Words and photos by Larry Crum

For the second night in a row it was a race against Mother Nature at Castrol Raceway, but unlike Friday night when a freak storm washed out day one of the Mopar Rocky Mountain Nitro Jam Nationals, this time drag racing won.

All of the professional classes got in multiple runs Saturday night during the SMS “Night of Fire” at Castrol Raceway and sportsman competitors wrapped up qualifying as the fields are finally set for eliminations heading into championship Sunday at Canada’s largest drag race at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton.

Two nitro classes crowned winners on Saturday as Bobby Lagana bested a field of four Top Fuel Dragsters to claim his eighth Ironman of the season and Ron Maroney won for the second time this year in the “Nanook” entry over Tom Padilla to claim the Nostalgia Fuel Altered crown.

In professional qualifying Edmonton native Tim Boychuk topped the Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car field heading into Sunday with a blistering pace just off the IHRA Nitro Jam national record. Other top qualifiers from day two at the Mopar Rocky Mountain Nitro Jam Nationals included Steve Dorn in Nitro Harley, Cal Tebb in the Rocky Mountain Funny Car class and Gary Urlacher in Pro Modified.

Sportsman top qualifiers included Dan Lachelt in Top Dragster, Mark Campbell in Top Sportsman, Byron Setters in Super Stock and Paul Plummer in Stock.

But by far, the biggest winner from Saturday night was Boychuk.

Boychuk put down a 5.788, 242.02 in the final round of qualifying on Saturday to head the class, just ahead of Arizona native Mike Savage in the “Candies and Hughes” 1970 Barracuda Funny Car who ran a 5.846, 236.88.

Always a fan favorite, the huge Canadian crowd was brought to its feet when Boychuk, the defending race winner in Edmonton, blasted down the quarter-mile at near record times to top the nostalgia Nitro Funny Car class.

“It is always great to get to race in front of my hometown fans and they were certainly behind us every single pass we made,” Boychuk said. “We knew we had a car to beat here this weekend and we hope we can continue this momentum into Sunday and come away with our third win in a row here at Castrol Raceway.”

Rounding out the eight-car Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car top five are Michael Grekul, Tim Nemeth and Mark Sanders.