Mission Raceway’s flagship season event attraction hits 12th annual edition….
British Columbia’s drag racing scene came back roaring this last weekend as Mission Raceway’s “Doorwarz 12” played out.
Rainy weather had unfortunately terrorised the area so far this summer as the track has been able to hold only a very few races so far in 2024. Even then, this weekend did get soggy a couple times that put the schedule behind for finals on Sunday, but for the most part but Mission Raceway staff persevered through it and completed the event.
Unlike the previous couple years that had some star power with Mission’s Justin Bond and the “Bahrain 1 Racing Pro Mod team on the property, this year was more of a toned down affair.
However, with 13 West Coast Pro mods, it was a pretty decent turnout with some great racing. But we know the finals are always a box of chocolates as you never know what you are going to get, and again, this year, another interesting ending. In the semi finals we had Garrett Richards overcoming Steve Horne on ladder, and thereafter an exciting race with Dave Kowalski in his 2015 Corvette just beating former Doorwarz champion Nick Duda in his 1963 Corvette.
Garrett Richards won the Pro Mod title for Doorwarz 12 driving his WA-based Mustang
For the final round, things got really wild, as West Coast Pro Mod organizer Keith Peterson as interviewing last years winner Jordan Lazic at the start line, suddenly both cars did their burnouts in the middle of the interview! I am guessing they were excited to get the race moving ahead. Shockingly, something must of gone terribly wrong with Dave Kowalski’s Corvette during the burnout, as he continued all the way down the track, with Richards reversing back to the start line. Garrett Richards subsequently never made a full pull down the track and just crossed the start line to claim the 2024 Pro Mod Championship and a $10,000 cheque that goes with that. Even though Richards resides in Washington, he enjoys Mission Raceway and considers it his “home track”.
Outlaw 275 (1/8 mile) continues to be one of the most exciting classes to watch at Door Warz. There were 14 cars set to do battle, and with that we had #1 qualifier Justin Gallant in his fox body Mustang facing Neil Richards in the Zephyr ‘Cream Dream’ which carried a large Canadian Flag during burnouts.
Justin Gallant – racing one of Canada’s most elite X275 class cars – won his first career Doorwarz event title.
For the finale, Gallant boogied down the lane with a very quick 4.37/171.43km run however Richards ended up red lighting and therefore ended his ‘dream’ of winning Doorwarz 12. Justin Gallant collected the lucrative $10,000 payout and the Doorwarz 12 “belt”.
The most popular class remains to be the ‘Door Slammers’. They had 44 vehicles ripping down the ¼ mile track just about the entire weekend, however, 41 cars ended up qualifying through this intense extravaganza. The mayhem ended with Jay Syverston in the Chevy Black Betty (dialled at 7.46) against Brian Ritchie in his beautiful black 68’ Chevelle (dialled 7.83) in the final. Black Betty ended up getting it done with a extremely close race, as Syverston’s turbo wins by 16 ten thousand of a second (184.73mph/7.4991)!
Jay Syverston won over a huge field of “Doorslammers” driving his “Black Betty” Chevy
The Western Canadian Top Fuel Nitro Bike series continues round 2 at Doorwarz 12 with 5 Nitro bikes competing. For the final, it was Qualicom Beach British Columbia’s Nate Gagnon going up against Hope British Columbia’s Austin Christopher of Fastlane Racing. Austin was top qualifier and hustled past Nate Gagnon in the final with a 6.5472 at 214.90mph win to take the 5000$ payout.
Austin Christopher roared to victory in the event’s Top Fuel/Nitro Bike category.
With the ¼ mile Top Comp class Jeremy Soare’s dragster dialled at 7.40 was up against Mike Lucas’s 68’ Camaro dialled at 7.29. The dragster came out on top of this race with Jeremy’s reaction time of .0152 (174.49 mph @ 7.4260) as opposed to Lucas’s .0421 (187.34/7.2992). Soare’s win netted him $10000 against the door car.
Top Comp class racing went to Jeremy Soare’s dragster.
Limited Street had Dennis Drummond versus Vanessa Richards for the final. Are we surprised to see Vanessa win another Doorwarz? Not really as she dominates this class and wins easily with a .1693/132.70mph/5.2421 in the 1/8 mile over Drummonds 1.0879 reaction time (126.05mph/5.4031).
In Electronics/box class we saw Craig Johnson Station Wagon (dialled at 6.60) ready to dual West Coast Promod organizer Keith Peterson’s green mustang (dialled at 6.50) which is all setup to run NHRA super classes. Craig prevailed in this one, with a .0182 reaction time @ 98.88mph at 6.6012, as opposed to Peterson’s .0249 reaction time @ 124.30mph/6.4885.
In the Electronics/box class – the winner was Craig Johnson
Non Electronics had Kamloops resident Ross Walker on the line against Robert Getz’s Mustang. This was a double red light special, so the one with the smaller red light, ensures the win and in this case $2500 and the belt went to Ross Walker.
Non Electronics racing went to Kamloops resident Ross Walker.
Real Street had Rob Munro SR. uncharacteristically red lighting against winner Joel Smith who crossed the line with a reaction time of .0769/112.75mph @ 11.704
Joel Smith won in Real Steet with this Chevy Malibu.
The future of drag racing is alive and evident at Doorwarz 12 with 25+ cars trying to qualify in the 3 classes. First off we saw Natania (photo below) take the win over Nash in Junior Thunder class and thereafter in Junior Lightning class we had Connor taking the titled over Lexi. Junior Street class had James redlight and Tyler taking the Jr Street title in that race.
Post and photos by Les Puchala
Link to the Doorwarz LMLCMedia event photo gallery: HERE
