One of Canada’s most skilled and rising Lucas Oil Sportsman racers earns another career first!…..
It was certainly a “tester” for Alberta’s Casey Plaizier last week during the NHRA’s AAA Auto Club Texas Nationals held south of Dallas.
But for Casey, who is the second generation racing son to father Eddy Plaizier, some persistence and some circumstance resulted in his biggest drag racing accomplishment yet. Racing his team’s Stony Plain Alberta-based ’63 Corvette, Casey emerged as the newest Canadian name to win at NHRA’s highest level.
After qualifying #14 for the event’s Super Gas (9.90 index) category — it was in fact a very long time between his first time trial and his championship winning round. Due to weather affecting the AAA Auto Club Texas Nationals weekend — his final event fate was not determined until Monday — after the Sportsman eliminations schedule were pushed back until then.
“The weekend was a challenge from start to finish,” said Casey. “First off my fiancé, sister, and I arrived didn’t arrive until Thursday morning after a bunch of flight delays and changes. We were just in time to make my first time hit Super Gas. Also my dad, along with Austin and Greg Williams, had put a brand new set of custom valved shocks from Adam Drzayich (former WJ car chief) on the roadster the night before — so we essentially are going into this National Event un-tested. We made the time hit, made a couple shock adjustments, made the 2nd time hit, and we were ready for Round 1 Thursday night. We got that round one win but then the weather issues moved in and the end result led us to sit in the rain for nearly 3 days — before we would win round 2. Then more weather forced NHRA to postpone the sportsman racing till Monday.”
“Because of flight scheduling – my fiancé, sister, and my dads fiancé, had to fly back to Edmonton,” he continued, “So that left just me and my dad to finish the race together. We do have a pretty good system – I drive, and he does the rest. But usually the girls are around to help with the rest but this time it was just Eddy and I but with some help from the Williams family.”
Casey’s journey to victory lane was a tough and gruelling 6 round affair that included some head to head confrontations with some of the Super Gas class’s very best competitors.
“I think my toughest round was in the semis against the hottest Super Gas driver at the moment — Tim Nicholson,” he added. “Tim runs an unconventional small-block Camaro that has a top-end throttle stop, with a clutch and a 4-speed. He targets running 9.90 at only100 mph, compared to my 9.90 at 166 mph. That 65 mph top end difference makes it tough to judge your opponent. I thought I had tightened up the stripe — but I had gotten there by over 7 hundredths and I did run dead on 9.900.”
That match put Casey into career national event final round #3 – and that third time proved to be a charm.
Racing Joseph Lokhaug, he ran a winning 9.921 secs at 150.05 mph while Lokhaug took too much stripe with a breakout 9.884 secs.
This win was another feather in the cap for Casey who also has a very impressive season going within NHRA’s Pacific Northwest Lucas Oil Drag Racing season schedule. He currently leads in overall points for that potential divisional title as the ’18 season winds down to closure.
“Thank you to all my sponsors and supporters,” he emphasized. “Thompson Construction Group, RAD Torque Systems, ACE Racing, Impact Powder Coatings, GDT Trading, Burnewood Dental, Stealth Performance, The Iron Garage. Along with my engine builder Flyin Ryan Bell at FPS, my transmission builder Steve Casner at CRE, my converter supplier Troy Williams at FTI, and my chassis and shock man, Adam Drzayich at Drzayich Inc.”
Canada’s Casey Plaizier won at the national event level for the first time in his career racing the Plaizier Racing Corvette from Stony Plain Alberta.
Posted by Bruce Biegler
