TAD TALES
August 1999
The 1999 NHRA Canadian Open is one that I won’t soon forget. After getting rained out on Saturday,Serge opened qualifying with a 6.30 at 217 mph, missing the top qualifying spot by 3 hundredths of a second. Sometimes the one-shot qualifying sessions generates first round pairings that normally wouldn’t happen. This was the case for us, as Ed Verenka had trouble on his run and qualified last, but we knew all too well that he was capable of running in the 5-second zone. Ed was impressive as he marched away from us at the start, but banged the blower down track, handing the Sitko Family Racing dragster the win. We were very lucky to win the round, as we also had a magneto go dead during the run.
Due to the odd number of cars, we had the good fortune of getting a single round in the semi-finals. We were still struggling to make the second magneto work, but it was to no avail as the car slowed to a 6.47 on the single ignition system. For the final, I disconnected the second mag completely and cranked an extra 5 degrees or so into the good one. Up to this point, both Serge and I couldn’t believe the amount of good luck we were having that day. The car ran well enough in the final to defeat Steve Sitko, who had problems of his own, and our crew celebrated on the starting line.
The jubilation was short lived, however, as Serge’s parachutes failed to deploy, and the car hit the deep mud at the end of the shut down area and rolled 4 times. Steve drove his own car off the end of the track so that he could get to Serge quickly, and he helped to flip the car over as it was upside down in the mud. The ambulance crew checked Serge out and extracted him from the wreck. He was knocked unconscious by the impact of the crash, but came around fairly quickly, and felt good enough to show off his first ever NHRA “Wally” from his hospital bed later that night. He was released from the hospital after only a few hours.
Serge took a few days off to heal, but wanted to start assessing the damage to the racecar while I took the family on holidays. He spent the next two weeks cleaning up the car, ordering parts and setting up the chassis jig to address the numerous checks and repairs necessary after such an impact. When I got back home on Monday, July 19, we found that the chassis had not been damaged as much as first thought, and all the parts were in place to finish the project. We thrashed on the car all week, and by Thursday night it was apparent that we might be able to make the AHRA World finals in Spokane after all. All the loose ends were tied up by Friday night a 6:00, so the car was loaded and the team headed down the road. We arrived in Spokane at 7 am Saturday, just in time for breakfast, then went straight to the track to get ready for the first qualifying pass. Serge qualified #1 on his first pass with a 6.52 at 213 mph on a very slippery racetrack. He went on to post consistent times on Sunday to take home the championship trophy, showing everyone that he is ready to get on with the rest of the racing season.
The spectacular re-emergence of the Sitko Family Racing top alcohol dragster would not have been possible without the support from the sponsors, family, friends, and other competitors. The support from the racing community again emphasizes that drag racing itself is a close knit family, and reminds us why we keep on doing this. I would also like to thank the track and NHRA officials for their skilled and professional conduct, especially those that helped on a personal level. An incident like this reminds us that in this sport we cannot allow ourselves to be complacent; I am relieved that the car did its job and Serge was not hurt, but you can’t help but think what could have happened.
The Sitko Family Racing team will be continuing their schedule in Calgary at the NHRA Canadian Open on August 14th and 15th, then finish off with a few more races in Edmonton. The win in Spokane restored our confidence, and we look forward to finishing the racing season with improved performances and hopefully a few more wins.