Stratford, ON’s Spencer Hyde once again defeated one of drag racing’s best-ever 1/8th-mile fields at last weekend’s PDRA Kaeser Mid-Atlantic Showdown presented by Classic at Dinwiddie, VA’s Virginia Motorsports Park.
Featuring a 22-car field of Pro Boost Pro Mods – including low-qualifier (3.586!) Melanie Salemi to Preston Tanner’s 3.638 in 16th-place – and only 15/100ths of a second separating top to bottom entering final eliminations, the top-five Pro Mods were all in the 3.5-second zone.
The elimination field became even quicker with Hyde setting low ET in the Semi Finals, at 3.559 seconds!
Eliminations also produced some of our sport’s closest-ever side-by-side races. For example, Manitoba’s Kenny Lang – driving his Al Billes-prepared and tuned ‘69 Camaro – left on Travis Harvey’s top speed entry (almost 220 mph) with a reaction time of .015 seconds to Travis’ .017 seconds. Lang lost to Harvey by 1/1000th of a second in their 3.62 to 3.61 match-up!!
Also to be noted, Pro Mod finalist and Canadian native Melanie Salemi is eligible this year for induction into the Canadian Drag Racing Hall of Fame, given her record of 25 years of active participation and being a significant contributor to our sport.
In Nitrous Pro Mod action at Virginia Motorsports Park (a separate field) Jim Halsey defeated track owner and PDRA president Tommy Franklin with a holeshot-initiated 3.62 ET to Halsey’s quicker 3.61. Between them, Halsey and Franklin have won all seven of Pro Mod’s last seven championships.
In Extreme Pro Stock (yet another separate field, with naturally aspirated 820-plus cubic-inch engines) John Pluchino came ever so close to the magic 3.599-second zone with his low ET 4.02-second and top speed performance. Of note, Canadian Larry O’Brien did run in the 3.5-second zone, during Extreme Pro Stock testing, a few seasons ago.
For the technically inclined, the atmospheric conditions Saturday evening at 9:30 p.m. during final eliminations in Virginia were: 56.48 degrees / 88% humidity / 386 ft. density altitude (corrected) / water grains 60.61.
The next PDRA event takes place May 24-25 at Norwalk, OH’s Summit Motorsports Park. This coming weekend, several Canadian racers will be in action in Charlotte, NC. Some will see pro 4-wide action, while the Sportsman classes will do battle 2-wide.
We also want to go back a few weeks and congratulate Scott Wildgust on his dominant Pro Mod win during the April 12-14 NMCA All-Star Nationals event at Rockingham (NC) Dragway.
After claiming the ‘number one’ qualifying position (3.641 seconds at 208.04 mph on the 1/8th-mile) Scott’s result was probably only overshadowed by his daughter Sienna’s excellent qualifying performance several thousand miles west at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas, NV.
Congratulations, as well, to team patriarch Mark Clarke who was runner-up in Rockingham in his NHRA Factory Stock challenger. Clarke was the ‘number one’ qualifier at Gainesville in what was only his second National event appearance.
Congrats also go out to Sienna Wildgust for her first-round appearance in Las Vegas where she raced alongside Pro Stock greats Erica Enders, Greg Anderson and Aaron Stanfield!
Another Canadian in action at Las Vegas was BC’s Shawn Cowie who scored his first National event win of 2024. He qualified ‘number one’ in his Alcohol Dragster, set low ET (5.195 seconds) and the top speed (279.67 mph)!
KB Titan co-owner Eric Latino was also on track in Vegas where he qualified a career best fifth and advanced to the Semi-Final ‘quad.’ In a post-event phone call, Latino was very excited and noted how proud he and KB Titan co-owner Jim Whitley are in the performances of their seven-car NHRA Pro Stock family focussed organization.
From the all-KB Titan final at Phoenix a few days prior (won by Greg Anderson, who took his 104th career National event victory), to Dallas Glenn’s Pro Stock win at Pomona, it’s all positive for the team. After three NHRA National events, this season, KB Titan is fielding three of the top five points entries.
In local Canadian drag racing news, Toronto Motorsports Park (TMP) brought in acknowledged track specialist Kurt Johnson to grind the facility’s drag surface. The work has delayed the start of racing action at the legendary track, but all agree that it will be worth it, in the end, with Johnson predicting it will be “one of the very best in our sport.”
A busy man, Johnson headed to Saskatchewan and BC, after TMP. He also recently completed the new Flying H Facility just outside of Kansas City, which will open this fall with a $250,000 Pro Mod event prior to hosting its first NHRA National event, in 2025.
This weekend in Charlotte, NC, Canada’s Paton Racing team will be in 4-Wide NHRA Top Fuel action at ZMax Raceway. In related team news, the Choko / Fast Eddie Spring Warehouse Sale is taking place Thursday through Saturday at the company’s warehouse in Uxbridge, ON. Click on the banner below for details. Good luck to all, in Charlotte and Uxbridge!
Watch for the next Canadian connection early next week as we transition Canadian Connection to an all-digital format on InsideTrackNews.com. Thanks to all for your support and patience. Please send news, pictures and feedback to johnlwaldie@hotmail.com.
