Cayuga: Eliminations moved to Monday

IHRA Canadian Nationals Finals Pushed to Monday

CAYUGA, Ontario (September 9, 2007) -- Sunday eliminations for the IHRA Canadian Nationals presented by PartSource have been postponed and will be completed Monday.

Rain began early Sunday morning and continued to saturate the track throughout the day. At 3:30 p.m., IHRA and Toronto Motorsports Park officials cancelled racing for the day, rescheduling eliminations for Monday.

After near-perfect conditions Saturday drew a standing-room-only crowd for the Chevrolet "Night of Fire," race officials opted to run three full rounds of sportsman eliminations in anticipation of Sunday's rain. That tough call was preceded by Friday's decision to bump the professional qualifier up an hour to avoid impending rain. When it began raining Friday night at 7:25 p.m., only two cars hadn't been down the track.

"We've made two tough decisions already this weekend and thankfully both have been correct," said IHRA vice president of racing operations Skooter Peaco. "The only good thing about bumping Sunday to Monday is that it was an easy call to make because the temperature is rapidly dropping and the rain just wouldn't stop."

Monday's forecast is calling for favorable weather.

"The IHRA team has worked hard this weekend to account for weather conflicts with our race schedule. We've managed to squeeze in rounds of racing that would normally not have gotten in, in order to make the situation more convenient for sportsman and professional race teams," added Peaco. "We'll come back Monday and finish this one."

Sportsman racing will begin at 9:15 a.m. All sportsman competitors left in competition will get a time run prior to the continuation of eliminations. Professional eliminations are scheduled for 10 a.m., 11:15, 12 noon and 2 p.m.

Sunday tickets purchased for the Canadian Nationals will be honored during the 2008 event.

-credit: ihra