CMDRA Rolling Thunder Show

The CMDRA Rolling Thunder show descended on the normally sleepy town of Ashcroft on the 21st, 22nd of August and woke it up with a bang.

Bill Krause, the assistant track manager of the Eagle Motorplex, had been putting in 18 hour days for a month before our event, overseeing the job of putting down 1000 feet of nice new flat smooth asphalt and we were the first to test it and test it we did.

Bill, Rob, Reg, Joe, Jack and the entire track crew supplied us with a good racetrack and we supplied 3 new CMDRA records plus some 7.0-second top fuel runs and a pile of 190 plus mph passes.

Considering this was a fresh surface and the temperature made it a little slick at times, all our racers were elated with the new surface which bodes well for Ashcroft and for the "National Open"in September. Our hats, or in our case, our helmets are off to Bill and his staff for a job well done.

Well now it's on to the race and what a great race it was. With the assistance of Bill Dixon and Rick Bayant working the staging lanes and burnout boxes the event went off with nary a hitch. The CMDRA would like to thank Bill and Rick for their help because, as we all know, good help is hard to get, especially for free. So from myself, all the racers and the race track personnel, a hearty thanks to Bill and Rick for a job well done, and oh yea, they're my buddies and I threatened them. In the "Class Glass Trophy Series."Ron Sootsee of Surrey took the nice trophy supplied by Gary Whalen of Class Glass in Abbotsford on his big Decker over Al McCauley on his 71 Honda Chopper.

Next up was the "P.S.N." Street Series.

The CMDRA will have to have a look at our street rules for the year 2000. When a person can buy a box stock bike that can run 9.80's its  unrealistic to have an 11 second cut off for these bikes. The winner of the dough in street was Dave Galbiati over Terry Schwigert.

We had 7 bikes show up to go for the cash in our only index class, Super Gas. As a testimony to last years #1 plate holder, Warren Minett, who tragically lost his life in a motorcycle accident while returning from our race in Edmonton, all the racers in Super Gas blacked out the number plates, which is a drag racers way of showing respect and admiration for a fallen racer. The final came down to Dale Lawrick and John Fyvie. Dale cashed the winners cheque.

14 racers showed up for our always-tough Super Bike class. With lots of "4.0s"and "et's"within a few hundreds of their dial in, the phrase "you snooze you lose"has never been more true. 14 tough racers duked it out for 4 tough rounds to come down to two guys, former 2-timer #1 plate holder, Mike Sheehan, against 99 points leader, Dan Tempel with Dan taking Mike out for a real good win.

The always-tough "Greg Coen Motor Company" modified series was a stellar show as usual. These small tire Harleys were flying in Ashcroft with #1 qualifier Rick Bailor setting a new CMDRA mile per hour record at 147.71 MPH. On his Coen built 108 incher, Rick went on to win his class over East Van's, Jon Tenenbien on his, for sale, 97-inch sportster.

The fat tire Harleys were up next as the Pro-Stock bikes were flying. Rick Dawson on his Daisley prepped H.D. of Yorkton, Sask. Lowered our E.T. record to an 8.34. Not bad for thin air and a tricky racetrack, watch this guy at Mission. He should be virtually unbeatable.

The pro-stock final came down to Rick and Nino Pace on the "Haney Hawgs"sponsored bike. Dawson left first and never looked back as he took home the gold.

Our super fast "pro-mod" class for the blown or turbo or nitrous Japanese bikes took to the track next. These guys were led by Gord Smith on his blown alcohol "silver bullet" out of Kelowna. Gord qualified #1 at 7.83 and scorched Ashcroft's new surface at an amazing 182.92 mph. Gord met Edmonton's Kevin Boyer on his nitrous bike and when the dust settled, Gords win light was on and Gord got the trophy.

The first of our "nitro classes" was the "West Coast Fiberglass" Pro-Dragster Series. Marysville Washington's, Marc Augustine on his home built "Bardahl, Liberty Machine sponsored 120 incher" qualified #1 and lowered his own E.T. record to a stout 7.60 and looked like the man to beat. Marc squared off against Steve Huff on his "Huff Contracting Downtown H.D. of Seattle" sponsored machine but Marc was just too fast for first year racer Steve Huff and is hanging another winners plaque on his trophy room wall, must be a big room.

The injected nitro high gear Harleys were next up the ladder of speed and power. Steve Heidner on his 117 ci. Bike qualified #1 at 7.12 in the "North Coast Thunderbikes" pro-fuel series. Steve, on his Bardal/Liberty machine bike met the first lady of nitro, Kristine Becker, in the final but those Liberty machine bikes were flying in the desert and Steve got there first and was good for the win.

And now for the Kings of the sport. All though Steve Heidner might have something to say about that, the "Delkron" Top Fuel Series, Robin Gauthier, qualified #1 on his Jarz/Showgirls Inc/Gordon Link Logging entry at a 7.03 followed closely by "Rocket Ron Houniet" fresh off his t/f win a Sturgis. Robin met Ron in the final with Ron taking the winner's cheque on his Fastlane/Delkron Bad Black Bike.

From the racing itself to the barbeque put on by AIM to the BCCOM beer Garden, Ashcroft again proved to be on of our best events.

We at the CMDRA would like to thank all our sponsors, including S & S Products, Delkron, Pennzoil, Yamaha Canada and Screaming Eagle Performance Parts and of course all our great fans and the great staff at Eagle Motorplex plus all the great people of Ashcroft and Cache Creek for their support.

Brian Healy
Race Director
CMDRA