Billed as the largest NHRA drag race in Canada, this past weekend’s Canadian National Open had a little bit of everything.
Friday’s opening day of testing was a washout, but Saturday was one of the best days of racing in recent memory.
A large crowd was on hand to see drag racing’s biggest draw, NITRO Funny Cars. There were 10 of the powerful machines plus close to 20 more alcohol burning Funny Cars.
When you add in the Pro Street class, 200 miles per hour Nitro Harleys, and the popular Comp Eliminator, you had a weekend every race fan would walk away from satisfied.
Saturday night ended with five second 240 mph action and huge flames exploding out of the ‘zoomie’ headers.
Mission’s Jim Obalek lead Funny Car qualifying with a 5.86/240 mph blast and was closely followed by Washington’s Kris Krabill who made a 5.88/246 run. Defending champion Tim Boychuk from Edmonton and Chilliwack’s Tim Nemeth were three and four with 5.92 and 5.93 runs respectively. Edmonton’s Norm Kolwich lead the Rocky Mountain Funny Car class and Ron Huegli was the leader in NW BB/Funny Car.
Dale Pedersen from Dawson Creek ran a career best 6.26 at 226 mph to grab the top spot in Pro Street. One of the most anticipated cars out for the weekend was Mark Wolfe in a NHRA legal Pro Stock. He was debuting the car here at Mission and he ran an awesome 6.56 at 210 mph. It was the quickest NHRA Pro Stock run in Canada.
Sunday’s elimination’s were almost complete when mother nature took over and soaked the area, ending the day two hours too early.
The regular bracket classes will finish in Mission August 24-25 and the NHRA classes will finish the week before at Seattle NHRA event. A few locals were still left in competition including Tim Nemeth (Nitro Funny Car), Terry Spargo (Comp eliminator), Jim Behnke (Pro Bracket) and Jay Syvertsen (Pro Street), to name a few.