IHRA: Turner helped by battle of attrition

Jay Turner is the first to tell you the weekend wasn't perfect, but compared to the myriad of problems suffered by his competitors, it sure looked that way as the racer took the Nitro Motorcycle win in the Mopar Rocky Mountain Nationals at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

His third victory of the season came by beating Tracy Kile in the finals. Kile, despite laying down a pass at a stunning 246.98mph earlier in the weekend, suffered mechanical problems, and it looked as though he wouldn't even be able to line up for the final round against Turner.

Kile answered the bell, though, and after a good launch, Kile's weekend ended with a 11.210 at 84.92mph. Turner ran 6.495 at 212.56mph.

Rain delays stretched the show until well past 1 a.m., but it didn't seem to affect Turner. "We started the weekend out slow," Turner said. "We underestimated the track, based on our past trips up here. I was struggling real hard at first."

But as problems plagued top competitors like Kile and Bob Malloy, the weekend just sort of came to Turner, who now has a commanding lead in the points with one race to go. "This weekend, the track was phenomenal. The grip was just awesome. Hats off to the IHRA crew for giving us a great racing surface here in Edmonton."

It wasn't easy, of course, as the IHRA and Castrol Raceway crews spent hour after hour Friday and Sunday drying and re-preparing the asphalt, only to lose the track again to rain.

The North Carolina-based Turner and his team will try to wrap it all up at the final race of the season, the IHRA Northern Nationals at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan, August 12-13. For more information, log onto US131msp.com.