Next Step Taken by Duchene Nitro Camp

By: Bruce Biegler

One of the highlight stories during last weekend’s IHRA River Cree Rocky Mountain Nationals was the unveiling of Canada’s newest bona-fide fuel Funny Car.

Jason Duchene's new fuel FC

 The father and son racing team of Rick and Jason Duchene, who are based from Beaumont Alberta, showed at the event with their all new upgraded effort.  The team which has dabbled with Funny Car racing for over a decade, is both confident and focused that they now have the potential to take themselves to a higher level in Funny Car class racing and some NHRA Full Throttle event participation.

“This is a brand new chassis which we acquired from Allan Johnson last March,” confirmed Jason Duchene.  “This was a backup car for Del Worsham last season.  The body is a Pontiac Firebird from Jack Wyatt.   We have installed our own TFX engine program which is something we have made good progress with.  As far as I know – we are now the only NHRA legal Funny Car based in Canada.”

Jason made a couple of very decent exhibition laps in the car during the event weekend.  The car ran straight and pretty well trouble free hitting a best time of 5.86 secs at 196.87 mph with a very conservative tune-up.

“I’m very excited about the upgrade,” he continued.  “The whole stance of the car is very different compared to what I have been used to.  This new chassis has a learning curve and that will be our immediate focus.   I hope to have the car running in the high “fours” and 300 mph (1/4 mile) in the not to distant future.”

Jason Duchene

The Duchene’s Trial n’ Error Racing team which receives it’s primary backing from Wakefield/Castrol Canada, are hoping to make their NHRA circuit debut at some point later this season. 

“Our desire is to do some NHRA events — eventually,” Jason added.  “This is our next step within our team’s evolution to try and accomplish that.  We want to make sure the car tests well first before we make any commitment.  But it is possible we will make it to a NHRA Full Throttle event later this season.”

(Bruce Biegler Photos)