New Chatterson Chase Chapter « DragRaceCanada.com

New Chatterson Chase Chapter

by editor on Oct.19, 2022, under Hotzone

Professional racing participation during the recent NHRA Pep Boys Nationals did include another inspiring story for Canada…..

While it was the TAD class winning effort of Jeff Veale (Stoney Creek ON) that did corral the main Canadian racing headlines from Maple Grove PA that September weekend, another Canadian racer named Jeff — wasn’t that far behind for the event’s news making.

Jeff Chatterson (from Brantford ON), who has been making very significant noise within the TAD class racing his own injected nitro car the past few seasons — stepped up his racing anti big time with his entry at Maple Grove – because this time it was in Top Fuel!

Jeff Chatterson

Chatterson, who had upgraded his license and also driven the Paton Racing Top Fuel dragster within Canada a couple times previously, realigned himself with that operation once again to allow him to pen entry for the first time in his career for Top Fuel racing during a NHRA national event.

And Jeff’s effort driving the Paton Racing’s potent machine was a super solid one.

Not only did he qualify the car (#15) with a 3.903 secs – he also ran impressively fast (career best ET & mph) in round one versus Justin Ashley at 3.865 secs 321.58 mph. While that ET did in fact come up second in the win light department to Ashley this time — his overall event performance was a positive one to say the least.

“The Paton and Chatterson families have been friends going back to the early 1990s,” Jeff affirmed. “So it meant a lot to me to make my debut racing the Paton car and also to have Barry Paton himself there with me.”

Driving the Paton Racing dragster – Jeff Chatterson recorded some career best math at 3.865 secs 321.58 mph while racing at the NHRA Pep Boy Nationals.

“I did licence in the Paton car back in 2019 and had set a goal to compete at a NHRA nationals event then. But of course that idea was pushed back in time by the pandemic — until now.”

“At Maple Grove I felt both nervous and excited — but it felt really awesome to go 321 mph!.” he added. “Most definitely I’d like to do more Top Fuel and there are a few discussions happening — but of course everything depends on finances.”

Jeff credited not only the highly skilled Paton Racing team itself but also his sponsors and family for making this career racing opportunity a reality.

“Our sponsor Stodes BBQ & Deli have been fuelling our team with incredible food for several seasons and they along with NGK, Jensens Auto Detailing and Fatheadz Eyewear were behind this effort,” he emphasized. “But non of this would be possible without the support and motivation of my family: wife Janet, sons Ryan and Jeremy and many friends. It was also important having my brother Darryl there. He has worked with the Paton’s for 20 years — and played a big role in this all coming together. “

“I also did lose my Dad (Rick) a few years back — but I also know he would have been very proud of us for doing this!”, Jeff winked.

While the future ventures for Jeff Chatterson within drag racing’s ultimate class category are yet to be written — his Chatterson Racing team will continue to hone their time and skills in their top performing A/FD with which they have now raced very successfully at multiple NHRA national and NHRA Lucas Oil Regional races with.

A prelude to their recent T/F effort has been a steady and successful rise within NHRA’s Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series’s TAD class with this injected nitro car.

“We definitely plan to be at as many TAD races as possible,” Jeff added. “We’ve run a best of 5.24 secs at 280 mph in that category — we have the car performing so well — we think we are due to win one!”