As father-son duos go, these guys go pretty fast.
Racing in a circuit sanctioned by the International Hot Rod Association at the Nl’akapxm Eagle Motorplex in Ashcroft, Darrel Toews’ dragster will run a quarter mile in 7.9 seconds, topping out at 168 m.p.h. The junior dragster his son, Michael, will run one-eighth of a mile in about the same time and a quarter mile in close to 12 seconds.
Maybe in the Toews family, who reside at 103 Mile, the Y chromosome contains a need for speed?
Drag racing has, in a way, come full circle for Darrel. He started racing in 1993 but stopped in 2000 when Michael and his twin sister, Katie, were two years old.
In the fall of 2008, he got his competitor’s licence again, while Michael, 15, joined the junior circuit in 2010.
“It’s awesome,” says Michael, a Grade 10 student at Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School.
“It’s family-bonding time and going fast and feeling the rush.”
In 2012, they actually went faster than everyone and captured regional championships in their respective classes.
Michael repeated as champion in 2013, but this year was a bit tougher for the elder Toews.
“We both had an awesome season in 2012 and then I went from hero to zero for 2013,” Darrel says.
“I couldn’t win a round all year. Same car. I just had tons of mechanical problems.”
Father and son agree running a successful drag race depends on the car and driver about equally. Since races are won and lost in thousandths of a second, the car’s mechanics and the driver’s reflexes need to be precise.
“It’s barely a blink of an eye,” says Michael.
“The car needs to be tuned exactly and the driver needs to be on his A-game, ready for the tree to drop down [starting lights]and getting the best light [green].”
Darrel notes that when he’s approaching the start line, everything else gets zoned out.
“It can be 100 degrees Fahrenheit down at Ashcroft. You’re in a fire suit and a helmet. It’s frying hot.
“You’re waiting in those staging lanes and you’re dying from the heat. But basically as soon as you get waved in and do the burn out everything else is forgotten.
“If you take your focus off for a split second, you’ve lost the race.”
There is a bit of baiting and trickery involved sometimes, too. Darrel and Michael have been travelling to Las Vegas for the last few years to watch professional drag races. A few years ago, when Michael first started racing, he picked up a “burn down” game some of the pros like to play when they’re staging at the starting line.
It’s all “head games,” Darrel explains.
“They’ll both go in and turn the first bulb on and then they sit there and wait. They’re trying to make the other guy go in first. From there, it doesn’t matter who goes in next. You can sit there forever.
“The starter, the guy who is running the tree, he’ll eventually get [mad] and tell the guys ‘get in.’ As soon as one guy turns the second stage bulb on, the other guy has a maximum of seven seconds … if he doesn’t come in within the seven seconds he gets red lit, he’s done, he loses the race.”
The “burn down” game makes sense to play on the pro circuit because their cars aren’t made to idle very long. In Las Vegas, Michael and Darrel witnessed one crafty driver, who saw he was at a power disadvantage, wait in the second stage while his opponent revved his engine up.
“He counted out the whole seven seconds,” Darrel recalls.
“The guy in the turbo car had brought the car up too high and it pulled him through the lights. The other guy, under the seven seconds, pulled in and gets the green light and wins the race.
Well, Michael sees this happen. The next season he’s out drag racing and playing this game.”
It worked for him a couple of times, but once, in the biggest race of the year, Michael says he waited too long and was disqualified.
“That was the last time he did it. He doesn’t play the game anymore.”
As dangerous as drag racing may seem to some, neither Michael nor Darrel have had any close calls to speak of.
“I think there’s a lot more potential to get hurt [in stock car racing],” Darrel says.
“There are definitely guys who get killed. But, there are guys who walk away when there’s virtually nothing left of the car [after a crash]. I guess when your number’s up, your number’s up.”
The obvious family-connection notwithstanding, the guys say the greater racing community feels something like a big family, as you often see the same people at the same events. When Darrel couldn’t afford to rebuild his transmission ahead of a big racing event in Edmonton earlier this year, a driver from Salmon Arm, who competes against him, shipped him a spare.
“He said just use it,” Darrel says with gratitude.
“I actually got him in the fifth round in Edmonton and he beat me. I had the worst reaction time of the whole day. It almost looked like I threw the race. But I didn’t.”
Darrel is taking his dragster completely apart this winter considering how often it was breaking down last season. Michael is getting too big for the junior dragster, so it has “For Sale” painted on it. If it doesn’t sell, and he doesn’t grow too much this winter, he’ll race it again next season.
That said, he does have other plans.
“Hopefully, I’ll move up to my dad’s car. Mine’s fun and all, but once you start going 85-m.p.h. over and over again, it gets old.
“There’s faster. You want to go faster.”
Michael will need his learner’s permit first when he turns 16 and then a competitor’s licence to race on the track with a car that runs a quarter mile in under 10 seconds.
Even with the occasional frustration, extra work and costs involved, neither sees themselves giving up on drag racing anytime soon.
Says Darrel: “It’s really cool doing this with my son.”
