Saturday 'Night of Fire' closes out qualifying at Castrol Raceway
EDMONTON, Alberta (June 25, 2011) – For the second night in a row it was a race against Mother Nature at Castrol Raceway, but unlike Friday night when a freak storm washed out day one of the Mopar Rocky Mountain Nitro Jam Nationals, this time drag racing won.
All of the professional classes got in multiple runs Saturday night during the SMS "Night of Fire" at Castrol Raceway and sportsman competitors wrapped up qualifying as the fields are finally set for eliminations heading into championship Sunday at Canada's largest drag race at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton.
Two nitro classes crowned winners on Saturday as Bobby Lagana bested a field of four Top Fuel Dragsters to claim his eighth Ironman of the season and Ron Maroney won for the second time this year in the "Nanook" entry over Tom Padilla to claim the Nostalgia Fuel Altered crown.
In professional qualifying Edmonton native Tim Boychuk topped the Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car field heading into Sunday with a blistering pace just off the IHRA Nitro Jam national record. Other top qualifiers from day two at the Mopar Rocky Mountain Nitro Jam Nationals included Steve Dorn in Nitro Harley, Cal Tebb in the Rocky Mountain Funny Car class and Gary Urlacher in Pro Modified.
Sportsman top qualifiers included Dan Lachelt in Top Dragster, Mark Campbell in Top Sportsman, Byron Setters in Super Stock and Paul Plummer in Stock.
But by far, the biggest winner from Saturday night was Boychuk.
Boychuk put down a 5.788, 242.02 in the final round of qualifying on Saturday to head the class, just ahead of Arizona native Mike Savage in the "Candies and Hughes" 1970 Barracuda Funny Car who ran a 5.846, 236.88.
Always a fan favorite, the huge Canadian crowd was brought to its feet when Boychuk, the defending race winner in Edmonton, blasted down the quarter-mile at near record times to top the nostalgia Nitro Funny Car class.
"It is always great to get to race in front of my hometown fans and they were certainly behind us every single pass we made," Boychuk said. "We knew we had a car to beat here this weekend and we hope we can continue this momentum into Sunday and come away with our third win in a row here at Castrol Raceway."
Rounding out the eight-car Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car top five are Michael Grekul, Tim Nemeth and Mark Sanders.
While many of the classes were just qualifying on Saturday, two winners were crowned during the SMS "Night of Fire" included Top Fuel star Bobby Lagana Jr.
Lagana bested Nitro Jam newcomer Kyle Wurtzel in round one to set up yet another matchup with longtime friend and rival Bruce Litton in the finals. Lagana ran a 4.897, 268.49 in the winning pass, easily picking up the win as Litton lost traction immediately off the line.
Lagana also had a solid 4.891, 303.09 in round one to defeat Wurtzel. In the consolation pairing Wurtzel picked up his first career Nitro Jam round win over Mike Strasburg.
The other victor from Saturday was Ron Maroney in the "Nanook" entry as he bested Tom Padilla in "Nasty Benjamin" with a 6.530, 221.49 in the final. Padilla ran a 7.006, 166.66 in the runner-up effort. Maroney advanced to the final with a win over Jason Richey, producing the best pass of the afternoon with a 6.492, 223.62.
In the consolation round Richey defeated Randy Bradford.
The rest of the evening consisted of qualifying as Nitro Jam regulars Dorn and Jay Turner topped Nitro Harley qualifying, with Dorn producing a weekend best 6.683, 197.45 to top the charts on Saturday. Turner's best so far is a 6.702, 207.85.
Ken Kent, Nathan Gagnon and Damian Cownden round out the Nitro Harley top five.
In Pro Modified action Gary Urlacher topped the West Coast Pro Modified Association with a 6.378, 216.13 in his '63 Corvette, followed by Wayne Hofer, Ross Hogenson, Vern Mills and Dan Vogt.
Finally, in the Rocky Mountain Funny Car category Cal Tebb ran a nearly dead-on 6.993, 199.67 in the 6.99 class, followed by Joey Steckler, David Brant, Eddy Plaizier and Darrel Webb.
In exhibition action fans saw Alcohol Funny Cars, Nitro Funny Cars, Pro Fuel Dragsters and a pair of individual runs by Grave Digger and the Super Shockwave jet semi. The pair were scheduled to go head-to-head Saturday night, but rains cut short the finale.
Still, despite the wet weather, Les Shockley still put on a show for the fans that stuck out the weather with a fire show and careful pass in the misty conditions to close out the evening.
In sportsman action the Top Dragster and Top Sportsman Elite 8 competitions were both cut short due to the rains with the winners splitting the money. Mike Quayle and No. 8 qualifier Tom McAvoy were the remaining two participants in Top Dragster while Todd Fleck and Don Wilk were the drivers left in Top Sportsman.
Racing will resume at the Mopar Rocky Mountain Nitro Jam Nationals at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday with sportsman eliminations followed by the first round of professional eliminations at 11:30 a.m. Nitro Jam will get underway at 1 p.m.
