All-Canadian effort heads to Atlanta for next round of NHRA drag racing
Courtesy: Tim Miller
TOTTENHAM, ONTARIO (May 9, 2011) – In a truly Canadian effort, Top Fuel driver Ike Maier will compete in the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals May 13-15 in Georgia.
This event will be round six of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Race Series, held at the Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia.
Maier hails from Southern Ontario, and will be driving the Paris, Ontario-based Paton Racing Top Fuel Dragster in the upcoming race. He is receiving support from Lenron Inc., a Nova Scotia transportation company, Kelsey Trail Trucking from Saskatchewan, and Crosbie Industrial from Newfoundland.
And, the team continues to receive support from that iconic Canadian coffee enterprise, Tim Hortons.
“We’re going to give it another shot,” said Maier, who will also be competing with his 1963 Corvette Pro Mod in the event’s Get Screened America Pro Modified Series. “This will be a real Canadian effort.”
After obtaining his NHRA Top Fuel license earlier this year, Maier raced at the NHRA Gatornationals in Florida earlier this season in both the Top Fuel dragster and the Pro Modified. He made drag racing history there as the first person to race in both classes, and he will do the same for the Georgia race.
“We’ll be running another double-duty effort,” he said, adding the team did some testing recently with the Pro Mod.
“We sorted some stuff out at Bradenton,” he noted. “We were working on giving it more go.”
Although he did not qualify with the dragster at Gainesville, he is optimistic for his chances at Atlanta, and plans to get the nitromethane-fueled, 8000-horsepower dragster into the program, not an easy thing to do against the best cars and drivers in the world.
“Hopefully we’ll qualify on the fuel side,” he said.
“This is a big deal,” he continued. “It’s the top of the pile. I want to stay on top of this as long as I can.”
Maier will begin his qualifying attempts for the Southern Nationals Friday May 13.
Qualifying continues Saturday May 14, along with the first round of Pro Mod eliminations. The remainder of the Pro Mod eliminations, plus the Top Fuel eliminations will take place Sunday May 15.
The Top Fuel entry is headed up by Barry Paton of Paton Racing which has employed Todd Paton behind the wheel of the Top Fueler, as well as Alberta’s Tim Boychuck in both the NHRA and the IHRA.
In the past few years Maier has raced competitively in the Pro Modified class with his 1963 Corvette in the PMRA, the IHRA, and the NHRA, and will compete in selected NHRA national events in both classes for 2011.
