MISSION 2000

The CMDRA finished off the Y2K season at Mission Raceway Park on the September 9 and 10, 2000 weekend. After 2 days of torrential rain we finally got to use that flat, smooth beautiful ¾ of mile of asphalt and concrete on Monday, September 11, 2000.

After George prepped the track, we ran 2 rounds of qualifying and 3 rounds of pro eliminations, which made for a long day, but for many of us it was the last smell of rubber, V.P. racing fuel and nitro before the monsoon season starts so it was well worth it.

First off, it was the “Class Glass Trophy Series” with T. Smith taking the final against J. Morton and in a special presentation, Class Glass of Abbotsford who supply the gorgeous glass trophies gave Ashcroft winner Angela Bedard a Fastest Woman in Trophy Class plaque. 

In Street Eliminator the final was between Steve Morris on his O’Hara’s Harley Davidson, Jim’s Harley Diner backed Sportster taking out Rob Dyck on his Kawasaki.

“Head Quarter” Super Gas action was next and Danny Whyte of Dauphin Manitoba met first time finalist Ted Cork on Sportster in the final with Danny taking the Head Quarter cheque back to Manitoba.

Qualifying in V.P. Racing fuels Super Bike action was led by Imperial Motorcycles Gordie McMartin with a killer .405 light. Two time #1 plate Dan Tempel met Cory Burkitt in the final and with Cory running under his dial-in, Dan got the win light.

In the “Greg Coen Motor Company” modified series, Steve Graff, on his Harley-Davidson of Smithers Big Twin was the man to beat, as he ran consistently in the 8.90’s all weekend and qualified on the pole. Steve ran both low E.T. and high MPH of the weekend at an 8.93 and 143.81.  Steve met Edmontons Andy Beauchmin on his R. & L. Motorcycles backed 116 cu. Incher and it was a mirror image of the Ashcroft final where in a race too close to call from the starting line Steve bested Andy by mere hundredths of a second to take the win and sew up the #1 plate for the year 2000.

As usual in Pro-Stock Eliminator the CMDRA had the four best High Revving’ Harley Pro-Stock bikes on the left Coast of the entire Continent. Because of the weather Spike and Nino had to leave Sunday with the Haney Hawgs sponsored machine. That left us Lee Uhrich on his multi-time national event winner, CMDRA #1 plate holder Rick Dawson and John Bryce on his revamped 160 cu incher.

After all the smoke cleared Lee and his lovely wife Pivie had a new Pro-Stock record in their pockets on their Jarz, S&S Sportster at an 8.02 and Ricks Harley-Davidson of Yorkton/Baisley prepped big twin ran a personal best of 8.16. In the final Lee and Rick squared off with Lee missing a perfect light by 4 thousandths of a second giving the win the Rick with an 8.17 E.T. It was nice to see the Hi-way Choppers bike of John Bryce and crew chief Kelly Schofield make it to Mission. After a complete revamping of the Hi-way choppers/Delkron Big-Twin, John made some promising passes before hurting his tranny and this bodes well for our Pro-Stock Class for 2001.

As any one who has traveled to AHDRA races on the West Coast knows, our Canadian bikes are the class of the show. So if Joker Machine is reading this we could use some sponsorship too.

The alky-burnin, Nitrous Gulping, Turbo driven open brand pro-mod bike put on a good show next, with Edmonton’s Dan Boehm running Low E.T. at 7.73 and High MPH at 176. To qualify #1. Dan met Wild Racing’s Bill McDonald on his Kawasaki in the final with Dan running an 8.11 for the victory. Again the weather hurt us here, as Kelowna’s Gordie Smith and Seattle’s Steve Tuggle couldn’t stay till Monday. But Dan, Bill, Terry Schwiegert and Rich “The Tacoma Rocket” Podzeus put on a good show for the fans that were fortunate to have Monday off.

And now for the Nitro Burning” monster and first up it was the non-injected Pro Dragsters.  The 6 bikes were led in qualifying by Chris Gartman’s Panic Racing/Future Cycle/Linquist Trucking entry. Chris met Edmonton’s George Welch in the final with Chris running Low E.T. of the event and George running High MPH at 176.33 MPH. Chris took the win and also with the win took the #1 plate for the season as Chris and George see sawed back and forth all year in a hard fought season long battle to see who’s # 1.

Thanks to the guys who traveled long distance in this class and stayed till Monday, Steve Huff on his Znetix/S&S/Downtown Harley Davidson bike out of Seattle, T. Anderson also of Washington State, FFR’s Al Miles and Co. out of Alberta and Skal from Mission for putting on a fine show.

Our first injected nitro class took their turn next. Steve Heidner on his Liberty machine/Jim’s 117 incher qualified #1 and would have qualified #1 in top fuel at a magnificent 7 flat. Scotty Clarke on his Jarz/Clarke Bros/Shaker Racing 150 incher ran personal bests in the 7.20 – 7.30 range and with John Andres helping pull the wrenches ran fast and straight all weekend. Steve on the “little fuel bike that could” won the event and had to overcome an “asleep at the wheel light” to chase Scott down on the big end with a killer wheel-up to a thousand feet 7.00 pass to fly by with inches to spare.  Congrats go out to Steve who has always been a solid supporter of our association south of the border and to Scott Clarke whose performance on the weekend let all the racers on the West Coast know there’s another bad fuel bike from north of the border.

And now to the “Kings of the Sport”, the guys who everyone runs to the fence to watch, the “Delkron” Top Fuel bikes. Qualifying in this 9 bike show was led by you guessed it, Ron Houniet, on the Fastlane Rock 101/Whats for free.com/P.M.R/Weekend Frame Bad Carbon Fiber Wrapped Rocket. #2 was Hell Racings/O’Hara Harley Davidson Dave O’Hara. The field was filled out by Triple Threat/Cycle Path’s Jeff Carney, Brian “Evil” Hall, Contractor Racings Jim Gauthier, Ace Racing’s Kevin Boyer, Prairie Fire/Harley Davidson of Edmonton’s Ken Kent, Jim Flowers Y2Kaos/Easy Riders of Belleview and Thunder Racing/Link Logging/Clarke Brothers/Jarz’s Robin Gauthier.

Monday evening’s final came down to Ron who ran Low E.T. at 6.90 and High MPH at 197.80 to take out Dave O’Hara in a good race that put a capper on the season.

As usual, there is a long list of people to thank. No 1 being the Sponsors, Screamin’Eagle Performance Parts, Mission Springs Brewery, Greg Cummings Trailers, V.P. Racing Fuels, Greg Coen Motor company, HeadQuarters, Delkron, Whalley Printers & Stationers Ltd. and our anonymous sponsor who as most of you know, donated $10,000.00 to the Nitro classes for this race.

We’d like to thank Glen Braid who has made a serious commitment to help us out by supplying Fat Tire cars to lay rubber down for us, Bad Bob from Oregon in his killer Low 8 second Elcamino, Tim Nemeth in his “Pudgy Pickle” Alky Funny Car, the Castrol Nitro funny car out of Edmonton and the Harrisons from North Van’s Harrison’s Performance. It was both a pleasure and an honour to hit the button for the Harrisons as both Rick and myself remember the beautiful wheel standing Corvette Coupe Gasser.  The Harrison’s ran in the 70’s and the comp. Car we watched running a full second under the index at the Northwest Nationals in Seattle.

Again, the Association for Injured Motorcyclists (AIM) and Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA) came out as volunteers to man the gates ant take care of everyone in the staging lanes. Mission Raceway Park staff came out and without who there would have been no event.  All the people who grabbed squeegees and brooms to dry the track and on that note when you’re leaning on a broom and next thing you know you’ve got 5 time champ Ron Houniet from Fast Lane Racing pushing water beside you, you know all the work is worth while.

As usual, Mission’s George did a great job prepping a killer race track.

And last but not least your CMDRA volunteers who give their time and despite the e-mail on the website have never ripped off the racers.

Good luck to all our racers who now go South to battle it out in warmer climes and have en mass always carried our message South that if you want to race North of the border you better have your best game face on.

And finally Bob and Irene Kokotailo who have for many years come out on their own dime with both their Wish List cars and the best appearing car at this years Prolong Northwest Nationals. And the gorgeous Henry “J” called Kokomotion. Bob and Irene took your track crew for some great rides and are tow of the finest people I have every met and are an example of why Drag Racing is the GREATEST MOTOR SPORT OF ALL!

Brian “The Button” Healy