Nitro Nationals Scene Stealer?

While the multiple booked in Nitro Funny Cars were supposed to be the main attraction — in the end it was a Canadian fan favourite team that may have stole the show during the Canadian Nitro Nationals….

Todd Paton made for him a rather rare driving appearance in his homeland last weekend during the major event at Cayuga Dragway (Toronto Motorsports Park).  He was one of two Top Fuel dragster booked in for the show and match raced against Scott Palmer.

Canadian favourite son Todd Paton had a successful racing homecoming last weekend at Cayuga.

From a pure performance perspective — Todd’s two runs behind the wheel of the Paton Racing Tim Horton’s sponsored dragster were at the top of the list for the event.   Todd beat Scott twice with nearly identical 1/4 mile laps of 4.938 and 4.920 secs elapsed times.

“Initially I wondered if the timing of the event would fit into my schedule,” said Todd who now finds his home in California.  “With the way NHRA’s schedule lines up and with my job within RacePak finding an off weekend is rather unique.  But the seat was vacant this time and it also gave me a chance to keep my NHRA driver’s licence current.”

Todd’s runs at Cayuga were in fact only the 2nd and 3rd laps in the car which is new for him and his father Barry this season.

“This is an ex Tony Schumacher chassis from early in 2012,” Paton continued.  “I made one run in it in May.   We have some very modern day stuff to play with now.  We know this chassis works well and that is a very important first instrument and a big piece of the puzzle to work forward from.   We are now working hard to apply our motor and supercharger program to all that.  At Cayuga I think we made some very positive steps forward.”

The Paton Racing team has the new car seemingly on track and working well.

Todd was also very pleased to be back racing in front of a lot of old friends, family and fans.

“A lot has happened since I moved away from Canada,” he added.  “I got some great flashbacks here because Cayuga is where I won my first race ever (in 1992 in TAFC) and this is where my Dad first got his top alcohol license.  I’m feeling very nostalgic because I have a lot of history and good memories from early in my career here.”

Photos and posting by:  Bruce Biegler