One of many spectacular, crowd-pleasing runs down the track during the Father's Day Classic
The 23rd Annual, and possibly last, Father’s Day Classic drag racing event was held this past weekend at Race City. The highlight of the meet was the featured jet cars, but racers from all over Western Canada came out to test their cars and their driving skills.
Despite a forecast of rain showers, Mother Nature cooperated for most of the weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day, with sunny blue skies and plenty of shorts and t-shirts in the stands. Sunday was overcast and threatened rain all day, but the wet stuff held off long enough for the racers to get in a full campaign before day’s end.
This year’s event was organized by the Calgary Drag Racing Association. Executive Member Don Fergin says the weekend was a great success. Fan attendance exceeded expectations, especially since it didn’t appear the weather was going to cooperate Sunday, Mr. Fergin said.
The most spectacular events of the weekend featured the two jet cars as they squared off on the drag strip for top speed supremacy.
Prairieland Motorsports hails from Humboldt, SK and sports an F150 truck powered by a 7,500 h.p. Pratt and Whitney jet engine. The Father’s Day Classic was the inaugural meet for the car, which runs entirely on canola-based biodiesel fuel and is the brainchild of owner and driver Kevin Therres. The Prairieland ride suffered a few problems with its ignitor and had to bow out of several runs, but still managed a few trips down the track in fine time, to the delight of the several thousand fans.
The jet car winner, though, was the husband and wife team of Brad and Heather Janeshewski. Their Rolling Thunder car was a real crowd pleaser, belching clouds of grey smoke and puffing 20-foot flames from the rear of the car. Shooting video from behind the jet cars was a heart-pounding experience, as your SECN reporter discovered.
While they may not match the big boys and girls in horsepower or time, the Jr. dragsters are always a fan favourite. McKenna Bold is only eight years old, but she already has the racing bug. Her five h.p. car has a top speed of 60 kmh and she’s already looking ahead to competing with a faster car in years to come.
Ty Skjonsberg drove from Red Deer for the weekend to compete in the Father’s Day Classic and headed home with first place in the Super Sportsman category. He bought his mid-60s Barracuda stock 18 years ago and has been racing – and building – it ever since. The car now runs sub-10 second times and always gets a cheer from the crowd when the front end lifts off during launch.
The storied Sitko family of Edmonton was back at Race City again for the Father’s Day event. Father Ken is well known to Alberta race fans and has been driving and wrenching for 30 years. Son Nathan is starting his sixth season piloting the team’s Top Alcohol Funny Car. He is obviously a chip off the old block, coming out on top in his class on Sunday.
Greg Sereda of SS Motorsports, Edmonton, continued his winning ways by taking the Top Alcohol Dragster honour. Sereda runs a 463 cubic inch Hemi that makes in the neighborhood of 3,000 h.p. Needless to say, Greg was using all of them this past weekend.
Don Fergin, CDRA
RACING RESULTS
IBAA: Winner: Rod Elliot Runner: Up Joey Steckler
Jet Dragster: Winner: Brad Janeshewski Runner Up: Kevin Therres
Top Alcohol Funny Car: Winner: Ken Sitko Runner Up: Jordan Powlik
Top Alcohol Dradster: Winner: Greg Sereda Runner Up: Jim Attewell
Super Sportsman: Winner: Ty Skjonsberg Runner Up: Mark Langley
Pro Sportsman: Winner: Ken Goldade Runner Up: Rick Wannamaker
Sportsman: Winner: Harry Svingen Runner Up: Andy Seabrook
Motorcycle: Winner: Mark Hall Runner Up: Mike Stairs
Junior Dragster(A-Side): Winner: Riley Toth Runner Up: Evan Thorogood
Junior Dragster(B-Side): Winner: Brandon Bowen Runner Up: Richard Bene
Buy BacK: Winner: Brent Buckenham Runner Up: Kit Cain
Related posts:
- 24th ANNUAL FATHER’S DAY FUNNY CAR CLASSIC A HUGE SUCCESS Kevin Therres’ 7,500 h.p. bio-diesel jet car warms up for...
- LAST MINUTE HEROICS BY LOCAL DRAG RACING CLUB SAVES FATHER’S DAY CLASSIC Action from the 2009 Classic By Markham Hislop with Josh...
- DRAG RACING TAKES CENTRE STAGE AT RACE CITY THIS WEEKEND By Josh Penner, reporter With the promise of decent weather...
- LAST HURRAH FOR DRAG RACING AT RACE CITY? Local drag racing veteran Harry Svinger makes his last run...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
great coverage of the event. sorry my car went down again, still owe you a ride, next event all things coming together
The CDRA did a great job, give yourselves a big round of applause. Brought my wife and daughters… their annual “sacrifice” for my Father’s Day!
I started the weekend by running my car Friday night in the Secret Street program.
Hopefully those tall foreheads downtown will see the light and not give Calgary the dubious distinction as being the largest center in North America without a racing facility.
The lease not only needs to be extended another 25 yrs, but it should be bought by a group that truly wants to restore the facility to it’s former glory.