Second Season Score — Alberta’s Aaron Steinkey racked up his 2nd NHRA national event win of the 2025 season when he won the Top Sportsman title at NHRA’s Denso Sonoma Nationals last weekend. Steinkey, who also won at the NHRA Winternationals in California last April, was the #1 qualifier at Sonoma (6.222 secs 226.96 mph) racing his former PDRA Pro Mod car acquired last off-season, which features a massive 959 CID Pat Musi engine program. Steinkey (from Dunmore AB) actually singled for the title when his scheduled final round opponent broke and could not make the call. That’s now 5 wins in 6 NHRA nationals event final rounds for Aaron, who also campaigns a highly potent T/D class car (below photo).

Neat New Cars! — Edmonton’s recent Rocky Mountain Nationals event gig did include a couple of very notable new machines for Canadian drag racing.
Calgary’s Darren Williams, who experienced a bad crash at RAD Torque Raceway at the track’s Hot August Night event in 2021 driving his Dodge Stratus made his first Rocky Mountain Nationals appearance since then. Williams now has a very sleek looking update Dodge Dart T/S car. Darren has been a frequent runner within RAD’s thriving Top Eliminator Club for many season — winning that championship back in 2018.
Ray Leyten (below) from Leduc AB,  debuted his new acquisition 1968 Tim McAmis Pro Mod Camaro. Leyten, who previously dabbled in the Pro Mod class with a supercharged ’57 Chevy now owns a car chassis that was originally raced very successfully by California racer Mike Maggio. Reportedly that car had run as quick as 5.65 at 259 MPH within full 1/4 mile pull competition. Ray has sold off his ’57 Chevy to crosstown Edmonton PM veteran rival Wade Sjoustrom.

Sincères Félicitations! — To our good friend and Canadian drag racing ambassador extraordinaire – Daniel Mercier – who was married to his partner Andree-Anne Picard! Daniel and Andree-Anne exchanged vows during a gala celebration in Montreal and on July 12th.
After some time off since, Daniel’s Mercier Racing team will return for a mid-August feature appearance at Napierville Dragway — before rejoining the NHRA national event tour at the “Big Go” at Indy over the Labour Day weekend.

Sponsorship Enhancement — One of Eastern Canada’s most storied Top Sportsman teams lands additional backing. X Nine Industries, the latest affiliate of Bears Performance, recently joined the K&K Racing Top Sportsman entry of the Quick 32 Sportsman Series driven by Kayden Wicke from Stratford, ON. The team welcomes X Nine Industries, a redefining high-precision manufacturing facility in both the automotive and non-automotive sectors. This cutting-edge 21,600-square-foot facility is located in Dayton, OH. K&K RACING is based in Stratford, ON. K&K is the father-and-son team of Kevin and Kayden Wicke, who pilot a 604-cubic-inch Mopar-powered Dodge Stratus. Kevin is a two-time Quick 32 Sportsman Series Championship Point Award Series Champion and multiple-time IHRA Sportsman Champion, while Kayden is a former Junior Dragster, Mod, and ET champion. Kevin Zimmer has been the crew chief for many years, with Kody Wicke, Dennis, and Dan Culliton being long-time crew members.

Todd On Tap! — During a recent NHRA National Open event, Paton Racing made a very special event appearance at Napierville Dragway. To help further celebrate Paton Racing’s 60th anniversary tour this season — Todd Paton made 2 solo runs to thrill the attending fans.
“It was great being back at Napierville – some 30 years later,” Todd stated. “The last time I ran there was with our alcohol funny car in the mid-90’s. We had a great time — because there were a bunch of racers from the east coast that we don’t get to see very often. We had a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends.”
Paton Racing will continue the “Canadian Content” portion of their tour of the homeland this coming weekend — with a feature match race during Grand Bend Motorplex’s WDRA Canadian Nationals .

Stepping Stone Camaro — Quebec’s Kévin Poitras has an impressive new car now in the midst of testing — a spanking new build 2018 model Camaro. His Rick Jones kit car was assembled by Harry Gray and it presently features a 632 N/A engine program with Big Chief 11 degree heads and dual carbs.
Kévin, who had campaigned most prominately fast dragsters up to this point, did reveal a glimpse to the future for he and his race car saying, “I want to do NHRA Pro Stock class one day — so I wanted to race a car similar to that for experience and to get prepared for that. This year the new Camaro will remain in T/S within the new series we started here. I will evolve it to some nitrous – next year.”
The expertly conceived and construction Camaro did win “Best Engineered” award at Napierville Dragway’s NHRA National Open held mid-July.
And while we are sworn to secrecy, Poitras, who is from Saint-Andre-De-Kamouraska, does have something even more brewing too, with another new car under construction – for about 2 years out.