There was most certainly a rather unanticipated Western Canadian Sportsman drag racing highlight this summer…
During the 2019 edition Mopar Rocky Mountain Nationals at Edmonton’s Castrol Raceway in July — there was an unexpected but very legendary name on the event entry list. Non-other than Allyn Lee, who is from nearby Red Deer Alberta, passed tech for competition for Stock eliminator in NHRA’s Pacific Northwest National Open program included at that event.
Long time fans of Canadian drag racing will recall that for many seasons — dating back well into the 1980s — Allyn and his brother Dwight ran roughshod over NHRA’s national record books by bombing both the ET and MPH standards for it’s SS/A “stick” mark on a very frequent basis. The truth is that the Lee Brothers were true darlings to Mopar fans while owning those official marks — 16 different times — while racing a very feared 1968 Hemi Barracuda.
At Edmonton 2019, Allyn Lee, ended a rather lengthly sabbatical when he entered completion for the first time with a 2010 model Dodge Challenger Drag Pack. According to Allyn — this was his first time running down a drag strip — in about two decades.
Allyn has acquired a car with a very storied history — this is the very same car that Kevin Helms drove for owner Jeff Teuton (from Louisiana) to the NHRA’s Stock eliminator World Championship back in 2015. Allyn obtained it from a subsequent owner (Keith Lynch) after first finding it for sale on-line back in 2018.

Building excellent 426 Hemi engines has and remains within the ARL Racing Engines (Red Deer) facility “wheel house”.
The Drag Pack is of course powered by a 426 Hemi – rated at 880 HP — and Allyn is running the car in FS/B configuration at 3420 lbs.
This acquisition of the Drag Pack is in fact a perfect fit for Allyn both personally and from a business perspective. He continues to own and operate (with his son), the ARL Racing Engines facility in Red Deer (established first as Lee Brothers Racing Engines in 1980), who’s speciality and reputation has long been for creating potent Mopar power plants for racing applications.
“I had been looking at this tech for a while,” Allyn revealed. “Our machine shop has been doing more and more Gen 3 Hemi work — so it became rather relevant to have one myself and learn about all the electronics that goes with it. It’s a different world for sure — I had to throw away my timing light and jet box and replace that with a lap top — but I am really looking forward to the challenge.”
Allyn Lee reflected about the 30+ years running his 1968 Hemi Barracuda (before selling that for a price he could not refuse!) compared to the modern day era Drag Pack.
“That A-stick car kept me busy driving and this Drag Pack is so smooth compared to that — that it’s actually kind of boring,” he laughed. “The way the suspension is set up on the Challenger is pretty amazing. When it leaves the starting line — it feels like it’s on a string — straight and fast — it’s impressive.”
Allyn did get some solid results with the car during its Edmonton event debut. He had come through the event gates with objectives of running about 9.5 secs — but in fact was rewarded with best of 9.41 secs at 143 mph.
“That was a good start,” he winked. “We’re working on another new Hemi motor back home that will give us another 30 HP or so to play with. I’m looking forward to giving that a go. Then when the car is right we’ll go out and chase some more national records — because that’s what we do.”
While Allyn admits that his future racing event appearances will be tempered and calculated with other higher personal priorities in life (he is a very proud grandfather) — racing fans can look towards some regional NHRA Lucas Oil divisional event appearances and maybe even a NHRA national event or two beginning in 2020.
Post and photos by Bruce Biegler