Harder Then You Think! — Saskatoon’s Lloyd Harder had a nice score during the season ending event for NHRA’s co-production Hot Rod Heritage Series held during the California Hot Rod Reunion at Bakersfield CA. On Oct 22nd, Lloyd wheeled his Chevy-powered dragster past a very tough Nostalgia Eliminator 1 (NE1) which was a 7.60 indexed field that had 28 other entries. Lloyd really found his consistency all raceday and his machine hit a 7.612 secs a 173.36 mph to win the final round over red-lighting opponent Pete Krona.

Consolation Collection — Louis Ouimette (from Timmins ON), who was a regular within Eastern Canada’s Napa USDS last season, drove his potent supercharged 1970 Camaro to victory during the PDRA’s World Finals event completed at Virginia Motorsports Park (Oct 23). Louis’s win was pretty darn impressive when you consider it came over an absolutely massive field of TS cars — 93 cars entered (!) The event’s MagnaFuels-sponsored category was actually divided up into two fields – 16 cars and 32 cars. Ouimette prevailed over the 32 car program portion after qualifing #2 for that with a 4.102 secs. Louis beat David Weedon to the stripe in the championship final round.

Close but No Cigar — Western Canada TAD class powerhouse Shawn Cowie gave it his all last weekend while racing at the NHRA Toyota Nationals in Las Vegas. But the talented driver and Mundies-towing sponsored team fell heart wrenchingly short of their ultimate season objectives – despite another superb event showing. Shawn qualified #1 with his Surrey BC-based car over 20 other entries at 5.273 secs and he outran opponents Casey Grisel, Krista Baldwin and Chris Demke to advance to the final round.  But it was winner take all there and he lost out to his prime class opponent Joey Severance:  5.286 secs to 5.406 secs. That loss was very consequential — as it mathemataically clinched the 2017 Lucas Oil TAD title for Severance – for the 3rd straight year.

Similar Final Fate !— Kudos to Medicine Hat Alberta-based Super Stock racer Darrell Dietz who (like Shawn Cowie did) advanced all the way to the championship round during NHRA’s Toyota Nationals at Las Vegas. Dietz, who had run his 2010 Mustang to it’s first ever national event final round at NHRA Brainerd last August before losing out with a foul start – had a similar result at Las Vegas when he went .020 red this time versus Ryan McClanahan. Darrell had entered eliminations qualified 3rd (1.090 under) and after also having won his FSS/C category during Super Stock class eliminations held on the Friday.

A Junior World Champ! — 17-year old Luke Schwelmer from Amherstburg Ontario is the 2017 IHRA World Champion for Junior Dragster racing. Luke won that nice accolade following his class victory during the Summit Racing Equipment World Finals held at Memphis International Raceway (Oct. 19-21). Schwemler, who earned his spot in the elite invitation only eliminator by winning at the IHRA Division 5 Team Finals, beat No. 1 qualifier, Nick Ferraro for the Junior Dragster title.  The victory earned him a custom-built and custom painted new JR Race Car Junior Dragster, $3,000 from Summit Racing Equipment and a World Championship Ironman Trophy and diamond ring for the IHRA – Nice!