PMRA “Double Header” Kickoff!

by editor on Jun.13, 2011, under Hotzone

PMRA “Double Header” Kickoff!

Eastern Canada’s PMRA racers vaulted from the season gate last weekend at Cayuga Dragway — Toronto Motorsports Park….

The Xtreme Mayhem Nationals event was in fact a double header affair as rain-delayed eliminations from the scheduled Victoria Day season-opener last May were completed in conjunction with qualifying.

Winning big were two racers – one a wily seasoned veteran and another, a fast rising circuit driver.

Hamilton’s Bruce Boland drew first season blood driving his supercharged 1941 Willys Coupe to victory on Saturday night.

Boland, who has three overall PMRA circuit championships to his credit, had a simply spectacular debut with a new car that was acquired over the off season. Boland and his all volunteer team got that car to respond immediately as they first qualified #1 with at 5.953 secs lap and then ran very consistently during the three rounds of eliminations (with consecutive laps of 6.047 – 6.093 – 6.087 secs). In the championship final Boland dealt a brilliant .004 RT to take out the Gary Irving, driver of Al Hinds’ ever-improving late model Corvette.

: PMRA stalwart Bruce Boland put his new Willys into victory lane – first time out!

Boland had defeated John Russo and Jeff Roth in earlier competition.

“To qualify #1 at our first race out and then to win it is a very nice result,” said Boland, a fan favorite local racer. “In fact I recorded my quickest ET ever. This Willys is very comfortable to drive and smooth running – and I have a good feeling about this car.”

Sunday’s event portion went to Whitby’s Eric Latino who won his second career PMRA event. By winning Latino showed the immediate dividends of his new association with Rob Sporring, who was formally the team car owner to Tony Pontieri. Eric too ran the quickest and fastest times of his career driving his awesome looking new G-Force Race Cars built ’69 Camaro.

Eric Latino drove his awesome new '69 Camaro to a win on Sunday

Latino defeated rising circuit name, Vito Montasano (Maple ON) in Sunday’s event concluder. Both Chevy Camaro cars were set on “aggressive” for the final and both drivers battled tire shake. It was Latino who recovered first, winning at 6.758 secs 232.95 mph versus Vito’s 6.630 secs 157.76 mph.

Montasano and Latino had qualified 1-2 entering eliminations with respective runs of 5.889 secs and 5.898 secs – both career bests.

Eric Latino

“For me personally this is a big step up for my racing program and I’m very excited about it,” said Latino, who wheeled a supercharged ’38 Chevy last season. “There is a whole different feel driving his car – you can tell it wants to take a lot more power. We seemed to get our baseline early – so we feel pretty good about things.”

Latino’s victory came over a field of 13 Pro Mod cars. The bump spot was 6.237 secs.

Pro Mod racing over the weekend at Cayuga included a number of notable stories.

Former IHRA Alcohol Funny Car legend Rob Atchison made his Pro Mod class debut. Atchison, who remained in test mode the entire weekend, ran a promising 6.346 driving his recently acquired ’63 Corvette.

Jay Santos had an unfortunate incident during qualifying driving his superb looking new ’69 Camaro. Santos had an apparent parachute malfunction which resulted in the front end of his car hitting the top end guard wall. Fortunately damage was mostly cosmetic and the car was shipped immediately back to G-Force Race Cars for repairs.

Former IHRA AFC star Rob Atchison made his Pro Mod class debut

The Xtreme Mayhem Nationals also featured dramatic competition from within the circuit’s associated Napa Q32 and PBSS racing programs.

Chevy Cavalier TS racer Phil Sampson (Branton ON) topped Jamie Bridge’s TD in Saturday’s Q32 final round and on Sunday it was another Chevy Cavalier driven by Darren Grubb (Kincardine ON) that prevailed. Grubb beat Mike Hinbest’s supercharged TD in that final round.