Saturday, July 06, 2013

Racing Underway at Mopar Rocky Mountain Nationals


Racing underway at Mopar Rocky Mountain Nationals
Nemeth, Tebb top Funny Car classes Friday at Castrol Raceway

EDMONTON, Alberta (July 5, 2013) – For the nearly dozen different classes and for the hundreds of pro and sportsman drivers on hand for the International Hot Rod Association's premier Mopar Rocky Mountain Nitro Jam Nationals presented by Good Vibrations Motorsports at Castrol Raceway, Friday was a good tune-up for the big show on Saturday and Sunday.

Tim Nemeth

All of the classes with the exception of Top Fuel got a hit at the track on Friday with the AMSOIL Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car class and local racer Tim Nemeth headlining opening night. Chilliwack, British Columbia's Nemeth set a track record in the nostalgia Funny Car class even while pedaling his '77 Firebird, rocketing to the top of the charts with a 5.752 second run at 231.91 miles per hour.

Hometown boy Nathan Sitko was second on the charts, some five tenths off of Nemeth. Mike Halstead was third, followed by three-time Rocky Mountain Nationals winner Tim Boychuk and Paul Romine.

In the weekend's other Funny Car class Edmonton native Cal Tebb topped the Rocky Mountain Nostalgia Funny Car class in his beautiful '69 GTO, running a two-pass best of 6.995, 184.88 in the unique 6.99 index class. Jim Fersch was second with a 7.009, followed by Troy Sitko, David Brant and Cory Kincaid.

Cal Tebb

Two additional nitro classes kicked off the Rocky Mountain Nationals on Friday with Ben Ground topping the Nitro Harley class with a 6.702, 200.50, while Ron Hope in the "Rat Trap" topped the Nostalgia Fuel Altered's with a 6.965, 174.17.

Friday's show also included exhibition passes in Alcohol Funny Car and Top Alcohol Dragster plus wheelstanders, jets and more.

Racing continues on Saturday with more professional qualifying, including Top Fuel, and Day 1 of the Summit Racing Equipment Pro-Am Tour presented by AMSOIL Division 6 event. Pro competition gets underway at 6 p.m. on Saturday.