The Mopar brand in Canada celebrated its 10th Anniversary as title sponsor for the Mopar Canadian Nationals. The event which again drew an amazing spectator turnout included some chilling performances and some spectacular spills during its three-day schedule.

Professional Racing Summary (Notes by Larry Crum – IHRA Media Relations & Bruce Biegler):

Goforth’s Pro Stock Win is His First

It was only a matter of time before Dean Goforth put his bright orange GXP in victory lane. So it should come as no surprise that when Goforth crossed the finish line Sunday afternoon to claim his first career victory, he would need a few moments to take it all in.

“We finally got it done. It has taken us three years, but I mean it feels good,” Goforth said. “Honestly you try hard and things go wrong and today nothing went wrong. It was just a great day.”

After years of trying Goforth finally got his wish as he managed to drive around IHRA legend John Montecalvo in the final of Sunday’s MOPAR Canadian Nationals to claim his first career victory in his second ever final.

“If you go back and look at all the people I had to run today, it wasn’t luck,” Goforth said. “Beating Pete in the first round and John in the final and Richard and J.R. in the middle – that is a good weekend.”

Goforth (Holdenville, Okla.) ran a 6.401 elapsed time at 218.87 miles per hour got around Montecalvo as the New York native fell short of a win for the third time this season.

Montecalvo had trouble right from the start, limping across the line at 10.222 seconds.

Goforth had defeated Richard Freeman, J.R. Carr and Pete Berner to get the win. He reached his second career final with a win over Richard Freeman in one of the best races of the afternoon. The two cars were welded together the entire run, but a perfect reaction time proved the difference as Goforth crossed the line on a 6.351 E.T. to Freeman’s 6.353 second run – mere inches at the line. But in fact that wasn’t even the closest race of the weekend for Goforth. His first round win over two-time champion Pete Berner didn’t even register on the scoreboard – an astonishing “dead heat” .0000 second margin of victory – on a day where everything seemed to fall his way.

TF Rookie Cox Scores 2nd Season Win

Del Cox Jr. began the year on quite a roll, but a few early exits and poor qualifying runs over the last three races left many wondering if the boy wonder had used up all of his beginners luck.

Sunday afternoon Cox proved that luck has nothing to do with it.

Cox put himself right back into championship contention over the weekend, qualifying first with the fastest lap of the year before mowing through the Top Fuel field on Sunday to record his second victory of the season.

“We are back on top of the mountain. Paul Smith is the man, he gave me a great car this weekend,” Cox said.

Cox (Downey Calif.) ran a solid 4.882 elapsed time at 285.77 miles per hour, edging points leader Bruce Litton (Indianapolis, Ind.) who ran a 4.945 E.T. at 256.31 mph in one of the closest battles of the event.

“I went out there and smoked the tires, but anything for the win these days,” Cox said.

Cox’s victory allowed him to make up a little ground in the Top Fuel title chase, but Litton’s fifth final in six tries this season still gave him some breathing room over the rookie. Litton leads Cox by 68 points with four races remaining this season.

“There are a few more races and we are going to win them too. Little by little, a couple more No. 1 qualifiers, a couple more wins and we should be able to catch him in no time,” Cox said.

On Sunday Cox defeated Bobby Lagana Jr. and Litton to claim the win.

It was Cox’s second win of the season, knocking off Litton the first time as well three months ago in Rockingham.

“I want to thank all of the boys on the team, Bexar Waste, Lucas Oil, Mitch King, RG Industries, Sparco Race Products – everybody,” Cox said. “I wish my grandpa was here, this is for him. Without him I would be nobody.”

Titans Clash Again in Pro Mod Final

When discussing the race for the 2009 IHRA Pro Modified world championship, only two names can be included as a part of the conversation – Ed Hoover and Kenny Lang.

And they intend to keep it that way. For the third consecutive race the two rival drivers met in the final round of an IHRA national event, with Ed Hoover once again getting the edge when it mattered most.

“It feels good to overcome the adversities we had this weekend. We put an engine in last night until 3 a.m. and first thing this morning I did a burnout and the thing had zero oil pressure,” Hoover said. “Luckily the guy red lighted on me and we came back and got the engine fixed. Thankfully the engine stayed together enough to get us the win. It was a great weekend for Trussell Motorsports.”

Hoover (Gilbert, S.C.) ran a solid 5.988 elapsed time at 237.71 miles per hour on Sunday, his best lap of the weekend, to rocket to his second consecutive victory while Lang finished as runner-up for the fourth time this year.

“I beat Mitch Stott here in one of my last years of nitrous racing and that was the last time I had two wins in a row,” Hoover said. “It has been a long time and it feels good to do it again.”

Lang (Grande Pointe, Manitoba) ran an equally impressive 6.025 seconds at 237.75 miles per hour.

“He is a good racer and he has a really good team,” Hoover said. “That is what happens out here in the IHRA. You go to the front one weekend and are down the next. We work on this thing fulltime and that is what it takes out here in Pro Mod.”

Sunday marked the third consecutive race the two drivers have met in the final and the fifth straight race they have faced off on Sunday. In those five showdowns Lang has won three times and Hoover twice, but both of Hoover’s wins have come over the last two events. The win allowed Hoover to jump ahead of Lang in the Pro Mod championship standings by 11 points.

Hoover recorded wins over Ike Maier, Gary Irving and Lang to claim the win.

Toronto-based racers Tony Pontieri and Raymond Commisso were both huge newsmakers during the Grand Bend event but for completely different reasons.

Pontieri made the competition debut with his spectacular new Quality Plus Compressors-sponsored ’69 Camaro, owned by Rob Sporring, and promptly qualified that car on the pole with a superb 5.974 secs at 241.93 mph (low ET and top speed). Pontieri went on to a strong semi-final finish.

Ray Commisso did not fare as well after he was involved in a truly frightening high speed accident during Fridays’ 2nd round of qualifying which completely destroyed the R2B2 Motors/ProCare RX Chevy Camaro, the very same car which won at NHRA Englishtown in record setting fashion. Ray’s Camaro made an severe hard left near the finish line, barely missing opponent Gary Irving, and crashed heavily. Thankfully all the required safety standards did their job and Raymond was able to walk away only shaken.

Colorado’s Melanie Troxel made her IHRA Pro Mod class debut and did produce an impressive 6.130 secs lap on Saturday to propel herself into the top five in qualifying. Troxel was however defeated in a round one battle of Chevy Corvettes by Chris Russo.

Supplemental Pro Mods!

The Mopar Canadian Nationals Pro Mod program included sort of a “B” main event with the very popular local Ontario PMRA (Pro Modified Racing Association) in action in 1/8th mile competition.

PMRA points leader Bruce Boland (Stoney Creek, Ontario) was able to pull out a victory, winning over Eric Latino. Boland ran a 4.105 elapsed time at 178.05 mph get around Latino who ran a 4.504 E.T. at 163.53 mph.

Boland reached the final with wins over Mark Nielsen, Tim Martin and Latino while Latino reached the final of the eighth mile challenge with wins over Jeff Roth and Jack Grainy.

PMRA racing did include a significant incident which also happened on Friday. Rookie series driver Tony Piselli lost control of Ralph Andreacchi’s supercharged ’63 Corvette and flipped that car. Thankfully Tony was not injured and the car, while finished racing for the weekend, was not too severely damaged.

Local Talent Shines!

The Grand Bend event also showcased some great local talents. A special “King of Canada” Alcohol Funny Car program featured four top rated Canadian drivers, Rob Atchison, Paul Noakes, Jason McKnight and Larry Dobbs in two different run offs.

Jason McKnight, driver of the fast improving Chevy Impala owned by Spiro Kontos, was probably the most impressive of the breed. Jason recorded low ET and top speed during each round of racing, hitting a best time of 5.769 secs and best speed of 251.86 mph.

London’s Geoff Pollard was also on hand with the spectacular Pollard Motorsports “Hybrid” Top Fuel motorcycle, a 1500 HP supercharged and nitro-burning Puma/Suzuki. Pollard thrilled the crowd on Sunday with a near “full pull”.