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The latest update as of July 15, 2016

Lucky Number Seven?

Going through my files this week, reviewing past roadtrips to Edmonton for the IHRA Rocky Mountain Nationals, it became apparent that this year's edition will be my seventh time around at Canada's largest and most entertaining drag race. In that time period, from 2005 to the present, there's been every possible weather event - except snow (and we'll never say never to that) - and races that have ranged from the sublime to the downright ridiculous.

The trip up here saw rain for the last few hundred miles, and it rained well into last night, but the sun is shining brightly this morning and hopefully we won't be greeted by a muddy parking lot and a soaked track. However, I can't help but remember the "mud-bowl" of a decade ago, and the "morning of fire" after a very loooong rain delay.

10:00 AM Update: Of course last night's rain turned the parking lot into a bog. When we (Bob Snyder and myself) arrived, the gate attendant took one look at the Speedzone "staff car", a hemi-powered Charger, and said "call the tow truck now boys" and directed us to a semi-firm area near the front gate. Hopefully we won't see any more rain today and we'll get out of here unassisted tonight. In the meantime, there's nearly 30 funny cars and another half-dozen nitro cars in the pits to take a look at. Not to mention a bunch of 5-second Pro Mods, some super gnarly Harleys, and a host of blown, injected, turbocharged, and nitrous aided sportsman cars. More news as it happens.

3:00 PM Update: The planned noon-ish start didn't materialize, but they began shortly after that with a round of junior dragster time trials, followed by... another round of junior dragster time trials, followed by.... you guessed it..... yet another round of the same. The "weepers" (water coming up through small cracks in the pavement) coming up near the finish line continued unabated until nearly 2:00 pm, when the go-ahead came down as a large bank of very dark clouds surrounded the facility. The wind picked up strength but the rain held off until the second pair of Super Street cars ran, then the word came from the top end "it's raining" and that's the end of story for the time being. Next report whenever something other than a weather report happens.