Fabled Cayuga Dragway at Toronto Motorsports Park hosts the first major drag race race for Canada for 2019….
Last weekend’s Victoria Day Weekend event at TMP marked a new dawn of sorts for Eastern Canadian drag racing. This race featured the first ever event effort for the newly established PSDS (Pro Sportsman Dragster Series) – a cooperative alliance between Cayuga Dragway and Grand Bend Motorplex.
The event highlighted a Pennzoil Pro Modified title for Spencer Hyde’s Stratford ON-based Napa Auto Parts Camaro.
The Hyde Racing Napa Camaro drew first blood for PSDS Pennzoil Pro Mod class racing
Spencer, after qualifying #3 for the 7 cars entered (6.120 secs) defeated Sal Camisilli’s Corvette in round one before then besting the Ford Mustangs of Gary Mater and Al Martorino — who both had foul starts while racing him.
Martorino, from Colborg ON., had certainly been the odds on favorite going into the final round. He had dominated from a performance perspective after qualifying #1 with a 5.929 secs (low ET) and then roaring to three consecutive 5.95 secs ETs during eliminations. But his -.022 in the final ended his event bid – this time.
“We got a little lucky — but we’ll take it,” said Spencer Hyde about his teams very positive season start. “We were pretty excited to come out here and try some new combinations on Friday during testing. It didn’t go quite as planned, but we learned from each run. We got a little lost with the chassis set up, so Sunday we put the car back to what we knew would work.”
“Al Martorino had the car to beat all weekend,” Spencer added. “But when he turned the red light on in the finals — I was just in the right place at the right time.”
Racing his supercharged Mustang — Al Martorino was the performance leader at TMP’s Vic Day event.
The PSDS event portion also featured racing in Corriveau Concrete Forming TS and Lowdown Hot Rod TD classes with 9 and 7 cars entered respectively.
Wes Goddard emerged as the TS winner driving his wildly popular turbocharged ’58 Nash.
The Guelph based racer qualified #3 and defeated the supercharged ’99 Chevy Monte Carlo raced by Paul Coull in the final round. Coull had been the TS low qualifier at 6.720 secs.
The Top Dragster title went to Joe Passero (Stevensville ON) who raced his Hemi-powered car past Dustin Gabel’s machine in the final round.
The TS final featured Wes Goddard versus Paul Coull
Joe Passero (near lane) got past Dustin Gabel in the TD final round.
The Victoria Day Weekend race also featured season events #1 and #2 for the regions Can-Am Stock/Super Stock circuit.
That series showcased wins by Michael McGrath’s Michigan-based Dodge Dart (on Saturday) and then by 2X defending series points champ Chris Lozon’s Olds Achieva (from Chatham) on Sunday.
Eastern Canada’s Can-Am Stock/SS Series also kicked off their 2019 season. Jory Elliott (above) finished R/UP on Sunday.
Cayuga’s ET bracket racers were out in full force for competition in two full events.
On Saturday wins went to Karley Faubert (Super Pro), Dustin Taylor (Modified), Micalea Marvin (Street), Brandon Satchell (Motorcycle) and Ryan Harris (Junior Dragster).
Sunday’s title winners were Dan Lanteigne (Super Pro), Bill Thompson (Modified), Justin Looser (Street), Darrin Johnson (Motorcycle) and Alex Grasby (Junior Dragster).
Posted by Bruce Biegler
Photos by Darwin Kent and Brennan Shortall
