2nd ACDelco Canadian Nationals
July 25-27th, 2003, Cayuga, ON
Notes |
Results | Photos #1 | Photos #2
NATIONALS NOTEBOOK:
The 2nd chapter for the ACDelco Canadian Nationals saga moved Canadian drag racing history up another notch as a great field of cars played to a full house at continuing improving Toronto Motorsports Park. After getting through qualifying unscathed, Sunday’s start to final eliminations is delayed by a major rain storm which hit the facility in the morning, however action in fact does wrap up pretty well on time.
Clay Millican notches his 5th win of the 2003 season and successfully defended his 2002 ACDelco Canadian Nationals Top Fuel crown. Millican rips low ET and top speed of the meet in the final round a 4.707 secs at 311.70 mph driving Peter Lehman’s Werner Enterprises dragster to beat Bruce Litton. Millican’s victory is the 25th of his career, which ties him with legendary figure “Big Daddy” Don Garlits on the top of the IHRA Top Fuel listing. Millican can surpass Garlits by winning at IHRA U.S. 131 in two weeks.
A big story in Top Fuel comes from within Canada’s Paton Racing camp who put together their best class effort yet which resulted in a semi final round finish. With sponsorship support from Tim Hortons, the team is able to overcome all of its mechanical woes from the previous IHRA at Milan Michigan and run nothing but “fours“ throughout the event. Todd Paton thrills the partisan crowd with a very defining 4.853 secs run during Saturday’s final session to qualify second. That was Todd’s career best time as well as the quickest lap in history by a Canadian racer. Todd easily beat Bobby Lagana in round one and then appears to have Bruce Litton covered in the semi finals only to have a blower belt break at 1200 feet.
Robbie Atchison moves back on top of the IHRA Alcohol Funny Car points standings with another truly dominate victory -- his third circuit win of the season. Atchison first powers the Erickson Manufacturing Pontiac Firebird to the pole with a 5.775 secs, which was low ET of the meet and a track record. The next quickest car in qualifying was Mark Thomas at 5.905 secs. That performance gap in fact causes IHRA to do a “tear down” however the Atchison team quickly passes that inspection. Robbie dominates Sunday’s eliminations with four straight 5.8 secs elapsed times. His victory lap was a single when scheduled opponent and first time IHRA finalist Mark Poyser can not fire his car.
Calgary’s Rick Distefano has another superb IHRA event outing. Distefano, hot off his runner-up performance at Edmonton’s Rocky Mountain Nationals driving his supercharged ‘53 Corvette, paced the field with a 6.210 secs (track record) before ripping Roy Wasko and Steve Vick in rounds one and two. Distefano did however lose that advantage when he was beaten out of the gate by local fan favourite Fred Hahn in the semi final round. Rick’s quicker and faster 6.250 secs at 226.89 lost out to Hahn’s 6.275 secs 219.76 mph.
The Pro Mod title at TMP went to New York’s Mike Castellana who won for the first time on the IHRA tour. Castellana, driving his Western Beef-sponsored nitrous-injected Chevy Camaro, edged out Jim Oddy’s Summit Racing Equipment Corvette driven by Fred Hahn in the championship final. Castellana’s win came driving the very car which Shannon Jenkins drove to the overall IHRA Hooters Series championship last season and came hot on the heels of his very first NHRA AMS circuit win at St. Louis (June 29th).
Former Top Sportsman World Champion Jeff Dobbins, from North Carolina, scored his second career win in Pro Stock when he rode his Ford Probe to a final round win over Chris Holbrook. Dobbins won an exciting 6.589 secs 211.73 mph to 6.593 secs 211.66 mph decision. Dobbins’s win came over the quickest assembly of Pro Stock cars in Canadian history. The bump spot was 6.627 secs, which just eclipsed the 6.628 secs mark set at Grand Bend in June.
The Pro Stock pole and low ET of the meet was set by another former IHRA World Champion, Mike Bell (Pro Stock 1995) who paced the field with a track record 6.550 secs run. Runner-up Chris Holbrook reset the track speed mark to 212.79 mph driving his new Ford Escort. 21 cars were entered in Pro Stock at TMP.
Maryland’s Joe Aluise Jr. won his 2nd consecutive IHRA event Top Stock eliminator title driving his 1963 Plymouth. Aluise Jr. won that special Saturday night shootout feature at 9.946 secs and 134.03 mph when his opponent Matt Morgan went .006 red in the final round to waste a quicker 9.893 secs. Top Stock class racing continued to struggle however as only 6 cars were entered in the eliminator.
Sportsman class racing included two Canadian eliminator winners with Ted Barnes (Canfield, ON) winning in Hot Rod (10.90) and Charlie Kenopic (Renfrew, ON) scoring in Super Rod (10.90). Ontario’s Kevin Knight won the Box ET portion of the event’s ET Tournament but lost out to New York’s Brad Perkins for the overall ET Championship. Canadian racers Richard Mowat and Chuck Nagy just missed winning in Super Stock and Stock with respective runner-up finishes in those two eliminators.
The event’s special award winner list included:
Best Engineered Pro Car: PM Al Billes Barrie, Ont. '53 Corvette
Best Appearing Pro Car: FC Charlie Gambino Daytona Beach, Fl. '00 Corvette
Best Appearing Pro Crew: PS Floyd Cheek Lake Site, TN '02 Mustang
Best Engineered Sportsman Car: TS Don Pocock Port Hope, Ont. '63 Corvette
Best Appearing Sportsman Car: TSK Tom Rix Spring Grove, IL '70 Grand Sport
Best Appearing Sportsman Crew: ET Jeff Moser Bamberg, Ont. '98 Dragster
