It was “all Canadian Corvettes — all the time” in the Super Gas final round when Ron MacKenzie (from New Westminster BC) – near lane (and below) – defeated Ken Mostowich.  Rod prevailed in that double break out clash – 9.893 secs to 9.882 secs.

It was a very gratifying first ever NHRA national event win for Ron MacKenzie who stole the show in his immaculate Corvette. The long time racer (who placed runner-up at the 1996 Arizona Nationals) finally got his due with an impressive 6-round victory in the very demanding 9.90 index class.

Rick McKinney — who went to the Super Stock final round at the season opener Lucas Oil Winternationals at Pomona – went to the championship round again at Arizona! After qualifying #3, McKinney (from Richmond BC) lost a heartbreaker to SS powerhouse Justin Lamb on a breakout time of 10.672 secs — after he had won 5 previous rounds in his high flying SS/LA ’84 Olds.

One of Canada’s overall top rated TD class drivers Grant Durie (from Vegreville AB) had another strong event. Grant (who won at Phoenix in 2017) came close again — guiding his TNT Supercars built dragster to the “final four” on Sunday – barely losing out to Ed Olpin.

Spruce Grove’s Darcy Clarke had his best showing yet in Super Stock eliminations with his immaculate and versitile ’64 Savoy. Darcy raced that fan favourite as a SS/EA and had three nice round win lights before losing out to fellow Canadian – Rick McKinney.

The awesome Top Fuel Harley raced by Kevin Boyer came knocking again in that class. That’s Kevin’s son Royce Boyer (crew chief) making final adjustments to the Team Ace Racing machine – which lost out in round #2 to event winner Beau Layne.

Calgarian’s Ken Mostowich and his right hand man Charlie Marsh raced two cars at Phoenix and they made the S/G final with their reliable topless Moss Fabrication Corvette.

Norm Lapointe had his steath looking ’07 Cobalt running quick. Norm (Sherwood Park) qualified at -.789 his GT/GA index – but lost out in round #2

Medicine Hat’s Mark Simmons (the co-owner of TNT Supercars) took some time away from his super busy Spider Electric company to enter his first event of the year with his super cool and pro-charger assisted T/D.  Mark qualified #12 with a 6.611 secs.

Phoenix fans got their first look at the potential ridden new ’68 Camaro TS car owned by 2017 NHRA Divisional Champion’s Mike & Jackie Lucas (Fort St. John BC).

Tom Nolan’s A/SA ’64 Ford from Alberta was once again driven by local racer Tibor Kadar — but the car broke out in round one of Stock — during some crazy fast atmospheric conditions!

Rick Pike entered his timeless ’56 Chevy SS/NA from Langley BC — and went to a round two finish in Super Stock.

We were privileged to get our first look at the very impressive new ’63 Corvette S/G car owned by Marv and Rhonda Wiehe (Osoyoos BC) — who have been prominent players in that class for long time.  (Look for a feature on this car coming soon to DragRaceCanada.com)

Will Yakimetz brings his cool 1969 Camaro to a stop at Phoenix. The Vegreville AB based racer qualified that fast developing car strongly at #10 in the 32-car field.

The husband and wife team of Trevor and Kelly Ritchie were once again in the mix in TD. The Alberta-based team qualified their TNT Supercars dragster #9 (6.575 secs) and went to round number 3.