Drag Wars 2009, at the Grande Prairie Airport Aug 21-23, was staged to be the best event to date. All the elements were in place. A new batch of volunteers’ courtesy of the Grande Prairie Rotary Clubs partnership, the weather was forecasting 20+ degrees and no rain and at the last minute one more jet car and a 2 seater dragster came on board as headlining acts.

For an event plagued with rain delays in the past the prospect of great weather motivated the crews and the event was ready to go almost a full day prior to normal.

To kick off this years event Craig Anstead form Paradise RV took 2 media personalities for a ride in the 8.5 second 2 Seater dragster.  Their screams on live radio brought the fans out to the track. 

At 5 pm Friday night the gates opened like floodgates for racers and fans alike. The Autotrac Alignment King of the Street began with over 200 cars streaming in the gates. A record for Drag Wars. Over 1200 fans stayed until 10 o'clock at night to watch the hundreds of street cars try their hand at drag racing. Many of the cars were new cars and drivers that were testing out the sport.

Saturday dawned with over 220 race cars registered on the race side and 160 show and shine cars.    Even with such a high car count all the racers got 3 time trials to be ready for bracket racing the following day.

One of the new events at Drag Wars was the Old School Heads Up sponsored by Jim Hartum Trucking. Based on the hugely popular Pinks All Out with a twist.  To keep it fair, the Heads Up was an 1/8th mile flag start.  3 Index's were chosen based on times only at the 1/8th mile. The biggest index had a spread on .5 seconds which in the grand scheme of things did not matter in the end. The racers chosen embraced the event with the spirit in which it was intended. The fast cars wanted in on the action so they asked to put a Q16 jackpot together and the all threw in 20 bucks and raced the 1/8 mile too. Congratulations to  Daryl Steinbach ,  Kelsey Dufresne ,  Philip Emke winners of the Old School Heads Up, and  Junior King of Hill  Daylen Miller & Junior Jackpot Shelby Hagen.

Sunday was regular Bracket Racing Eliminations.  The competitions was fierce but in the end winners were: Advantage Valve JR class Daylen Miller ,Lube-X Street Class Dane Lucas , Prairie Mall Bike and Sled Class Darwin, Street and Strip Pro Class Rob Plamondon, Northern Performance Super Pro Jason Miller , Quick 16 Jason Miller

Headlining Acts wowed the crowds all weekend.  Thanks to the YIELD RCMP program and Blue Line Racing brought their Police Race Cars. They take race car to the track and now wants to use the sport to help prevent other kids from making a serious or fatal mistake.

Smokin Gun, Anger Management and Insanity competed in the Under the Sun Big Rig Shootout with unofficially Insanity the last truck standing!

The Janeshewski’s raced each other all weekend in their jet cars Heracane and Rollin Thunder, and Silver Fox put on some quick passes. The Murphy’s with the Wheelie Fun Wheel stander wowed the crowd with all 4 tires off the ground sending sparks all the way down the track.  The Death Squad stunt bikes came back with a very entertaining show. They drove all the way from LAS Vegas to be here as they enjoy GP and the fans so much. They are off to Indy for a national competition.  Most of the headliners will be heading to Drayton Valley for the race there Sep long weekend!

All in all over 10,000 fans, racers, and volunteers made their way to the GP airport over the 3 days and took part in one of the biggest shows in Western Canada.

It will be some time before the numbers are fully known but as always 100% of the proceeds will be going back into the community through the volunteer groups and the Rotary Clubs.

Great Job to everyone!

Jennifer Metituk
Drag Wars Committee