AA/Funny Cars were the headliner for a strong race card that made up the Lucas Oil NHRA Canadian National Open on July 25 at Mission Raceway Park, Canada, featuring NFCA AA/FC’s. There were nine AA/FC on hand with all but one, Jay Mageau’s ’57 Chevy-bodied entry representing the body styles from the heydays of AA/FC racing. The finals went according to form as both of legendary Funny Car builder/team owner Steve Plueger’s cars, with Bucky Austin and Mike Grekul driving, were in the grand finale.
 Ziegler should have been qualifying but was still making the required mandatory licensing passes, which were still not completed going into Saturday’s racing. |
Nine cars including Twig Ziegler (shown), who was trying to get his AA/FC license, were on hand for the eight-car AA/FC show. As expected Bucky Austin qualified number one with a 5.863/238.47, a couple of hundredths quicker than his Plueger teammate Mike Grekul.
Three other drivers (Kris Krabill, Lee Paul Jennings, and Terry Capp) took advantage of the Mission “sea level” air to help them tune their nitro burners into the fives.
Eight cars got two qualifying shots each, one in the late afternoon and one at night. The ninth car was Zeigler’s “Pizza Haven” Plymouth Satellite that debuted at this event.
First round started a little late due to some rain earlier in the day that set the race schedule back a bit. The first pair out was the “Code Red” 1970 Challenger of Lee Paul Jennings and the “Tachman” 1971 Mustang of Andy Beauchemin.
The Mustang had a few minor issues all through the weekend, but the team felt they had a sub-six-second run on hand for the day. But disappointment would reign as the batteries for the starter motor failed and the big black beast sat dormant in the water box as LPJ lit up his tires in preparation for the single into the semis. Jennings ran 6.063 at 226.52.
Next up were Mark Sanders and Mike Grekul. The very likeable Sanders was hoping to pull off a little upset and get his first NFCA win at his home track and he put up a very respectable 5.98 at 234.37 in his effort, but the very strong Grekul wheeled the Plueger & Gyger Mustang to a stout 5.83/237.84 for his berth in a semi final match up against Jennings.
Bucky Austin and Jay Mageau formed our next pairing, with Jay looking for a miracle from his big, heavy, '57 Chevy-bodied ride. After a weekend of running in the sevens, a 6.49/223.54 effort from Mageau was a pretty good go of things, but it wasn’t nearly good enough to cover a 5.83/238 for Austin and the Plueger team, which easily allowed Bucky to advance to the semis.