Plaizier’s Picking Up Pace « DragRaceCanada.com

Plaizier’s Picking Up Pace

by editor on May.25, 2014, under Hotzone

Plaizier’s Picking Up Pace

The Edmonton-based and multi-car family racing team overseen by Eddy Plaizier are producing some very serious results within NHRA’s Lucas Oil Drag Racing series and there is much more to come…

During the recent NHRA Lucas Oil Series event held at Spokane Washington, the team collected no less then two Sportsman eliminator wins with both Eddy and his son Casey standing tall in victory lane at the conclusion of the event.

Driving his topless ’63 Corvette in Super Gas, Eddy Plaizier in fact won for the third time in a row at the racing venue. Plaizier, meticulously worked his way through that field before running a 10.095 seconds at 155.33 mph to take the final round victory over Curtis Geise from Auburn, WA. Plaizier and Geise were both off the line at identical times but it was Plaizier that was closer to the index to take the final round win.

Eddy Plaizier won recently for the third straight time in S/G at Washington’s Spokane Raceway

That win was complimented by a similar result in the Super Street category by Casey Plaizier who was driving the team’s ’56 Chevy.

The understudy Plaizier, followed in his father’s footsteps when he made a final round pass of 11.069 seconds at 126.35 mph, to defeat Brett Oglesbee from Spokane. It was Casey’s first score in NHRA Super Street racing but certainly not his first in racing. In fact, driving the team’s Pontiac Firebird Stock eliminator car, Casey has qualified to be the Northwest Division’s Stock Eliminator representative for the very prestigious once-a-year JEGS Allstars race, which will be held in June in Chicago.

Casey Plaizier drove the ’56 Chevy owned by Wayne and Tanis Battle to the S/ST title.

Those very positive results are just the latest developments for the racing team which now is at the cusp of becoming even more prominent within NHRA Lucas Oil racing.

“As a team, we have had a very consistent start to the year,” revealed Casey. “Although we have a few first round losses shared between the 3 cars and the 4 races we have attended so far in 2014, overall we have consistently been going rounds at every race track. Going into the Division 6 Boise race, the last Jegs Allstars qualifying event for Division 6, I needed to go enough rounds to hold off Jody Lang, Brad Burton, and Ryan Warter. When I took out Jody in round 3 in Boise, that clinched the top spot for me in Stock, as I will now represent Division 6 at the Allstars event for the first time in my career.”

“I planned on adding to my 4th round finish at Boise with another good outing in Stock in Spokane, but that was not the case,” he continued. ” I didn’t drive to the best of my abilities in the Stocker, but that only gave me more motivation to prove my versatility in the Super Street car. We made 8 hits on test day in Spokane, followed by 3 qualifying hits on Saturday. My dad is truly a master at setting up throttle stop cars, but since we have dedicated so much time to the Stocker, Dragster, and Corvette, we really needed those 10 passes to get the chassis set up. The 56 Chevy, owned by Wayne and Tanis Battle, has literally every best part that money can buy. The Battle family has been so generous in letting me use their car and I truly can’t thank them enough. A few lucky rounds throughout eliminations and I found myself in my third divisional final of my career. The first final was back when I was 17 in Mission, BC in the ’56, and my first win came last year (in Stock) at the Spokane event. I’ve learned lots about racing and even more about what to do in final rounds since my first final round loss in 2007. While I didn’t always have the starting line advantage, the decisions you make at the top end are equally as important.”

Casey (shown with Mom Cynthia and sister Frankie) will represent his NHRA division during the upcoming Jegs ALLSTARS event in Chicago

Casey was quick to cite all the behind the scenes support he and his team receives. That includes of course his Mom and Dad ( Cynthia and Eddy) but also his girlfriend, Angelina, sister and brother-in-law, Frankie and Garth, Wayne and Tanis Battle, Thompson Brothers Construction, the Iron Garage, Lock Surgeon, Bee Cool Window Tinting, A-1 Converters, Harold Parfett from Ace Manufacturing, Interstate Batteries and Stealth Performance in Stony Plain, Alberta.

For the rest of 2014 the team’s racing presence is for sure on a definite upswing.

Following Eddy’s recent retirement from a long and successful career as VP of Sales, Western Region, for Anixter, Eddy is now poised to begin a follow through on a threat/dream he has long desired — to become more of a touring Professional Sportsman team. In the immediate future, those plans for the team include for the first time some ventures much further East to go racing. In addition to Joliet’s Route 66 NHRA Nationals in late June entries are also being filed for the NHRA national events at Bristol TN and Epping NH.