The latest update as of June 13, 2025
Division Six National Open - Mission Raceway Park
The gates are open, the pits are filling up, and cars are running down the track. Proceedings got underway at 9:00 am with absolutely killer - corrected altitude -384' - air, but within an hour it had gone all the way up to +418'. Still, awesome conditions on a cool - 12 (C) or 53 (F) track. While today is mostly about the sportsman cars, undoubtedly there will be test runs by the Top Alcohol cars, especially in light of the fact that they haven't run at MRP for six years, and in many cases, much longer than that.
We reached out to the Division Director for a pre-entry list of Top Alcohol cars, but failed to garner a reply. However, through the "magic" of Facebook, we were able to scroll through the MRP page and see postings of a bunch of cars that will presumably be in attendance. And it's a list of the who's who in the TOP Alcohol world, with at least two former and one current world champion in the mix, and a bunch of other 5-teen, and 5.20 runners in the mix.
While the Funny Car is very short, starting and ending with Brian Hough, it's top quality as the Oregon racer is a perennial championship contender. The dragster contingent obviously starts with home-town hero Shawn Cowie, followed by (in no particular order), Casey Grisel, Chris Demke, Mitch Myers, Alberta's Mike Quayle, Mike Austin, and Kim Parker. Refreshingly, there's a nice mix of blown (three) and injected (four) entries. We can't wait to see how these cars will do this weekend, and best of all, we'll be there to catch all the action, on and off the track.
Unfortunately, or possibly not, we donated our old laptop computer to a charity last month and all we've have with us a very old (10 years!) iPad that is okay for keeping notes, but not for updating the website. Our next posting will be on Monday morning. And we'll have the report up by Tuesday night. Stay tuned for that!
.8:00 UPDATE
Today was the test 'n tune part of the Mission Raceway National Open. With most of the Top Alcohol cars not running here for six years or more, it was a chance for them to see if their current tuneups were ready for the track. One of the first dragsters out, Shawn Cowie, wanted to see if his recent test sessions here would translate into good numbers for this event. To say they did would be a "bit" of an understatement. To wit, his first pass at 12:30pm, in -262' air was a strong effort to just past the 1100' mark before he clicked it to a 5.1902 at just 257.58 mph.
They brought it out again in the late afternoon, with the density altitude up all the way to 138' (still awesome air!) and ran it to the stripe, lighting up the scoreboards BIG TIME with a 5.139 - 280.90 pass, less than two hundredths off his career best 5.121 of 2023. And today's speed was just a tick off his career best 281.54 from 2024. Here's the timeslips for the runs, courtesty of Mission Raceway's Track Vision app. It amazes me at times at just how far we've advanced technologically from handwritten timeslips and results coming out days and weeks after an event. Now it's all at your fingertips, in real time, with all the minute details.
Timeslips courtesy of Mission Raceway Track Vision app
It should be mentioned that Cowie broke the track e.t. and speed records with his 5.19 - 280.90 blast. Only three other dragsters made test runs and the best of those was Mitch Myers with a 5.590 - 196.16. The low speed shows that he was on a pretty good pass before shutting off before the 1000' mark. Chris Demke recorded a so-so 5.659 - 254.89, while Mike Quayle made three hits, none quicker than 8-seconds.
The lone Funny Car to run, Brian Hough, made an early shutoff (6.00 - 165.26) pass before laying down a late in the day 5.478 at only 247.12 Mph. The speed didn't come close to the existing 273.30 track record, but the e.t. broke the exisitng record. There's obviously a quicker e.t. lurking in the tuneup if he stays on it all the way to the finish line.
All in all, it looks like one heck of a weekend of performance is in the offing. We can hardly wait to get there!