4 minute read
Dragster Champion on Top of the World
Dragster Champion on Top of the World
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
From the Vegreville Speedway to Pomona, California and several race tracks in between, Grant Durie has experienced what most people never will in their lifetime.
It has been just over a year since he was crowned Top Dragster Champion at the race track in Pomona, California; but sometimes it feels like it happened just yesterday. Minutes after winning the championship on Nov. 12, 2023, Grant was being interviewed by Fox Sports, which broadcasts all of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) races.
He was asked: How does it feel? “I feel amazing. There’s nothing else in the world I tell you than being up here, getting interviewed by you guys, and winning this Wally in my hand in the birthplace of drag racing in Pomona, California.”
Tell me about the final round? “Yah, we dialed her down and didn’t quite do what we wanted it to do, but Al (Kenny) got up on me and thank goodness he tightened up the striped and gave it back. So, sometimes you’ve got to be lucky to be good.”
Before going to celebrate, Grant said, “I’d like to thank my wife (Debbie) and my family for allowing me to do this, and I’d like to thank Lloyd and Darryl. Lloyd is TNT Supercars. We had the motor out of it last weekend. So, this is a brand new motor. We’ve been struggling, and we got all the way here, thanks to these guys.”
Lloyd Coker designed Grant’s custom dragster and is his crew chief. “A friend of mine from Sunset Performance Engines built the motor.” The car will be only two years old this January, 2025. “When it was three months old it won best appearing dragster in Pomona, one of 10 best at the show.” Grant said he wanted it to look like the paint was tearing off the dragster as he speeds down the track at over 210 miles per hour (mph).
Grant won his first ‘Wally’ in 2017. A ‘Wally’ is the trophy presented to race champions. It was Wally Parks who founded the NHRA back in 1951. Today, it is the largest auto racing organization in the world. According to the NHRA, top performance marks were 140 mph in nine seconds. Today, they’re more than 330 mph in less than 3.7 seconds.
He recalled a match up against Kenny from Pennsylvania where Kenny won the final by six thousandths of a second. Grant said that was definitely one of the biggest races in his life, against Kenny, who is from Kingston, Ontario. Kenny has won seven NHRA events and was inducted into the Canadian Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2017.
Grant’s daughter Breanne also drag races. “She has been racing almost as long as I have, and has just about as many trophies.” Grant had never done any drag racing before 2013. He explained that, “There were some things I wanted to do and in the spring of 2014 I bought a car from Bob Halina, who lived just south of Vegreville. His son Brayden also races. In this community there’s quite a group of racers that have raced all over Canada and the United States. Len Mayer, Will Yakimetz and Stan Essery are also from Vegreville and area.
Grant has had many great mentors over the years, and regularly travelled with other top racers, who had made a big difference. As to what it takes to be a successful driver? Grant replied, “Be calm. Be focused. That’s it. Literally, when you are playing with one-hundredth of a second, you have to clear everything from your mind, and that’s really tough.”
He admits, he’s always wanted to do the best he possibly can, whether it’s on the race track or elsewhere. “That’s just how I’m wired. If I want to do something I set a goal and figure out how I’m going to do it.”
Grant hasn’t spent as much time on the race track this year to spend more time with the grandkids. So, whether he’s at home or far away, Grant says it’s all about family, spending time together and making special memories.
