NHRA “Wallys” Awarded at TMP

On the last weekend of July Toronto Motorsports Park and the DSE Automotive Sportsman Racing Series hosted the first two, of four NHRA Sanctioned Specialty races this season that will take place at the storied Drag Strip…..

Saturday brought the Summit Racing Equipment “King of the Track” program which saw the Modified and Super Pro Winners square off for an NHRA “Wally”, while Jr Drag Racing competitors competed both Saturday and Sunday for their own “Wally’s” in the NHRA Jr Drag Racing League Challenge.

Saturday’s racing action was delayed four hours by lite rains, which also forced the race to be shortened to the 1/8th mile. However, the Toronto Motorsports Park track staff worked hard and by 3 o’clock, Time trials were underway in all the classes. 

Ontario's ET Bracket racers chased coveted NHRA "Wallys" at Cayuga recently.

 

A total of sixty-eight combined competitors in Modified and Super Pro started the day looking to take home the NHRA “King of the Track” Championship, but by the end of the day only two remained standing, Shawn Morrell in Super Pro and Andrew Stirk in Modified.


The run off for the “wally” would see Stirk get the handicapped start dialed 6.40 over Morrell’s 5.39 dial-in, however Morrell’s uncharacteristic re-light would hand Stirk the victory and the “Wally” trophy.

Saturdays Jr Finalists fought through a tough twenty-car field to reach the final, and in that final 10-year-old Chase Brown defeated Kyle McCallum to take home his first NHRA Jr Drag Racing League Challenge Trophy.

Sunday presented a second and final opportunity for Jr competitors to take home NHRA hardware, and it almost turned into an all sister final. The first semi-final saw Hailey Picciuto defeat DJ Manwaring guaranteeing her spot in the race for the “Wally”. The other semi saw older sister Rachel Picciuto face off against Nicole Albin. Nicole cut a great .027 light, which forced Rachel to breakout trying to take the strip, sending Nicole to her second DSE Sportsman Series final this season.

The final proved to be a close one with Hailey using her starting line advantage over Nicole to seal the win by just .016 of a second and take home her first NHRA Jr Drag Racing League Challenge trophy.

The rest of the weekend results are as follows:

Saturday Results:

SUPER PRO:                           Shawn Morrell defeated Chris VanBaalen

QUICK 12:                                        Mike Oujian defeated Bob Jennings

SUPER BIKE/SLED:                  Pete Stewart defeated Tiina Duncanson

STREET ELIMINATOR:              John Manwaring defeated Anthoney VanBaalen

MODIFIED ELIMINATOR:           Andrew Stirk defeated Stephen Pegg

JR DRAGSTER:                                Chase Brown defeated Kyle McCallum

JR CONSOLATION:                       Hailey Picciuto defeated Jesse Innes

Sunday Results:

SUPER PRO:                           Eric Vogul defeated Mike Newman

QUICK 12:                                        Steve Ferstl defeated Marc Gervais

SUPER BIKE/SLED:                  Pete Stewart defeated Nicole Meloche

STREET ELIMINATOR:             Roger Demers defeated Wayne Kennedy

MODIFIED ELIMINATOR:           Dave Colavecchia defeated Jarrod Kolne

JR DRAGSTER:                        Hailey Picciuto defeated Nicole Albin

JR CONSOLATION:                       Jesse Searson defeated Jesse Innes

LAST CHANCE GAMBLER RACE:  Jim Thomson defeated Bill Thompson 

Quick12 bracket winner Steve Ferstl

The next event in the DSE Automotive Sportsman Racing Series will Labour Day weekend with the Canadian Funny Car Championships, which features the NDRA Alcohol Funny Car series, Joes Transmission TNT Hot Rod Super Series and the Can-Am Stock/Super Stock Series.

Please visit www.sportsmanracingseries.ca  or www.torontomotosportspark.com  for more information. 

bout the DSE Automotive Sportsman Racing Series
The DSE Sportsman Racing series was created at the end of the 2011 racing season as a way to promote grassroots level sportsman drag racing in Southern Ontario. The series will run ten events with five Championship Sportsman classes ranging from Super/Pro and Modified, to Super/Bike & Sled, Street Eliminator and Jr. Dragster.  Super/Gas and Quick 12 will also be featured in the series this season.

Sponsored by DSE Automotive LTD which is managed David and Andrew Stirk in Brampton Ontario, DSE Sportsman Racing Series is dedicated to creating a competitive series for sportsman level drag racers to participate in which is fun and cost effective, while still providing an excellent racing program for fans and spectators to enjoy.

Posted by:  Andrew Stirk – Photos by:  Bruce Biegler