Jordan Brandon of Lethbridge Alberta against Cust Thompson of Sturgeon Alberta. Jordan Brandon prevailed with a ET of 4.653 @ 156.73 MPH (RT .212) over Curt Thompson’s 6.850 @ 75.85 MPH (RT .129) to take the increasingly popular Outlaw 275 Door Warz 10 Title.

Jordan Brandon of Lethbridge Alberta was the winner for the highly competitive X275 eliminator.

There was no shortage of competition within the Doorslammers (running ¼ mile) category as they had a whopping 31 entries at Door Warz 10. We saw a car that struggled in past years at Mission now become the #1 Qualifer that being Greg Feal in the white 69 Opel GT. The very unique machine ran an ET of 6.620 @ 217.39 MPH in the ¼ mile. However it was Peter LaChanas of Coquitlam BC (who won in Edmonton the previous weekend) take the Doorslammer title in his ’63 Corvette at Door Warz 10 with a 8.572 @ 151.26 MPH versus Duncan BC native Paul Stretch’s 02’ Cavalier (10.982 @ 78.41 MPH).

Electronic class had another BC winner with Al Quigley’s Ford over Dan Parons 1970 Duster of Powell BC
Non Electronic we saw Mission’s very own Veronica Hodgsen in her 69 Dodge with a victory with a ET of 12.620 @ 105.94 MPH over Lorenz Schwarz of Langley BC with his ET 10.143 @ 132.37

Limited Street saw a round after round triumphant wins from Kelowna’s Vanessa Richards. Her 1989 Mustang had Low ET and was the #1 Qualifier of the class with 5.413 @ 129.62 MPH. Not only that, she also the Champion with a 5.412 @ 128.81 MPG (RT .094) against Surrey BC resident Justin Gibson with his 1988 Foxbody Mustang. (5.476 @ 125.24 MPH) in the final. Vanessa is one to watch for future races…

Jr Dragster also had an outstanding car count in what would a a 21 car Grudge match. We also saw Justin Bond and Khalid Kablooshi’s offspring enter 4 cars to competition that did well. Abigail White of White Lightening Racing with the #1 Qualifier @ 81.04 in the 1/8 mile However in the end with saw RAD Torque sponsored car Lexi Winterbottom battle her way through the field and eventually take the Grudge match win (ET 8.428 @ 76.98 MPH) over Abigail (8.072 @ 80.12 MPH)

604 Street Legit had Don Murray’s 1970 ‘Cuda (ET 9.229 @ 126.38 MPH) over Tom Tourands 2017 Suzuki GSXR (ET 11.111 @ 70.38 MPH).

604 Street Legit winner – Don Murray

Post & photos by Les Puchala