Something for Everyone at Mission Season Finale                                     

Mission Raceway Park concluded its major event schedule for 2011 with the Smoke, Fire and Thunder event.  The diverse program offered something for almost any racing taste……

 Jet cars were the headliners on Saturday night in front of a big crowd, with two dragsters and two funny cars. The new car of Chuck Haynes, thought to be capable of breaking his own 5.00-second track record, didn’t even get off the starting line, having technical problems, while the other car driven by Andy Beauchemin ran a couple of mid-fives.

Derek Snelson brought in his Jet FC from Alaska

In JetFC, Alaska’s Derek Snelson ran two low-sixes to defeat the mid-sixes of Saskatchewan’s Kevin Therres. Snelson returned Sunday to run a 6.15.

MRP booked in the Nostalgia Nitro FCs of Tim Nemeth and Mark Sanders in a Canada vs USA, Ford vs Chevy match, and after exchanging 6-ohs on Saturday night, they came back looking for fives on Sunday. Sanders was first, with a winning 5.90 when Nemeth had problems when firing up the Mustang and couldn’t run, but he came back with a vengeance in the second round, running a career-best 5.800/248 in the 30-degree heat of the day to beat Sanders’ 6.02.

Tim Nemeth and Mark Sanders faced off in a cool Canada vs USA match race

Also booked in was the U.S.-based Northwest BB/FC group running on a 6.80 index, and the eight nostalgia cars put on a good show, with Oregon’s Ron Huegli in the Tiki Warrior Monza taking the honours.

Oregon's Ron Huegli won the BB/FC show in his awesome looking Monza

The Canadian Pro Street Association ran Round Two of the Bad Dog Shootout, which began at Seattle’s Pacific Raceways a couple of weeks earlier, and which hopefully will lead to an ongoing series for next season. Seven cars were on hand after about a dozen were touted to be there, so that was a bit disappointing, but they did run well and put on a good show. Dale Pedersen from way up north in B.C. made the final in his turbo Monte Carlo, but lost to the low qualifying (at 6.31) blown Chevy pickup of Washington’s Garrett Richards, 6.47-6.69.

The Canada West Doorslammer Association was also there, and 20 cars ran the required 8.70 or better to qualify. Washington’s Mike Bedsworth drove his Cutlass to the win when B.C.’s Jamie Toews broke out by only .006 in his Chevy Pickup. See all the race action at www.canadawestdoorslammers.com.

BC's Jamie Toews made the CWDA Final round

On hand for their annual appearance were the wheelstanders of Ed “the Outlaw” Jones and Rick Marcum, and in the tradition of these vehicles, they put on a great show for the fans in side-by-side racing.

This event was the last of the “feature” races for Mission this season.

Posted by: Gerry Frechette  –  Photos by: Gerry Frechette