Canada’s Bruce Boland and America’s Ricky Adkins had lucrative weekends at GBM recently….
Boland (from Hamilton) and Adkins (from Milan Michigan) collected the top prizes available for the final round of the 3-race 2015 Napa Ultimate Showdown Drag Racing Series held over the Labour Day weekend – Boland in Pro Mod and Adkins in the marquee TD vs TS Showdown.
Driving his very popular supercharged Willys, Boland scored his first event victory since the spring of 2014 when benefitted from a red-light start by opponent Derek Hawker in the final round. That negated what could have been a major upset in the making because Hawker ran a quicker 6.02 secs compared to Boland’s 6.04 secs.
Veteran Bruce Boland returned to the winners circle during the USDRS season finale.
“Derek was really on his game driving,” said Boland, “The results certainly could have been reversed if he had not red lit. But we had both good fortune and good performance here and we’re happy to get our first one (victory) in this new series.”
Boland had qualified for the 8-car program with a 6.102 secs and beat fellow Canadians Al Martorino and Rob Atchison in rounds one and two.
Driving his vastly improving Firebird, runner-up Hawker (from Corbyville ON) had his best effort of the season at the Grand Bend finale. His path to the championship round was highlighted by a perfect .000 RT in round one of eliminations and his runner-up finished locked up a strong 3rd place finish in final season points behind Rob Atchison and Bruce Boland who placed first and second respectively.
PM racer Derrick Hawker was a serious threat to win at the USDRS final round
*London’s Rob Atchison, who qualified #1 with at 5.976 secs, and who won the first two USDRS events, wrapped up the overall points title when he won his first round match. (*DragRaceCanada will have a separate feature on Atchison’s title – coming soon)
By winning in round #1 — Rob Atchison wrapped up the 2015 USDRS points title.
The USDRS series’ much sought after first place monetary prize for TS and TD racers went to Ricky Adkins driving his alien looking ’37 Chevy Top Sportsman car. Adkins collected a cool $10G when he held off the Quebec’s Tom Orr who placed runner-up driving his new Undercover-chasied machine.
Michigan’s Ricky Adkins collect a cool “10-Large” after winning at Grand Bend
Adkins had won the TS program from the #3 qualified position beating opponents Darren McMillen, Spencer Hyde, Phil Sampson and Mike Sowards on the way.
Orr (from Shawville PQ) had previously out run Travis Gueguen, Scott Wildgust, Tony Positano and Richard Motycka in TD racing.
Quebec’s Tom Orr had a strong event driving his TD
Spencer Hyde (6.612 secs) and Lyle Williams (6.048 secs) were the pole qualifiers in TS and TD respectively.
Post by Bruce Biegler
Photos by Brennan Shortall
