Ontario’s drag racing scene receives a nice injection of off season enthusiasm….
Following a lot of meandering in recent seasons the direction for high level drag racing within the province of Ontario has received some much desired new purpose and direction.
There now appears to have been a bridge built between that historical rivalry between Grand Bend Motorplex and Toronto Motorsports Park. Those two primary Ontario drag strips are doing something that had previously been very elusive — together this week announcing joint support for single series — the Pro Sportsman Dragster Series (PSDS) beginning in the 2019 racing season.
The PSDS will participate at a series of events now divided up equally at both tracks. It will provide competitors with the opportunity to race a more comprehensive schedule — importantly without conflicting dates — and earn points towards guaranteed year-end payouts and series championship titles.
The PSDS (a name that originated at Grand Bend Motorplex) has also confirmed it will include and feature Pro Modified class racing at some of it’s events.
“Having both track owners Paul Spriet (Grand Bend Motorplex) and Uli Bieri (Toronto Motorsports Park) recognize the importance of PSDS classes in drag racing and then commitment to working together in growing the series is very significant,” said Steve Martin and Neale Armstrong, in a joint track release.
“The races will feature a mixture of the area’s fastest and most unique dragsters and door slammers,” they added. “Adding the series to major event weekends will be exciting for the tracks, racers and fans, because the racing is highly competitive, and always an excellent show.”
For arguments sake, the PSDS could be perceived as the latest in a long evolution for drag racing in Ontario that previously included the PMRA and USDS circuit concepts.
For 2019 event purses will initially be the responsibility of the individual race tracks themselves — right now there is not any overall primary series sponsor. The PSDS group is however committed to begin the work and to the goal of securing individual event presenting sponsors and well as series associate partners.

Ontario’s drag racing scene prides itself with a very large list of high quality and local Top Dragster and Top Sportsman class racers.
For 2019, there are 5 Pro/Mod events and 7 Top/Sportsman, Top/Dragster events planned:
• Victoria Day Weekend – May 17-19 – TMP (All)
• Stratford Spectacular – June 14-16 – GBM (All)
• Canadian Nitro Nationals – June 28-30 – TMP (All)
• TBA – TMP – (T/S & T/D Only)
• Mopar Canadian Nationals – Aug 2-4 – GBM (All)
• Windsor Weekend – Aug 16-18 – GBM – (T/S & T/D Only)
• Labour Day Weekend -Aug 30-Sept 1 – TMP – (Pro/Mod Only)
• Labour Day Weekend – Aug 30-Sept 1 – GBM – (T/S & T/D Only)
Additional feature car attractions will be added to all of the major event weekends, details of which will be released later.
The 2019 PSDS racing season does promise to be an exciting one, establishing a new backbone and new standard for major drag racing within Eastern Canada.
DragRaceCanada will post additional details as they develop going forward.
Posted by Bruce Biegler
Photos by Bruce Biegler/Brennan Shortall