TOP FUEL
Tim Boychuk (Edmonton, Alb.) won his second consecutive Top Fuel national event championship, knocking off Mike Strasburg in the final round. Like Lawson, Boychuck is also a replacement driver. He stepped in behind the wheel of the Paton Family Motorsports entry when Todd Paton, the previous driver, surrendered the driving duties.
He defeated Bobby Lagana Jr. in the semifinals before posting a 4.853/273.05 pass in the final round to stop a tire-shaking Strasburg.
Earlier in the day rookie Spencer Massey clinched his first career Top Fuel world championship when he knocked off Haddock in the first round. Haddock was making his first career Top Fuel start, but Massey posted a 4.748 at 307.16 to secure the round win and the championship.
“This is unbelievable,” Massey said. “I really have to thank Mitch King for giving me this opportunity. I didn’t even know I was going to be driving a Top Fuel car this season until I got my license six days before the season started, so this is really surprising.”
PRO MOD
Defending Pro Modified world champion Scott Cannon Jr. struggled most of the IHRA season, but he ended things in style. He was the first alternate into the Sunday eliminations field, but parlayed that into an Ironman when he defeated Burton Auxier in the final round. Cannon posted sub-six-second runs in three of the four elimination rounds to claim the event championship. In the final against Auxier his 5.979 at 238.01 easily defeated Auxier’s tire-shaking 10.697.
Since Friday’s qualifying for the Pro Modified category was a complete washout, Cannon had only two shots on Saturday to get his entry into the field. “We just didn’t have a good run in either of the qualifying sessions on Saturday. The team gave me a great racecar, but it just didn’t happen,” said Cannon.
During the final qualifying session the 15th qualifier Mike Moran broke an axle, which allowed the first alternate 17th qualifier Cannon back in the field. Team owner Scotty Cannon was ecstatic. “I already told the boys to load up the trailer so we could head for home. I sure didn’t want to end this season by not qualifying for sure. I was up at 4:30 AM preparing our tune up for Sunday’s eliminations” Scotty said.
“I wanted to give Richard and Thomas Patterson the best performance I could at the last IHRA event of the season,” Cannon Jr. said
Kenny Lang (far lane) does a qualifying lap with Mark Nielsen. Lang got the championship while Nielsen did not make the field.
Kenny Lang watched Mike Castellana fall in the first round of eliminations, ending any chance he had to catch Lang in the championship points chase. It was Lang’s first career world championship.
ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR
Laurie Cannister (Johnstown, Ohio) put the exclamation point on her dominant season by defeating Dr. Tom Carter to claim her eighth Alcohol Funny Car Ironman of the season. Cannister headed to Rockingham with the world championship already in her pocket, but she still drove past Dale Brand and Neal Parker before knocking off Carter in the final with a 5.856 at 242.23 mph.