Doug Grant and his 1979 Camaro finished the drag racing season in style Sunday.
It was little close for comfort for Grant until the late stages of their 10-second race in the pro class elimination final at Jet Set Bracket event at Northland Dodge Motorsports Park but he got the jump on Jen Eaton of Lower Nicola off the start and that made all the difference.
"Today was a bit of a struggle for me, I had a fairly lucky day," said Grant, who had a 1-2 finish in two days of eliminations a month ago at NDMP. "The left lane was troublesome for me so the car would actually change about two-tenths of a second form one lane to the other, so I had to dial [in] accordingly."
Grant got some help qualifying for the semifinal round when Dale Strocen and Jim Wanner, his opponents in the first and third rounds, both red-lit at the line. He said Wanner would have won had not jumped the gun. Grant took on Andy Closkey of Quesnel in the semifinal. The two drivers had identical reaction times and it came down to how close each driver was to their dial-in times. Closkey was 26/100ths of a second slower than his dial-in, while Grant was only 8/100ths away from the time written on his windshield.
In the final, Grant was near-perfect at the start, clocking in at 529 of a second and he hit the finish in 10.335 seconds with a top sped of 124.79 miles per hour. Eaton, who edged Dallas Wiebe of Terrace in her semifinal, launched at .640 for a 10.519-second elapsed time at 124.30 mph.
"That was a good race, I got her on the tree by about 8/100ths and I let off at the finish," said Grant
Grant, 45, is in his 15th season of drag racing and with just two Friday night street legal nights left on the local race calendar, Sunday was his last day at the track. Grant, a mechanic and co-owner of Custom Auto, says he'll pull the engine out of his Camaro for inspection and park it until next year.
The two-day meet drew 50 entries from B.C. and Alberta. The pro class was the biggest of the meet with 28 entries. In the super pro class final on Sunday, Ray Kewin of Fort St. John topped Rae Casell of Lower Nicola. Al Stefiuk of Merritt won the sportsman class final over Kyle Alleman of Prince George.
His runner-up status put a big smile on the face of Alleman, 24, a rookie racer who completed his first weekend at the Rolling Mix Concrete track racing a 1981 Mercury Capris he rescued from its resting place in the field of its former owner. Alleman said he would have made it a closer race in the final against Stefiuk if he hadn't blown a shift halfway down the track.
"I had it in second and threw it into neutral and I was wondering why it hadn't shifted yet until I looked down and saw it was in neutral," said Alleman. "I probably would have had first if I hadn't messed it up. Other than that, everything was absolutely wonderful. You don't have to spend a whole lot, I bought this car for $150."
All he did to get it race-ready was replace the spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor. He also had to weld in a piece of sheet metal to replace the rusted floor and installed a driver's seat he pulled out of an old wreck.
The Capris is powered by a 255 cubic-inch engine, which according to Alleman is "the smallest engine you can get." He plans to replace the engine in the off-season and equip it with a 351.
Alleman ran a 16:55 in the final, while Stefiuk covered the quarter-mile in 15.67.
Another highlight for Alleman was his perfect light, a .500 launch time in qualifying Friday.
Alleman has his car parked in what he referred to as "the budget corner," an area of the pits where he has Dwayne Rolfes and Michael Karpes as his neighbours. They all own affordable race cars and all have had their share of success. Rolfes and his Dodge Dart won the sportsman class a month ago at NDMP. Karpes is Alleman's boss at 5 Star Towing and encouraged him to come out and race.
NDMP will host its final two Friday Night Street Legal events, Sept. 8 and 15.
