WESTERN CANADIAN
DRAG RACING 2023 SEASON REACHES A CLIMAX WITH SEVERAL BIG EVENTS By Patrick Lambie estern Canadian drag racing fans enjoyed a jam-packed month of August highlighted by some of Canada’s largest and best attended races.
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RAD TORQUE RACEWAY Action got underway at Edmonton’s Rad Torque Raceway with the annual Hot August Night event. Featuring Jet Dragsters, Funny Cars, Pro Fuel Bikes and a West Coast Pro Modifieds promo points race, the event drew a capacity crowd to the facility located north of the city near Leduc. This was despite a weather-driven, one day delay. Included among the racers taking to the Rad Torque’s quarter-mile dragstrip during Canada’s premiere one-day drag racing event, the Edmonton Police Service Blue Line Racing and RCMP Yield teams were on hand to compete and encourage ‘want to be’ racers to take it to the track. Of the many highlights of the 2023’s Hot August Night, long-time race fans will undoubtedly remember the return of 80-year-old Terry Capp to the track as the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame member thrilled the crowd when he piloted Ron Hodgson’s Firebird down the dragstrip. Taking advantage of the three-run format of the evening’s main feature performance, the West Coast Pro Modifieds ran a Chicago-style shootout. In that format, all racers run random pairings in both of the first two rounds, with the two lowest average ETs lining up for the third and final rounds. With consistent eighth-mile times of 3.902 and 3.900 seconds in the opening rounds, Washington’s Garrett Richards earned his way
into the final against BC’s Steve Horne, where Richards would put up a 3.910 second run to take his first Hot August Night win and a $7,300 cheque. The racing action continued at Rad Torque Raceway the following day with the inaugural running of the Just Send It ‘Doorslammer’ event presented by Pro Power Management. Headlining the classes, a field of eight West Coast Pro Modifieds ran three qualifying sessions on the opening day with season points leader JR Lazic taking top spot on the ladder with a 3.889 second eighth-mile run at 189.5 mph followed by the previous night’s winner Garrett Richards in second spot with a 3.899 second run at 193.5 mph. A final qualifying run, on Saturday morning, saw J.R. Lazic maintain the #1 qualifier spot with a new Rad Torque Raceway track record of 3.813 seconds at 194.72 mph run. While wins in the first two elimination rounds moved Lazic into the
(Above) The Dark Side Racing Top Fuel team, seen here at a previous Rocky Mountain National event, is a frequent headliner of events in Western Canada. (Left) The RCMP Yield racing team joins other police service teams to promote the benefits of keeping racing on the track.
Photos by Patrick Lambie
62 Inside Track Motorsport News
