Canada Hosts Another Amazing Race

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At first, the weekend was off to a bit of a rough start as sprinkles hit the track mid day Saturday and eventually showed up once again to end Night of Fire. However, the rain didn't halt all the history making action. For the first time in IHRA history there were two brothers racing in the same class at an event, Bobby and Dom Lagana. There was also a stellar Alcohol Funny Car Grudge Match Between Paul Noakes and 3 time AFC champ, Rob Atchinson. The team of Mitch King was also hungry for a win and wanted to close out the lead Bruce Litton had in the point’s standings. All of which brought intense racing and high flying emotions.

In the end, both Lagana brothers qualified with Dom in search of number one, however, Mitch King and Del Cox had something else in mind eliminating both boys in round one of Top Fuel on Sunday. Mitch failed to make round two due to some engine issues and Del continued roll over Litton in the finals, taking his second Iron Man of the season and taking the points lead.

For Team Goforth, it was an extremely rocky ride to the finals, as Dean was dealing with an aggrivated new ride. Once one problem was solved, another would arise, but apparently problems cause crews to pull together and in the end Dean notched his first Iron Man in ages as the tender age of 65! (His son Carey also won his first Iron Man earlier this season.) Some times the hardest routes are the sweetest wins! Congrats Dean and Team Goforth!

And for the third and final class of the race, the Prod Mods, it was the battle for the bragging rights that continued once again between Ed Hoover and Kenny Lang. Kenny had some solid numbers on the night and great passes, while Saturday night Hoover had to resort to his back up engine. In the semis, Hoover knew Lang had lane choice, so he ran a bye in the left lane to get numbers to better prep for finals, and it proved to be a better decision!

The weather was fantastic for all the fans that showed up for the finals of the Mopar Canadian Nationals and peek climate early in the morning resulted in some incredible numbers for all classes! Until Martin, Michigan, stay safe and see you at the top end and be sure to watch all the action on SPEED August 29th!