OCSA Crowns Season Champs
The Ontario Street Car Association (OSCA) recently crowned its champions during its last race of the 2011 season held at Toronto Motorsports Park, near Cayuga Ontario….
The cool temperatures, overcast skies and sticky track were the perfect combination for bumper dragging, guardrail to guardrail street car action. Going into the final race of the season, the Super Street Champion was yet to be decided. John Carinci of Woodbridge, ON., and Tony Presto of Oakvillewere in contention and would find themselves paired up in the finals. Carinci nailed the tree in round #1 with a .001 powering through to the win over the beautiful 86 Monte Carlo of Joe Medeiros. Presto, in round #1 would defeat the twin turbo 69 Camaro of Steve Lazarro, piloted by Mike Yedgarian. Presto would impress on lookers with a 300 foot wheelstand and an 1/8 mile time of 4.45 to defeat the twin turbo 69 Camaro of Steve Lazarro, piloted by Mike Yedgarian and move to the final round. In the finals Carinci’s twin turbo TransAm would get out first and take an easy victory as Presto’s blown 67 Chevy II overpowered the track and spun resulting in a 6.16 to Carinci’s 4.44.
Original IROC rims and all, Dan Marvin's ultimate sleeper Camaro yanked the wheels and dipped into the 8's for the first time.
EZ Street provided some exciting action as 15 cars took part in the final race of the season. Ten of the cars would qualify in the 7-seconds zone. Noel Borg was able to work out some gremlins and had his sinister looking 89 Mustang LX running consistent 7.80’s during eliminations. Steve Falle has been laying down some impressive numbers as of late as well, saving his best for last running a 7.61 in the finals defeating Borg who posted an impressive 7.83 on the boards.
OSCA Pro Stock is always a fan favorite for unexpected wheelstands and fast, naturally aspirated racing action. John Cudizio would put his 91 Firebird on the bumper during qualifying showing the power these cars are capable of making. Cudizio would lose second round to Mike Dimech, setting up the final round of Dimech and the battered 91 Mustang of Wayde Mahoney. It was a miraculous story that Mahoney was able to get to the finals, let alone to the staging lanes at all. During qualifying, Mahoney ran the fastest OSCA Pro Stock pass in history at 8.18 seconds. On his next pass to back up his record setting run, Mahoney would post an 8.19 to make the record pass official but while doing so would cut a tire when crossing the line at 174 mph. This turn of events resulted in hard contact with the wall. A visibly determined Mahoney was standing on the flatbed as the badly damaged Mustang went by the staging lanes. All was quiet as the car passed. Mahoney and his dedicated crew worked feverishly through the night to repair what they could to make the car safe for competition. To say the crew finished the car would be an understatement, as the Mustang would make it to the line for first round and incredibly would take the win. A bye in the second round would set up the finals pairing the Mustangs of Mahoney and Dimech together. Mahoney had a slight starting line advantage and was able to stay out in front to amazingly take the win running 8.37 to Dimech’s 8.43.
Wayde Mahoney's battered Mustang would take the event win and the Pro Stock Championship
The experimental X275 class would provide some of the wildest racing action of the weekend. Darcy Cummins nitrous powered 87 Camaro would use the bumper on a couple occasions during qualifying providing a great photo opportunity for photographers. Jeff Vance in his 2000 Camaro would do the same with a monster wheelstand as the two put on a great show for the fans. In the finals, Cummins would get out of shape but keep the hammer down only to narrowly give up the win running 5.21 in the 1/8 mile to Vances’ 5.16.
The Black Cat Pub Pro Street Bike final would see the impressive 2001 Suzuki Hayabusa of Richard Peppler take the win running 7.80, defeating Dave Burleich and his Hayabusa who hail fromCalgary, AB., who ran 8.01.
Darcy Cummins showing off the undercarriage of his X275 Camaro
Other event winners included:
- 8.90 W- Peter Nolan R/U- John Keck
- 9.90- Steve Schrans R/U- Demetri Pakkidis
- 10.90- Keith Kiberd R/U- Chris Lyman
- 11.90- Brad Redford R/U- Dan Pepper
- 12.90- Tony Sloot R/U- John Anthony lamundi
- Pro Comp- Chris Lozon R/U- Shawn Morrell
- Open Comp- Randy Mounce R/U- Dan Pepper
- Bike/Sled Comp- Katie Shaw R/U- Tait Usher
Editors Note: Mark Ackert organized a “Fill a limo with coats” campaign in order to give warm coats to those less fortunate. 52 coats and 2 warm sweaters were collected from the OSCA faithful helping him towards a goal of filling his stretched limousine with coats.
Mark also hosted a fundraiser for the fight against MS — Offering a 20×30 poster sized print as first prize. People had to guess what they thought his 1987 Yamaha Fazer would run in the 1/4 mile for $10 a guess. $1600 was raised in total with Dan Marvin and Neal Correia guessing 11.87 which was closest to his actual run of 11.88 secs. Vince Milao of the Paul Silva Performance group rounded out the top three.
Raising money was also on the minds of 11.90 competitors who organized an all out race to raise money for the Kidney Foundation which was won by Elan Imseis.
Posted by: Mark Ackert
(Photos by: Mark Ackert)
