Rain suits and drivers suits at Elliot Lake drags

Rain suits were the order of the day instead of Race suites for Saturday at the 8th Annual OK Tire North Shore Challenge held in Elliot Lake this past weekend.

The rain started in the early morning on Saturday putting a damper on racing for the morning and most of the afternoon. At last years event the rain held off until the final day of the weekend allowing the drag racers to do time trials and eliminations up to the quarter final round. The rain stopped just before 4:00 pm and once the track dried, action got under way with the Street Class being the only class that would run for the day with the intent of running all the rounds for the crowning of the "King of The Street". Pam Wellwood, in her first time racing racing, made it to the 10th round losing just before the quarter final round. All the other classes ran on Sunday with a double purse. The races were put into a rain delay a couple of times on Sunday with a few scattered shows. After a little delay the final rounds were able to be completed by 5:30. In Super Pro, Allan Hodder from Bay City Michigan, who is a regular racer at Mid Michigan Moterplex, went to the final round in Super Pro putting quite a few "Show Me The Money" tour regular drivers on the trailer. Al, who wanted to leave Saturday because of inclement weather decided to stay for Sunday's racing with some persuasion from Chris Manzo, which Al has probably not regretted. Ed Fantasia went a few rounds in his altered roadster and Chris Manzo had to bow out of competition with a broken lifter. Bill Yourchuck entered in the Semi and Super Pro classes and made it to the Semi final round in Semi Pro turned on the red light and lost to Dan Allard from North Bay. Lou Carlucci had his game face on for the Semi Pro action by getting a perfect light on his first time run. Lou made it to the top 16 and on his way had ran on his dial in and another run 3/1000 of a second over his dial in. There were quite a few drivers, both seasoned veterans and new comers from the Sault that got into the racing action. Pictures can be found at www.saultracers.com.

(Submitted by Rod Aubertin)