The second stop on the annual Canadian Swing took the IHRA faithful to the shores of Lake Huron and Ontario’s Grand Bend Motorplex. The event marked the beginning of the second half of the 2009 Nitro Jam schedule and on the line were precious championship points. Competitors in all three professional IHRA classes are locked in tight battles for their respective crowns, and as the season winds down, every round win could make or break a season.

When the smoke cleared, Del Cox (Top Fuel), Ed Hoover (Pro Modified), Dean Goforth (Pro Stock), and Bruce Boland (PMRA) all took home hard-won MOPAR Canadian Nationals Ironman trophies.

Also claiming victories during PartSource Championship Sunday were Gary Wojnowski Sr. (Top Sportsman), Jim Rubino (Top Dragster), Jim Marshall (Stock), Pete D’Angnolo (Super Stock), Ron Folk (Quick Rod), and Tony Elrod (Super Rod and Hot Rod) in sportsman action.

Cox put himself right back into championship contention at Grand Bend, qualifying first with the fastest lap of the year before mowing through the Top Fuel field  Sunday to record his second victory of the season. In the final, Cox, of Downey California, edged points leader Bruce Litton, of Indianapolis, Indiana, in one of the closest battles of the event.

When discussing the race for the 2009 IHRA Pro Modified world championship, only two names can be included as a part of the conversation – Ed Hoover and Kenny Lang.

For the third consecutive race the two rival drivers met in the final round of an IHRA national event, with Hoover once again getting the edge when it mattered most.With the win, Hoover jumped ahead of Lang in the Pro Mod championship standings by 11 points.

Knowledgeable race fans knew it would only be a matter of time before 65-year-old Elite Motorsports Pro Stock competitor Dean Goforth would take his bright orange Pontiac GXP to the winners circle. After years of trying, a dream came true for Goforth as he managed to drive around IHRA legend John Montecalvo in Sunday’s final to claim his first career victory in his second-ever final.

In addition to IHRA Pro Mod action on the quarter-mile, the Canadian-based Pro Modified Racing Association also had a contingent on hand, showing their stuff at the eighth-mile distance. In PMRA action, Bruce Boland, of Stoney Creek, Ontario, was able to pull out a victory over Eric Latino.Read all the professional and sportsman race coverage from Grand Bend in Issue 14 of DRM.

Also be sure to check out reports from the Summit Pro-Am and Champion System Sportsman Nationals action at Byron Dragway and Mountain Park Dragway.

In addition, there’s another opportunity to get off track with Randy Cunningham as he interviews Elite Motorsports Pro Stock standout Richard Freeman.

And of course IHRA President Aaron Polburn offers his unique take on the state-of-the-sport and the world in general in his “The Last Word” column.

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For this issue and other issues of Drag Review, go to www.ihra.com/dragreview