It was seemingly the race that refused to end! Mother Nature is most unkind to the 5th Annual Canadian Nationals. After wiping out the original dates back in July rain once again played havoc with the “redo” dates and the event is ultimately not completed until Monday evening. Despite the true endurance test for everyone involved the car count remained strong (491 entries did return) and the stands were filled to capacity both Saturday and Sunday.

The event’s bad karma unfortunately did not end with the weather. A much anticipated final round Top Fuel showdown between Doug Foley and Clay Millican had a very unfortunate twist of fate. Points leader Foley, the 2X defending Canadian Nationals event champion, experienced a horrific wreck in the final round. Foley’s Torco Mach Series Accelerator-sponsored car did a wheelstand, then crossed from the right lane and hit the left guardwall which appeared to jam the throttle open. Then it flipped on its side had hit the right guardwall very hard and at high speed. The next hour was very tense after Doug was extracted from the car and rushed to hospital. Everyone was sitting on needles waiting for news. A later report revealed he had suffered a concussion, an injury to his mouth and broke his ankle. While those injuries were unfortunate they are relatively minor considering the scale of the crash and what could have been.

Lost in all of that was Clay Millican’s victory in the other lane which was his 2nd win in Canada this season. It moved the very popular Tennessee-based driver of the Werner Enterprises-sponsored car back on top of the IHRA eMax points chase. The IHRA season championship title for Millican is all but assured now as current thought is that it is unlikely that Foley will be able to return to competition this season.

Bruce B, Todd Paton and everyone else at DragRaceCanada on behalf of all Canadian drag racing fans wish Doug a very speedy recovery. Prior to his crash Foley had reset both ends of the TMP track record when he flew to a 4.603 secs at 322.65 mph while winning in round one.

Top Fuel class racing included participation from Edmonton’s Ed Verenka who made the long tow with his injected nitro car to Eastern Canada for the first time. You may recall that Verenka made history last year at Edmonton when he became the first driver ever to qualify with an injected nitro car in IHRA Top Fuel. Here he made a bit more history when he won in round one (over another injected nitro car). The car however would not start for his scheduled semi-final round match up versus Clay Millican.

The Nitro Funny Car program drew seven entries to TMP and featured an important win for Illinois-based Dale Creasy Jr., who earned his third win of the season and by doing so made a clean sweep of all three Canadian IHRA events this season. Creasy Jr., turned back a rather gutsy event effort from Pennsylvania’s Paul Lee who made his second career final round appearance driving his now Rislone-sponsored Chevy Monte Carlo. In the final Creasy’s Torco Chevy moved first and won it with a 4.948 secs at 292.01 mph while Lee, who had run a 4.884 secs (low ET) in the previous round, slowed to a 6.289 secs.

Dale Creasy’s victory came from the pole (4.946 secs) and included a first round single and a 2nd round win over Terry Haddock. He was also credited with top speed in NFC at 309.56 mph.

The FC show did include a qualifying effort from the new Canadian-based entry owned by Spiro Kontos and driven by transplanted Englishman Smax Smith. While their otherwise 6.355 secs at 232.75 mark was not impressive on any performance scale it did indicate some solid progress towards the future for the evolving new team.

The Alcohol Funny Car class was rewarding for the locals as that featured an all Canadian final round pairing with London’s Paul Noakes facing Welland’s Larry Dobbs. Noakes, who won for the first time ever at Milan Michigan back in July, grabbed his second IHRA “Ironman” when he won a very close race over Dobbs, 5.903 secs 241.32 mph to 5.924 secs 236.38 mph.

Noakes had used a superb .007 RT in round one to upset low qualifier Mark Thomas with his 6.067 secs at 240.21 mph beating Thomas’s quicker 5.999 secs at 242.41 mph. Paul then ran a 5.864 secs at 244.43 mph to beat Terry McMillen in the semi-final round. Class R/UP Dobbs upset championship contenders Robbie Atchison and Thomas Carter while advancing to the final.

Torco CompetitionPlus Pro Modified class action featured a big win for popular local driver Mike Janis, from nearby Lancaster, NY. For Janis, who grew up racing at the facility, the victory moved him into second place in IHRA Pro Mod championship points – only 5 behind overall leader Glen Kerunsky in the terrifically tight PM season chase. Driving his Eaton-sponsored Chevy Colbalt, Janis ran a final round 6.320 secs at 228.61 mph to defeat the supercharged ’68 Camaro campaigned by John Russo who shook the tires and shut down.

Janis’s victory came over a very quick assembly of Pro Mod cars. The 24 cars entered produced a bump spot of 6.259 secs. Mike had covered Harold Martin, Tommy D’April and Eddie Ware in earlier competition after qualifying 6th.

Pro Mod racing was paced by Toronto’s Tony Pontieri who ran the quickest and fastest times ever in Canada (in IHRA national event competition). Driving the Al Billes influenced ’57 Chevy co-owed by Rob Sporring, Tony ripped a spectacular 6.060 secs at 236.38 mph to take the pole on Saturday. Unfortunately the car lost fire in round one, going silent following it’s burnout.

With a semi-final round finish, Alberta’s Glen Kerunsky was able to maintain his season-long IHRA PM points lead. Glen qualified his ’57 Chevy 13th, and then beat Canadian racers Ray Commisso and Carl Spiering. Glen however lost by a very narrow margin in round three falling 6.120 to 6.112 secs to John Russo.

Mountain-motor Pro Stock class cars took full advantage of the great atmospheric conditions which did exist following the rain. That included the quickest and fastest Pro Stock times in Canadian drag racing history, cumulated by Robert Patrick’s stunning 6.341 secs ET and Rob Mansfield’s 219.61 mph speed.

The PS final was an all Chevy affair with Florida’s Mansfield facing off against defending Canadian Nationals and World Champion Steve Spiess. Mansfield collected an overdue first career IHRA win when he ran a super solid 6.379 secs at 219.61 mph as Spiess went .036 red.

Pro Stock racing was an extremely quick affair – featuring a bump spot of 6.480 secs.

Sportsman racing did produce some Canadian winners with Niagara Falls driver Chuck Nagy scoring his 4th career IHRA title in Super Stock driving his ’03 Sonoma. Nagy beat another Canadian, Brian Clayton, in that SS final round. Dave Comeau, from Dundas, ON., scored in Stock eliminator taking his K/SA ‘68 Chevelle to a final round win over the cool ’63 Savoy of Britt Mizia.

The event’s special awards included a much deserved “Best Engineered” for Toronto’s Amo and Anthony Paone for their new Pontiac GTO Pro Stocker and to Raymond Commisso’s Pro Mod ’67 Camaro which was named “Best Appearing”.

Other event special awards went to:

Eaton/ DragRaceCanada.com Swift 16 Lotto

Pro Modified – Ray Commisso
Pro Stock – Jeff Dobbins