62 Inside Track Motorsport News

Pro Mod action at Mission Raceway Park (above). Two-time WDRL Pro Mod N20 Champion Dan Vogt in a 1963 Corvette (below). Large burnouts and nitrous purges (opposite page) are just part of the Pro Mod show.

In the world of door cars, the Pro Modified class remains for the many as the pinnacle of drag racing performance. Capable of running a

quarter-mile in under six seconds, these are among the fastest cars on most drag strips. Despite this lofty position, this class has faced multiple challenges in western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, culminating with the collapse of the West Coast Pro Mod Association in 2011. In response to the requirement for a replacement series, long-time drag race announcer and promoter Rome Awde stepped forward in 2015 to stem this tide with the launch of the Western Drag League (WDRL), featuring Pro Modified as its headlining class.

Operated as a virtual series, the WDRL avoids a large portion of the fixed costs associated with other series by combining into major events, including Mission Raceway Park’s popular Door Warz and Castrol Race-way’s Rocky Mountain Nationals, as opposed to promoting its own races as standalone features.

“It is very, very expensive to rent a track, set up a sanctioning body and promote standalone races. I just wasn’t interested in doing that,” explained Awde. “By piggybacking onto major events, we are able to provide our racers with the exposure of racing in front of large crowds without taking on the costs and the risk of running a full series.”

Despite the financial benefits of this structure, the WDRL has endured a roller-coaster ride during its brief existence. Following its suc-cessful inaugural 2015 season, the series expanded both the number of participants and classes when it took over JB Power Centre’s Small-Tire series. In 2017, the WDRL crowned an overall Bell Air Power Pro Mod Champion as well as separate champions for Pro Mod Boost and Pro Mod N2O, along with those in supporting classes of RH Racecars Top Sportsman, TCI Automotive Outlaw 10.5, Fast EFI Outlaw 275, Comp Cams Outlaw 8.5 and JB’s Power Center Open Comp. Ultimately, the growth in classes proved to be short lived as the realities of the overall economy and the draw of competing series resulted in reduced car counts in 2017 and necessitated a review of the series prior to the start of the 2018 season.

InsideTrackNews.com 63

UNIQUE FORMAT PROVIDES STABILITY FOR “VIRTUAL SERIES” IN WESTERN CANADA

Story and Photos by Patrick Lambie

64 Inside Track Motorsport News

Earlier this year, citing declining membership and car counts, the WDRL announced that its Top Sportsman, Outlaw 8.5 and Open Comp classes would not be part of the series in 2018. In addition to improving the WDRL’s go-forward fortunes, the move to discontinue classes also supports other western organizations by no longer competing for racers with groups such as Mission Raceway’s Door Slammers class and Castrol’s Top Eliminator series.

The resulting series will now feature five Belair Power Pro Mod races with the season opener held at Mission Raceway Park on June 29-July 1 as part of the track’s Doorwarz VI event. The Pro Mods will then head to Edmonton for Castrol’s Rocky Mountain Nationals on July 13-15 before returning to Mission as part of the Langley Loaf-ers Old Time Drags weekend on August 4-5 and the SMS-K Rents Smoke Fire and Thunder race on August 25-26.

The WDRL season finals at Castrol Raceway on September 1-2 will wrap up a season of high-profile events and see the 2018 cham-pions crowned in both the N20 and Boost classes, as well as the overall Belair Power Pro Mod series.

The big question leading into this season is whether or not multi-time champion Garrett Richards and his Total Performance Racing 2012 Mustang can successfully defend the WDRL Pro Boost and overall WDRL Belair Power Pro Mod titles he has held since 2016. One individual who will definitely look to upset Richards’ quest for a third consecutive championship will be long-time Pro Mod competitor Joe Delehay. Having missed the 2017 season with a sports-related injury, Delehay will be anxious to prove that his PM Motorsports 1968 Camaro Z28 can pickup where they left off when they won the last race of the 2016 WDRL season. When asked to speculate on other racers who may challenge for the overall title Awde suggested that Delehay’s fellow Calgary resident Rick Distefano and Sherwood Park’s Tom Reithmayer, who is rumoured to be building a new car, as well as defending and multi-time Pro Mod N2O Champion Dan Vogt from Regina SK are some of the names to watch for.

While the WDRL has discontinued certain classes, their newly streamlined and renamed Hoosier Small Tire Series, consisting of the TCI Automotive Outlaw 10.5 and Fast EFI Outlaw 275 classes, will also run a full five-event schedule in 2018, starting out with two dates at Castrol Raceway – May 5-6 and June 16-17 – before heading to British Columbia to meet up with the Pro Mods at Mission Raceway’s Doorwarz VI at the end of June. Returning to Edmonton, the series will hold its penultimate round on August 18-19 before once again joining up with the Pro Mods at the season finale on September 1-2. If required, Castrol will also host a rainout makeup weekend on September 15-16.

In its sophomore season in the WDRL, Fast EFI Outlaw 275 undoubtedly put a target on the back of defending champion Neil Richards and his “Cream Dream” Fairmont. Capable of running sub-five-second eighth-mile times in this heads-up 275-radial tire series, Richards car is just one of many that will hit this benchmark.

“This is an exciting class,” said Awde. “It is possible to get more than 20 cars at a race, with several of those capable of running in the fours.”

Thanks to the success of the Outlaw 275 class, as well as the WDRL’s other eight-mile heads-up class TCI Automotive Outlaw 10.5, where Chad Abougoush will look to repeat as champion, the Hoosier Small tire series is looking strong for 2018. This leaves Awde and the WDRL with the challenge of growing the Pro Mod side of this business model and it is likely not going to be easy.

The effects of a prolonged economic downturn in the west com-bined with the ever-increasing costs of racing has seen car counts in the top classes of all series declining and the WDRL has not been spared. Whether or not the move to create a streamlined and fo-cused series will be successful in maintaining and growing participa-tion will become evident as the season progresses.

In the meantime, it is time to get out to the track and watch some of the fastest cars in western Canada. IT

WDRL Pro Mods will return to action starting on June 29.

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66 Inside Track Motorsport News

Another exciting season for the Ontario Street Outlaws (OSO) is almost here. Series founder Paul Norris has been busy

throughout the off-season, adding new classes to go with The List and Unlimited and securing new and the existing sponsors to help support the ever-growing series.

The Outlaw Recruit class, which started late last fall, created great interest from those following the OSO. The Bike and Sled class started slow, but Norris expecting more participants this year. New for 2018 is the Unlimited Outlaw, which requires a max of 28.0-272-10.5 small tire, any rear suspension and any power combo, but no full-tube chassis and the Unlimited Extreme Outlaw, which requires a big tire of 29.0 and up with any rear suspension, any power combo, and stock-appearing bodies, but no Pro Modified cars.

So far, 11 events have been scheduled for the 2018 OSO season, with the potential of a northern airport strip drag race added at a

later date. Six of the OSO events will take place at Toronto Motor-sports Park’s Cayuga Dragway and Grand Bend Motorplex. Two of the shootouts are at St. Thomas Raceway Park. For the first time in series history, a nighttime shootout will take place and will occur at Toronto Motorsports Park on Wednesday, July 4.

The OSO is hosting a Bud Sampson Memorial Shootout featuring plenty of grudge matches at Grand Bend Motorplex on Sunday, July 15 and for the OSO Eastern Division, there is a shootout at Shannon-ville Motorsport Park on Saturday, September 8. The first shootout on Sunday, June 3 at St. Thomas Raceway Park already has a grudge match scheduled between Dave Jackson’s 1979 ‘The Joker’ Ford Fairmount and Stan Mazur’s 1968 ‘Troublemaker’ Chevrolet Camaro. The stakes are high at $1,000 for the win. Expect to see more grudge matches announced throughout the season.

On Saturday, May 12 at TMP, the OSO season unofficially kicked off with its annual tech day, featuring chassis certifications and licensing tests before the official season opener on Saturday, June 16 at TMP-Cayuga Dragway.

On the sponsorship side, almost 50 series sponsors have jumped onboard for the 2018 season.

“The 2018 season is shaping up to be one of the best ones for us yet,” said Norris. “With races planned at four tracks this season, the series is really picking up steam. Most of the sponsors from 2017 are back and some new ones have joined up for this season as well.

“Racers are getting anxious for the season to start and are already setting up grudge matches for the 2018 season. Motorama was a huge success for us this year to get the word out to teams and drivers and with the help of Jeff Lutz at our booth. It was a very busy spot all weekend.” IT

THIRD CONSECUTIVE SEASON FOR THE DRAG RACING SERIES GETS UNDERWAY IN JUNE

Story and Photos by Jessie Sharpe

With the addition of the Unlimited Outlaw and Unlimited Extreme Outlaw classes, 2018 OSO events will be packed with rag racers in a wide range of classes.