Smokies Season Suit Up! « DragRaceCanada.com

Smokies Season Suit Up!

by editor on Mar.05, 2023, under Editor's Extra

After a superb 2022 year effort – Canada’s Smokies Garage sets 2023 season course…

Canada’s Smokies Garage race team had a fast learning curve and built some serious momentum during 2022 and will be taking all that to the season starting line – very soon.

In 2022 the Stratford Ontario area multi-dimensional team competed at 10 events fielding machines in Pro Boost, Elite Top Sportsman, Junior Dragster, Pro Gas bike, and 2 bracket bash entries throughout the season.

Season highlights were numerous including finishing in the top 10 in championship points for the PDRA in both Pro Boost and Elite Top Sportsman categories.

Team accomplishments in 2022 did include some significant event wins as well as personal bests for team members.

Scott Wildgust drove the Smokies Garage Shelby GT500 Pro Mod car to some major event titles including scores at the NMCA Muscle Car Mayhem and also Empire Raceway’s NEOPMA Challenge II event – last summer. He also recorded his career best times in the potent supercharged car while qualifying #4 for at PDRA’s East Coast Nationals race (3.616 secs @ 209.87 mph).

Scott Wildgust had two major event scores and recorded career best math during an impressive 2022 season campaign.

The past season also featured a semi-final finish for Pro Junior Dragster racer Sienna Wildgust (Scott’s daughter) — at PDRA Norwalk. Team patriarch Mike Clark made career best runs in his highly potent Red Eye Hellcat and motorcycle racer Crank qualified #1 in the Top Eliminator class and #3 in the Pro Gas class at the Rockingham AMRA Race.

“We did treat the 2022 race season as more of a learning year,” revealed Scott Wildgust. “A lot of our focus was on the Smokies brand itself — which really started to create a following of loyal fans and sponsors.”

The Smokies Garage team will compete at 10 races this 2023 race season – beginning at the World Series for Pro Mod (at Bradenton FL) followed by the Mid-West Drag Racing Series opener in Texas and then to Galot Motorsports park for the PDRA season opener – all during March. From there the rigs will migrate back closer to home with 5 race dates scheduled including at Norwalk Ohio, Martin Michigan and Empire Dragway in Western New York State.

“The Smokies Garage race team will also be participating at select events with the Pro Gas Bike as well as the Hellcat and Camaro,” Scott added, “Mike (Clark) and I are building our 2023 race season around changes to make things better for our entire team.”