Oct 23, 2020

From the communications office of the super secret hideout of IHRP

After what was easily the best year of Heads Up Street Car Class racing the Southern Ontario drag racing community has seen in years, Ian Hill Racing Productions (IHRP) has put together a great plan for 2021, and together with the Owners of St. Thomas Dragway have come up with an expanded schedule for next season. 2021 will see a 4 race Canada Heads Up series and our signature event going back to its stand-alone weekend format.

IHRP events are usually not on long weekends. With so many different series and Holiday long weekend-events to choose from, IHRP has kept the events focused on regular weekends again for 2021. This year, 3 of our Heads Up Series races will take place at St. Thomas Dragway (STT)and one (July) race will be held at Grand Bend Motorplex (GBM). The 5th annual RPM Magazine Smackdown event will again be held at STT on the July 24th weekend.

” the management at STT were great to work with this season. Together with the track managment and staff we were able to learn, work together and grow into a stronger association. When Paul approached us with a proposed schedule for 2021… in mid October, i almost fell off my chair! Once again proving to us that these guys really know how to deal with their customers!”, Ian Hill – IHRP Director. “Announcing our dates so early will allow our racers to book their time off accordingly and allow us to work with our sister organizations for dates so our racers have as many options to race as they can fit in for next season!” 

Its hard to focus on 2021 already, as IHRP is still working to finalize their 2020 season supported by Maxima Racing Oil and RM Racing Lubricants. Year end awards and payouts are still yet to be handed out and celebrations are still uncertain with the COVID restrictions, but as can be expected, the Board and volunteers at IHRP will finish the year off in style!

2020 IHRP

 Canada Heads Up – Maxima Racing Oil Heads Up Street Car Shootout Series

The rubber dust and smoke has settled, the sweet smell of race gas and the eye watering alcohol fumes are gone, but the sound… the roar of the big inch Nitrous powered, Super Charged, Pro Charged and Turbocharged entries that came out to race in our series this season will be with me for months to come!

What started out looking like an amazing season with our new marketing partners Maxima Racing Oil and RM Racing Lubricants in place for what was sure to be another successful series in the coming months, was quickly sent to the noose with the arrival of Covid and the rules that would be put in place that nearly suffocated our 2020 efforts. By the time the season was set to get started, with the updates being finished by our 2020 home track, the momentum we expected earlier in the year was right back with us!

We were ecstatic that our Pro Categories were filled with 96 entries at race 1. Race 2 Pro Category entries dipped to 80 during the rain filled weekend which saw Sunday’s eliminations cancelled due to weather. Our 3rd and final weekend saw 102 Pro Category entries through the gate! Of course, all 3 race weekends were also home to many Pro, Super Pro and Bikes&Sleds entries, all making 2020 easily our biggest year ever for entries!

Maxima Racing Oil series points were awarded to each Pro Category racer in 8.80Extreme Bikes, EZ Street, Street Bike, Super Street, 235Outlaws, Street275, Wicked 6.50 and Jr Dragster competition. Attendance point, Round win points, Elimination Champion points and Record ET points were handed out in each Pro Class.

Class                    Champion                            2nd Place

Super Street         Nick Agostino                       Pano Moros

EZ Street              Anthony Daversa                  Matt Glassford

235Outlaws           Corrado Lentinello                Tyler Kranendonk

Street Bike            Nick Kempers                       Damian Tang

Street275              E.J Gouveia                          Jason White

8.80Extreme Bike   Landon Swain                       Karen Hope

Wicked6.50            Jay Lightheart                       Austin Ward

Jr Dragster Champion – Arnold Fox

We saw records fall in almost every class. Nick Agostino set the bar for low et and high mile in Super Street with a 4.33 et and 185.05. EZ Street saw the mph record get reset by Adam Bastarache with a 160.30 mph. 235Outlaws hitter Corrado Lentinello made history being the first to the 4s in Ontario and set the current small tire record at 4.96 et and 146.89mph. Street275 records now belong to Jomama with a 5.5020 et and Mac Goblin and his 135.09mph run. Wicked6.50 records were set by Eric- green-bastard-Webber with a dead on 6.500 @ 115.40. On the bike side of things we saw some amazing numbers posted this year, both in the heads up and index classes. Street Bike record now sits with Mickey Dinoo and his 161.44mph, while only one end of the 8.80 Extreme record was reset! Murray Lonsbury now holds the et side with an 8.806. All et records are kept to the fourth decimal place and both ET and MPH records are required to be backed up at the same event within 1% to be certified.

While we can not host a year end banquet our champions will be celebrated with Champions trophies, prizes and cash, collected through membership fees at the beginning of the year.

As always, check out the sponsors lists we have posted on our website and try to use these companies as you perform your winter upgrades. We give another special thank you to our series partner Maxima Racing Oil and RM Racing Lubricants.

Points lists can be found on our website as well the Canada Heads Up FB page

September 4, 2020

Press Release – Ross Racing Pistons

Ian Hill Racing Productions welcomes Ross Racing Pistons to our family of marketing partners. Ross Racing Pistons is one of the last family owed and operated piston manufacturers and are proud of their level of experience and customer support. Since 1979 Ross Racing Pistons has been a leader in manufacturing the most advanced forged pistons in the racing industry.

The Ross Racing Pistons Outlaw class will be run during the RPM Magazine Smackdown4 powered by Maxima Racing Oil and RM Racing Lubrication, as well Ross Racing Pistons will be supporting the Super Street Class of the Canada Heads Up – street car shootout series. Please visit Ross Racing Pistons and see whats new, visit their Facebook page here!

Local sales representative Barry Dwyer will be on hand during the September 26/27 2020 event weekend at St. Thomas Dragway, with his Ross Racing Piston vendor/ display booth. Please make sure to stop in, say hi, thank them for their support of our event and see what goodies Ross can offer you for your combo! 

“We are proud to have Ross Racing Pistons join us in our drive to show continual growth and improvement through our efforts of drag racing promotion and event hosting, which we measure through our valued racer’s feedback and event attendance”, IHRP director – Ian Hill. 

Race 1 – July 24-26, 2020

Race Review

To call this past race weekend a success is an understatement. The Pits at ST. Thomas Dragway were so full, we had racers pitting on the East side of the track.  As far as entries go, how about 341 entries for our 3 day event!?!?!?! Add in at least another 200 Friday night test and tune entries, that at time near crimpled the return road, and this was a race for the history books as it was clearly the most entries we’ve ever had at a Ian Hill Racing Productions event.

Canada Heads Up – powered by Maxima Racing Oil race weekend #1 was set o be a hot one. Track prep gurus Corey Herman (GBM) and Mike Vanni (TMP) came together to help us make the best of the track in temperatures that peaked at 146 degrees! Friday’s test session was well attended and as usual, by mid-day the track started to come around. While many of the Super Street and EZ Street competitors were killing he tire at the 20-70 foot mark, some of the 235Outlaws guys were showing that the starting line was right where they needed it to be get down on the smallest head up tire size on property! Traction was at a premium for race promoter Ian Hill’s Grey Area as he drove under a huge wheelie, lifting all 4 tires off the track at about the 105ft mark. Friday at 5 the test session was over, the bbq’s were lit and the TnT entries started to trickle in! All the race teams got back to the trailer to service their hot rods for Saturdays start to race 1!

By early Saturday morning we could see that we had ourselves on serious race on our hands. Not only were the Sportsman pits looking like they may well over flow, the bike pit area was wrapping around the East side of the track! The Heads-Up classes were highlighted by the rumor that 12 Super Street legal cars were on the property. Early reports from Canada Heads Up tech guy – Greg Miller confirmed “their were a ton of Super Street Cars!”… By the time Q1 (first qualifier) was called the rumors were confirmed – 12 Super Street cars had shown up to join our 2020 points series! There was every horse power  combination from a Naturally Aspirated x-Pro Stock, big inch nitrous, big block Procharger, Roots Super Charger and Twin Turbo combos for a full rounded out field.

Race Day brought to you by Speedwire

Super Street –12 entries showed up for qualifying, the first time in 15 years the class has seen double digit entries! Nick Agostino set a new Canada Heads Up record in route to the #1 qualifier position @ 4.38 et (Nick uses Maxima Racing Oil)! Nick went all the way to the finals to win the event against ex-pro stock racer Tony Pontiere in a wicked close finish! The two cars in the finals couldn’t be more different in their combos; Nick running heavy in his 69 camaro (regularly races Pro275)with an extremely large Small Block (4.600 bore space) twin turbos and a 2 speed transmission, while in the other lane Tony’s x-pro stock (regularly ran Outlaw10.5) Cavalier runs ultra light with a 572 cubic inch naturally aspirated/ liberty 5 speed combination.

Our Street Bike class was dominated ET wise once again by Randy Hope running a string of low 9 second runs, however it was Nick Kempers that took the win!

EZ Street’s Anthony Daversa met up with Matt Glassford for the third straight final round. This time it was Anthony Daversa that took the win! Great to note was to see regular No Time competitor Nick Kokkas come step it up to run in EZ Street and make his first run in the 4 second zone.

235Outlaws star Corrado Lentinello and his trusted blue fox body Mustang nailed the number 1 spot again, and lowered the current record while on his way there! The previous record was smashed, from 5.28 down to 5.19. This only because he didn’t back up his 5.10 et run! Corrado took out Dean Carmine in the finals.

The rest of our winners were:

Street275 – EJ Gouveir

Wicked 6.50 Craig Degouw

Extreme 8.80 Bike – Karen Hope

Saturdays Sportsman class winners:

Pro – Drew Buchner

Super Pro – Joe Passero

Bikes and Sleds – Landon Swain

Jr Drgaster – Kami Scott

                (Consi – Kate Gingerich)

Sundays:

Pro – Cliff Knechtel

Super Pro – Wyatt Henderson

Bikes and Sleds – Murray Lonsbury

Jr Dragster – Arnold Fox

                (Consi – Austin Vermeulen)

End of year – Agostino/ Zarcone bonus – $500 goes to each of the quickest ET over the 3 race series. So far your current low et holders are:

EZ- Boost: Canadian Dave 5.23

EZ Nitrous: Anthony Daversa 4.95

SS- Boost: Nick Agostino 4.38

SS-Nitrous: Pano Moros 4.55

Records were set, from the amount of entries to the performance on the track! For our first event being run with the new management of St Thomas Dragway we believe the weekend was a big hit and we cant wait to head back there for race 2 of the Canada Heads Up – Street Car Shootout Series powered by Maxima Racing Oil Aug 14-16, 2020!

Thank you, again for all your support in 2020!

Ian Hill

Director – Canada Heads Up

June 30, 2020

Canada Heads Up once again welcomes Performance Tire and Service Center/ Cesario Motorsports as a supporter of the Canada Heads Up Street Car Shootout series. 

Give Frank or Marc Anthony a call the next time you are in need!!!!

Canada Heads Up is a street car based series that features everything from the fastest street style doorslammers in heads up action to sportsman racing. Come check us out at St. Thomas Dragway July 25/26 2020 for our first event!

As the 2020 racing season hangs in limbo, Canadian simulator giant VRX Simulator has partnered with iRacing to bring drag racing to the level of international play the likes of NASCAR and Sportscar/ Touring car and F1 have only seen. Rumors started months ago when promoters Donald Long, Jay Payso and Canad’s own Ian Hill discussed the potential of losing the 2020 drag racing season. “Once we agreed that RvW, Pro275, X275 and N/T28s were the 4 most popular classes in all of drag racing we contacted Iracing and begun plans to bring our brand of drag racing to the front!

In the mean time, having the top promoters in one chat session gave chance to discuss the long overdue rule changes that will help drive home the permanent stake of small tire racing as the leading wave of the drag racing events. With discussion leaning towards a 28″ tire revolution it was decided that “LDR would forever be dropped and in place X275 would see an increase in hp potential to try to allow the X275 to creep into the 4.1 zone” – said Canadian Promoter Ian Hill.

Canadian Radial tire racer Adam Basterache is the first known Canadian racer to step up to the updated X275 class rules. After he hurt his engine late last season at the Import vs the World event, Adam watched closely as the new rule set fell into place and is now ready for the new season with his twin turbo combination fresh from Canada Heads Up series supporter Bulls Eye Power Turbochargers and as such will have free entry into all of our Friday test Sessions this season! Adam is also considering running Maxima Racing Oil provided by RM Racing Lubricants so once the local EZ Street rules are updated to align to the newest changes of X275 he looks forward to his plans of going for the EZ Street Championship in 2020 and taking the bonus Champions payouts that RM has posted for the class! All this with  the added bonus of $1000 for the quickest ET in EZ Street provided by Rob Zarcone and Nick Agostino, Adam has his sights set on a big win at the year end banquet!!!

“the 2020 season may well be delayed, or even cancelled all together, but with the plans of IRacing to include the small tire class racing we love, we will all have something to look forward to whether by adding a simulator to our basement entertainment area or watching the weekly feed” – Ian Hill Canada Heads Up Director.

Motorama 2020 is finally upon us! Come check out our booth #1318 in the back end of Hall 1 (in the same spot we were last year!). We will have some serious horsepower on display this year showing off a wide spectrum of what our focus is on this year! Representation this year with include – Super Street, EZ Street, Bikes, Street275, Limited28s and Jr Dragster classes! 

We will also be promoting a couple of our fund raisers at this event. We are raffeling off an EZ GO custom golf cart (customized by RCR Performance Golf Catrs), only 210 tickets are being sold and the ticket sales can be tracked on our Facebook pages. We will also be kicking off our Miller Welding Equipment  tig welder draw this weekend. Information will be available at our booth! Or check it out on our site GOLF CART!

Mar 4, 2020 from the asphalt glue department of the super secret hide out of the OGW

Ian Hill Racing Productions (IHRP) is proud to welcome Mike Vanni to our racing Team. Mike will be continuing with his on track knowledge and continuing to bring his best track-traction efforts to the table during all of our Canada Heads Up and OGW race weekends.

“When we saw that Mike’s previous employer couldnt put a deal together for him for 2020 we took notice. We touched based with Mike at that point and hoped he would end up applying the skills he developed in 2020 to our facility of choice for 2020 – St. Thomas Dragway (STT). We are excited to bring Mike onto our team for 2020 and hope that the combination of having Mike as the lead Prep guru on track, the new racing surface and concrete barriers at STT come together to prove once again, IHRP’s focus is on building the greatest racing weekends for our customers… you, the racer!” – Ian Hill

We look forward to seeing everyone in a week at the Motorama Car Show – please note our Drivers Meeting is at 2pm on Saturday, March 14th!

February 5, 2020

We are proud to announce the return of supporting sponsor PSP Paul Silva Performance to our roster for 2020. PSP Paul Silva Performance has become a staple at our events with the entourage of customer’s race cars and their bold black and yellow t-shirt design!

PSP Paul Silva Performance specializes in Mustang high performance repair and upgrades. From mild to wild, from street to full out race PSP has the knowledge to make your ideas and designs come to life! PSP shop owner Paul Silva can be found right at the starting line most weekends of the summer as he ensures all of his customer and family based race team is lined up properly and has the knowledge required to make safe passes down the strip!

PSP Paul Silva Performance has a rich history within the street car drag racing scene of Ontario which includes attendance at early OCSA (Ontario Street Car Association) events, Drag Syndicate events, PTRA East vs West and ofcourse our own Canada Heads UP and Smackdown events!

Next time you are in Scarborough drop in and check out what PSP Paul Silva Perfomance can do for you!