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 Show Me The Money -- Kirkland Lake Report
Buzz Haze - August 28, 2004
With sponsorship from AutoParts Extra, the Eastern Canadian "Show Me The Money" Tour for ET racers touched down at Kirkland Lake's Airport strip (Aug 21-22).
Ottawa-based DragRaceCanada reporter Buzz Haze filed his observations...
 I'm alive and well after one of the most power-filled weekends I have ever experienced. I was invited up along with the ADM Team out of Luskville
Dragway to guest announce at Team Northern Thunder's production of the NHRA sanctioned Kirland Lake Autoparts Extra Show Me The Money Tour. (SMTMT) The work was hard but extremely rewarding. I had no conception of the effort & expense required to host one of these SMTM tours. We arrived in Kirkland Lake Ontario on Thursday night with barely enough time to get a good night's sleep but that didn't stop some of us from getting acquainted with the town.
What a friendly place. There were racing flags gracing the city streets, special racers menus in the local restaurants, even the hotels were all done
up for drag racing. We sure felt at home.
 Our day would start early at the Kirkland airport as we had a lot of things to accomplish including setting up the big ET boards and all the sensors and
cabling required to put on a big purse drag race. The temperature dipped into the low teens as the wind howled straight down the runway at a
blistering 55 KPH....not the ideal weather for this type of work. We concentrated on getting all the small stuff done until the wind died down
and managed to have everything up and working by dusk. The next morning (Sat) began in very cool air, so cool you could see your breath. The smell
of burning rubber and VAT just wasn't the same while shivering but luckily it did warm up by mid afternoon. These Northerner's are a tough breed let me
tell you!! They were well versed with scraping frost and wiping dew before heading to the staging area for an 8:00AM time trial.
 There were some 200 entries on Saturday so we expected a very long but fun-filled day. We had a few oil downs, one of which was a major spill that
went the length of the track. I've never seen so much absorb-all in my life. The staff, volunteers and fire crew all kicked in and had it cleaned up in
no time. Team Northern Thunder took the opportunity and give out some great prizes on behalf of the various sponsors like GM City, NAPA, Howard
Johnson's etc. We had a great day of fun and racing with feature runs by the Chevy Rebellion wheelstander driven by Richard Hutchins. He ran well past
the 1/8th on his back wheels, sparking and blowing flames out the exhaust pipes. What a performance.
 As you may have heard, Sunday was not the same ballgame with rain and cold winds hampering what would have been a monumental day of racing. The event
was reluctantly called off around noon, but so as not to disappoint, the officials and drivers decided to do a combination of draws and splits for the
divisional payouts with many drivers coming out on top of the game. They get the $$$ but saved the gas and wear and tear on their cars. To be honest, I think they
still would have rather raced for the money.
 To sum up, it was a very memorable weekend. I have learned more in the last week than some would hope to do in years at the track. I saw the action
behind, above & below the line. If only I had brought a car up there and gone a few rounds I would have been in total heaven. Now I understand why
teams do what they do.....it's all for the love of the sport!
 Winners:
SuperPro.......Dale Gauthier
SemiPro........Kevin Morrow
Drag Sled......Brad Boltz
Jr Dragster.....Mickey Reynolds
Street ............Michel Lavictoire
For more information on Team Northern Thunder:
http://www.town.kirklandlake.on.ca/northernthunderdragway/
Event Photo Gallery
http://avs.epix.net/buzzhaze/2004/photos23.htm
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