It's Plueger's Playground On Sunday

[Mark King]

It's Plueger's Playground On Sunday

Canadian National Open July 25th Mission Raceway Park, Canada

The final match up for the Canadian Nat. Open feature race saw the NFCA entries of Bucky Austin and Mike Grekul, with one common denominator - Steve Plueger. The mighty Mach 1 and the awesome Arrow, both owned by Steve were the grand finale to a great weekend's racing with the win going to Mike Grekul out of Edmonton AB.

First round started a little late due to some rain earlier in the day setting the race schedule back a bit. First pair out were the 'Code Red' Challenger of Lee Paul Jennings and 'The Tachman' Mustang of Andy Beauchemin. The Mustang had been irritated by a few minor issues all through the weekend, but the guys coming to the line felt they had a sub six second run on hand for the day. But disappointment would reign again as the batteries for the starter motor failed and the big black beast sat dormant in the water box as LPJ lit up his tires in preparation for the single into the semi's. Jennings ran 6.063 @ 226.52. Next up was Mark Sanders and Mike Grekul. The very likeable Sanders hoping to pull off a little upset and get his first NFCA win at his 'home' track and he put up a very respectable 5.98 @ 234.37 in his effort, but the very strong Grekul wheeled the Mustang to a stout 4.83 @237.84 for his berth in a semi final match up against Jennings. Bucky Austin and Jay Mageau formed our next pairing, with Jay looking for a miracle that would see the big heavy '57 Chev body pushed past the super consistent and super quick Arrow driven by Austin. After a weekend in the sevens, a 6.49 / 223.54 for Mageau was a pretty good go of things, but another 5.83 for the Plueger team made it easy work for Bucky to advance to the semi's at 238 mph. The final pairing should have been Terry Capp and Kris Kabrill, but the Bubble Up Trans Am could not make the show. Terry's motor got hurt in qualifying and although they had fitted the spare unit into the car, it was not quite the same spec as the previous unit and a pulley spacer (suitable for the broken unit) did not fit the spare engine and no spares were available that would get them into the show, day over for Capp, Hodgson, and Leong. That left Kabrill to Pedal his way to a semi match up with Bucky by running a single at 5.918 @ 240.25mph, but he damaged his rear end in the process so a thrash to fix it in time to face the Northwest Hitter was under way.

The semifinals began with the Austin and Kabrill pairing. The Pedaler crew working hard to get the rear end of their Plymouth rebuilt and ready to go. Alas it was for naught as Kris went up in smoke, pretty much at the hit of the throttle, and Bucky was on another 5.80 mission, running straight and true to a 5.88 / 237.02 to reach the final at the Canadian National Open at MRP. The other semi featured Lee Paul Jennings and Mike Grekul, a pretty good race with Grekul having the pace all the way running his Mach 1 Mustang to a sweet 5.87 @ 235.41mph over a losing 6.02 / 230.06 for Jennings in the Dodge. This set up the all Plueger final featuring the two fastest and most consistent cars over the weekend.

The final was a great heads up race, both Mike and Bucky left together having a 0.156 and a 0.153 RT respectively and ran side by side all the way. But there can only be one winner, and on this day Mike had the edge, running 5.86 @ 235.29mph, only just edging out Bucky Austin's 5.877 @ 235.04mph.

Twig Zeigler continued his battle to tame the 'Pizza Haven' Duster and seemed to get a step closer with every run as he dipped into the 8's with a wheel spinning run that might have been quicker with better positioning for a stronger launch from the start line. The license is just around the corner for the NW legend and all round good guy.

With one driver talking about building his own car (or buying an existing one), the awesome Parker clan (currently top alcohol runners) looking to field multiple Nostalgia Nitro machines next year, I would say the Northwest is looking strong going into '09. And Jay Mageau will now be taking his time to make sure the Corvette flopper will be finished just right for a debut next year. And don't forget the all new 'Hawaiian Tropic' Dodge appearing by the end of this season. I'm already booking my seat for next year's race!

Paul Grant

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