Race 1 Report

[Chipper Chapman]

Race Report
ACSSA Event #1
Miramichi Dragway July 19, 2019

It was a day made for racing at Miramichi Dragway, without a cloud in the sky and temperatures in the mid-high 20’s there wasn’t much more we could ask for. 39 vehicles were on the grounds for what would be the 5th stop on the NHRA Canadian National Open Tour and the 1st of the ACSSA points series. 36 of those made the first qualifying attempt, and 38 made it to the second. Coming out on top of the qualifying sheet was Jeremy Keans in his 1983 Camaro, at 1.24 seconds under his H/SA Index of 12.15. Interesting to note the top 12 qualifiers were all over one second under index. Cory Sprague was unable to make a qualifying attempt due to EFI Problems. Competitors were once again from all over the Northeast, with a few new faces to the area. Allan Dame made the trek from Maine with his lovely ’70 Plymouth Cuda, Ollie Stephen of Ontario brought his ’71 Corvette, and Bob Park also of Ontario brought his ’82 Camaro. As we went to round one 36 cars made the call and we got underway. The racing was great and all went smoothly until an unfortunate incident in the 3rd round. After taking the win light against Guy Desardins, Bob Park’s Camaro lost in brakes sending him for an unwanted trip to the beach. However all his and the tracks safety measures worked as they should, the car stayed upright, stopped in the sand trap with minimal damage, and Bob walked away. Fast forward a couple rounds and we were ready for the final! We would see Jeremy Keans face Daniel Nickerson. With both competitors looking for their first NHRA win, and wanting the Wally badly it was a tight race. Keans, dialed 10.98 left first with an .048 reaction, with Nickerson right behind dialed 10.76 and cutting a slightly better .038. We had ourselves a race, at the line it was Nickerson taking the stripe by approximately .008 running 10.771 to Keans 10.989. It was a very emotional win for the Nickerson Family, and well deserved!