Comp Contender! — Bruce Schmiedl, from Regina Saskatchewan, enjoyed his best ever NHRA Nationals event results at BIR — nearly going all the way for Comp eliminator racing his ABS Competition Enterprises ’32 Bantum.   Bruce matched up again Cody Lane in a “head-ups”  all A/EA class final round but lost a 7.348 secs to 7.391 secs decision.  NHRA victories within this very finicky and rules heavy eliminator class have been pretty rare — with only 9 wins by Canadian cars in nationals level history – the most recent being Allyn Armstrong at Reading PA in 2015.

A 1-2 Set!! — Canadian-based dragsters were dominant within qualifying for NHRA’s TAD class at Brainerd with the Doucette Racing (Winnipeg MB) and Cowie Racing (Langley BC) cars securing the top two positions at 5.165 and 5.169 secs respectively.  Doucette Racing driver Alan Bradshaw (from Texas) ran an equally impressive 5.168 secs to win round one but then lost pace in round two and was knocked out to Joey Severance.  Shawn Cowie, our defending 2X NHRA World Champ, experienced severe tire shake in a rather shocking round one to be upset by John Haley (the #16 qualifier).   Cowie did collect top speed of the meet for the class at 278.81 mph.

TAFC Pole Cat — A Canadian car also qualified #1 for the TAFC category with Victoria BC’s Stan Sipos and his legendary crew chief Les Davenport getting that job done at 5.514 secs at 264.80 mph.  Sipos won his first round with a torrid 5.473 secs ET but then got edged out on a holeshot start by eventual event winner Shane Westerfield’s 5.508 secs compared to Stan’s quicker 5.495 secs.

Final Four Finish! — Manitoba’s Donna Patterson again flirted with her first big NHRA win going very deep into eliminations for the T/D class at BIR.  Donna (from Lorette West) collected 3 win lights and advanced all the way to the semi final round with her Pro-charger assisted dragster.  Donna had qualified the quick & consistent car #11 at 6.186 secs.

Another #1 —  Scott Murray, who is son the Canadian drag racing legend Ken Murray was very fast for T/D class  racing – also grabbing a pole for Canada with a 6.124 secs run.  Murray (Winnipeg) however dipped way under his performance expectations in round one when he bombed is 6.13 secs dial in with a 6.032 secs ET (.098 too quick).  Perhaps however — there was some consolation for Scott — in the time was low ET for the event.

Harder Knocks! —  Some impressive participation at Brainerd by the multi-Chevy car Elias Racing Super Stock team from Winker Manitoba did include a semi-final round finish for John Harder with this FSS/B ’20 Camaro.  John qualified #11 (8.426 secs) and advanced to the fifth round – his best career finish so far in NHRA nationals level competition.  John is part of the Prestige Trailers-presented team which also includes Terry and James Elias (photo below).  (Watch for a team feature – coming to DragRaceCanada – a bit later this season).

New Digs for Spencer! — One of the most eye-catching new look cars entered at BIR was the Jim Head Racing Mustang driven by Ontario’s Spencer Hyde as that team showed a new primary sponsor — Outlaw Light beer.  Spencer did qualify #12 (3.988 secs) but could not run down JR Todd in round #1 on Sunday.

Editor’s Choice! — And our favourite Canadian car of the Race award for NHRA Brainerd goes to: Darren Pearson!  I mean how cool and rare is it watch a vintage 1967 Mercury F100 being raced? (No — that is not AI! LOL) Darren is from Brandon MB.