Ed Evans

The 2008 Northwest drag racing season was off to a great start on the weekend. Hot weather made for perfect track conditions, but took a toll of the fast cars.

Tom Huminick and his wheel standing Maverick from Hazelton was the first to break, as his engine packed it in on the initial warm up Saturday. Other fast cars to go down Saturday were Dave Saunders in the “Purple Pig” and Mike McNiece in his ’69 Camero.

Huminick and Saunders continued racing with their tow vehicles.

But the big loss on Saturday was Kitimat’s Ryan McDonald and his beautiful wheel standing ’34 ford Coupe. Always a fan and racers favourite, McDonald blew out a remote oil filter adapter right off of the engine block, just as he hit third gear on a run.

The adapter bounced down the track with the car, soaking the lane with oil. The car spun on the oil, rolled over twice and then bounced end over end. Missing the new reader board by barely five feet, the car came to a halt in the grass.

Fire rescue and First aid workers rushed down the track, to find McDonald climbing out of the car. After a trip to the hospital, McDonald was back at the track later that day, looking at the pictures of the wreck.

Sore, but in pretty good shape, McDonald said

“the only thing I hurt was my knee when it was jammed under the dash”.

The reason Mcdonald was relatively unhurt has a lot to do with the safety rules. When the fast cars go over 6.49 seconds in the 1/8 mile they must undergo a chassis certification and the driver must be licensed.

The certification involves having the chassis inspected to meet National Hot Rod Association regulations. The inspection is mainly concerned with the driver’s compartment and how it will survive a crash.

The rest of the “King of the YXT” was run off but “Gamblers” was canceled. Winner of “King of the YXT” was Chris Bie from Terrace and “Junior King of the YXT” was his daughter Alaina Archibald.

Sunday was a different story with even hotter weather. Sweltering under the heat on the runway, you could find most of the racers looking for shade in between rounds.

Prince Rupert’s Kham Shantz walked through the “Super Pro” class, as the fully licensed streetcar clicked off impressive 5.60 runs on his way to the victory. Terrace’s Doug McPhadyen finally won his first “Pro” class, racing his ’55 Chevy with a new bullet.

The Jr. dragster of Alaina Archibald pulled off a second win of the weekend and Lou Ribeiro took a second place in “Jr. Dragster”, even though he was running his ride for the first time.