By Ed Evans

The Terrace / Kitimat regional airport will reverberate this weekend with the sounds of high compression motors, as the first race of the 2009 Northwest drag racing season gets underway on Saturday.
The final race of the year in August of 2008 marked a highlight for racers and fans from the Queen Charlotte Islands, when, for the first time, two QCI cars lined up side by side to make a run down the Terrace Strip.
Laurence Wilkins and Ernie Bellamy had made the long expensive road and Ferry trip to race at the Terrace strip. Both had raced at the track before, but not together.
This year they are coming with four cars and a bunch of fans to see who will take back the title of “Fastest car from the islands”.
Wilkin’s also added “With four cars we will have more cars racing than Prince Rupert will”.
Wilkin’s may be right, as this race falls on grad weekend. Some racers are not able to make it due to personal commitments and some racers are just not ready for prime time yet.
Prince Rupert may be able to pull it off though, if we include “Bikes and Sleds”. Only the weekend totals will tell though.
This season marks some changes to the Terrace race. This year there will be a new entrance which will be clearly marked with road signs.
What the TDRA wants to start this year, is to have a set structure for the day. In the past, they have been starting later in the day and this puts pressure on all involved (racers and race-ops) to be finished at a reasonable hour at the end of the day.
Staging Lanes will now be opening for time trials at 9:15am. At 1:15 the First round of “Brackets” or “King of the YXT” eliminations will start. The TDRA hope that by streamlining the race weekend, this will allow for more racing and let everyone get finished at a reasonable hour.
Don’t miss out the racing on this first event of the year, see you there Saturday or Sunday!
For more information or to check out the pictures, check out the web sites: www.prautoclub.com or www.terracedrags.ca

Photo: Ernie Bellamy (near side) and Laurence Wilkins from the Queen Charlottes tear up the strip at Terrace last August.
Ed Evans Photo