AJAX, ONTARIO (March 11, 2011) – A pair of veteran drag racers are entering into the Quick 32 Sportsman Series presented by NAPA Auto Parts for 2011, and will share the driving duties.
Phil Nedham and Mike Etter have worked together in the past, and the two decided to form a team in April of last year.
"We started talking last March," said Nedham, who last raced in 2005. "Mike has the truck and trailer, and I had the car, so we thought we'd get together on this."
The Senior Moment Motorsports Team will field a Top Dragster entry in the Quick 32 Sportsman Series. The Mike Bos 250-inch dragster will be powered by a 511-cubic inch Chevrolet engine with a Kinsler Fuel Injection system running on alcohol. "With the stack injection, we're doing it 'old school', but we're not opposed to adding some nitro to make sure we're in the show," he added. Nedham has raced a variety of cars over the years, his first being a 401-Buick powered dragster, a Pro Stock car, a supercharged Alcohol dragster and an injected altered. Etter's credentials are just as strong. The Brantford, Ontario resident has been one of a handful of Canadians to hold an NHRA nitro fuel license, and campaigned his "Nerves of Steel" Top Alcohol Funny Car in which he won the 2005 North American UDRA Championship.
While most of Etter's seat time has been in a Funny Car, he said his first real race car was a front-engined dragster he raced in 1977. Over the winter of that year, he took the 170-inch wheelbase car and built it into a 239-inch rear-engined dragster, but that didn't last.
"I saw some Funny Cars and I then had too much of a hankering for one," he said, so in 2000 he bought the Optima Pontiac Funny Car, formerly campaigned by the Paton family. He raced in the IHRA for a few years before parking the car in 2006.
"Our roots in Southern Ontario drag racing run deep," commented Nedham. "I can remember the days back in the early '70s at Dragway Park when I used to watch the likes of Ivo, Garlits and Shirley match racing".
Etter will be crew chief for the team, and others helping out include Blackjack Lawrence, Jim Dorsey, Steve Hutton and Mike's wife Victoria, along with Phil's wife Marsha who is the car owner.
Nedham said the car is now finished and lettered with the team's main sponsor, the Prostate Cancer Canada Network, which provides a personal aspect for Nedham, who is a prostate cancer survivor.
"Part of the reason for doing this is for fun, obviously," he noted. "But I also have personal vested interest early prostate cancer detection. It is an absolute crime to see men lose their lives and families lose their men to a disease that can be easily detected very early and successfully managed. Our mission is to get the word out there for all men to get a regular physical examination."
"I'm looking forward to it," said Etter about his return to racing. "Phil called me last year and said 'what do you think', so we started looking for a car and engine."
Etter added that over the winter the team had the engine completely rebuilt, and the car is on display at the upcoming Performance World Custom Car and Truck Show in Toronto this weekend at the International Center.
The team wanted to give special thanks to Harry Manovich at Milton Transmission, Terry Mason and Dwayne Leask of Terry's Engine Centre in Oshawa.
Nedham, Etter, and the rest of the Senior Moments crew will be ready for the opening round of the Quick 32 Sportsman Series which gets under way May 20-22 at the Cayuga Dragway of Toronto Motorsports Park as part of the Victoria Day Weekend Challenge.
Phil can be contacted at nedham@rogers.com, Mike at m9etter@sympatico.ca. For more information on the great work being done by Prostate Cancer Canada Network – Brampton, visit them at www.pccnbrampton.com
