An advance look to a tradition deep mid-summer drag racing weekend….

Grand Bend Motorplex’s WDRA Canadian Nationals is the next stop for the “must see” list for Eastern Canadian area drag racing fans.

The 24th annual edition, which will go down (Aug 2-4) right along the scenic Lake Huron shorelines of Grand Bend Ontario, will once again feature a tasty menu for fans attending with a wide variety of very fast and cool machines featured.

The top billing goes again to the return of Top Fuel dragsters – but this year’s match up may have just a touch more intensity versus previous seasons.

In a first for Canadian drag racing — the primary match-up will be Todd Paton (originally from Ontario) versus Daniel Mercier (from Quebec) – head to head X 3.

For Mercier, who has shown well at Grand Bend Motorplex in the past, while driving his A/Fuel Dragster and Nitro Nostalgia FC class cars :  this will be his first venture to the facility with his highly competitive NHRA Mercier Racing Top Fuel dragster. Mercier who had set A/FD track records at Grand Bend Motorplex in the past – is currently Canada’s quickest ever Top Fuel racer – having recorded a 3.716 secs and 328.14 mph (@NHRA Pomona Finals 2023).

Quebec’s Daniel Mercier will campaign his Top Fuel dragster within Ontario for the first time this coming August long weekend.

“My team and I love this place — we feel at home in Grand Bend — the people are so welcoming,” Daniel said. “We have always performed well with our A/Fueler — but the time has now come to take the next step!”

Mercier confirmed too that he will also bring and run his super slick Chevy Camaro nitro nostalgia Funny Car at Grand Bend too over the weekend.

The welcome return for Todd Paton to Grand Bend Motorplex goes without saying as his name and reputation has been a stable for the Canadian Nationals event for may seasons.

“It’s been a year since Spencer [Hyde] and I ran side-by-side 3 secs ET’s at over 300 mph at the Grand Bend Motorplex,” Todd stated. “I’m looking forward to coming back to hopefully improve on the 3.96 secs/315 mph performance from last year’s event as I take on Dan Mercier.”

Todd Paton has been a staple for many edition Canadian Nationals event and that strong tradition will continue for 2024.

While Todd will line exclusively versus Daniel over the weekend – his Paton Racing team will in fact bring two cars – with the second team machine being wheeled by Tennessee-based newcomer Matt Sackman – who partially licensed with the Paton Racing team earlier this season.

Sackman, (who earned a NHRA national event win in T/D at Bristol’s Thunder Valley Nationals just recently) will be paired against the area popular “Pony Up” nitro-burning Mustang FC entry driven by Gary Kraus (from New York).

“Matt will be behind the wheel of our second Fast Eddie/Performance Data Systems Top Fuel Dragster,” Todd affirmed. “Matt is a former crew member on Antron Brown’s Top Fuel team and in fact made several runs in Antron’s car recording some impressive 3.7-second runs at well over 320 mph.”

Gary Kraus’ “Pony Up” Ford Mustang nitro-burner.

The WDRA event agenda will also include a “Chicago Style” Shootout featuring some top notch A/Fuel dragsters – all Canadian based – Jeff Chatterson, Jeff Veale, Clif Bakx (driver Todd Bruce) and Brian Peters.

The WDRA Canadian Nationals will include a Canadian powerhouse laden “Chicago Style Shootout” for A/FDs (including Jeff Chatterson above).

The Exhibition Jet Cars listing includes Jerry McCart’s “Homewrecker” and the nostalgia Jet Funny Cars “Quartermaster & Black Pearl” owned by David Douthit.

“We will also have Larry Dobbs’ TAFC and are hoping to put another one beside him,” added Paul Spriet (GBM President & Track Owner).

A major included component for the event will be the 2nd race for 2024 for the Bears Performance Products PSDS series — featuring Pro Mod class cars,  Top Dragster (presented by Smokies Garage) and Top Sportsman (presented by Strange Engineering).

Grand Bend’s always aggressive, well-attended and lucrative to win — ET Bracket programs plus Bike/Sled and Junior dragster eliminators will be featured.

For more information/tickets visit Grand Bend Motorplex official : HERE

For more information on the WDRA click: HERE

Posted by Bruce Biegler
DragRaceCanada File Photos by Dave DeAngelis – Steve Embling – John S. Brown