Hyde Racing team to debut new car in Quick 32 Sportsman Series

Posted by Admin

January 20, 2010

Stratford, Ontario team switches from blown Top Dragster to nitrous-powered Cobalt Top Sportsman entry

STRATFORD, ONTARIO (January 20, 2010) – Spencer Hyde will be not only be in a new car for the upcoming Quick 32 Sportsman Series, he will be in a new class of car.

Hyde, former driver of the Hyde Racing Top Dragster, will be piloting a 2007 Cobalt in the Top Sportsman division of the Series.

“We decided we wanted to go into a nitrous program, and wanted to jump into a door car,” explained Hyde, who placed eighth in the NAPA Auto Parts Quick 32 Sportsman Series Championship Point Award Series in 2009 with the team’s supercharged dragster.

The new Hyde car will be the ex-Carl Spiering Cobalt, a car built for and raced in the Series by Spiering. The Jerry Bickel Race Cars machine features a 737-cubic inch nitrous-fed engine built and tuned by ERD (Engine Research and Development) from the Spiering shops in Jordan Station, Ontario.

While Hyde mentioned he had some time behind the wheel of a fendered race car, his experience was with a 10-second door-car on the quarter-mile, while the Cobalt should be capable of sub-seven-second times. The majority of his racing has been with Junior Dragsters before stepping into the speedy Top Dragster in 2009.

Hyde mentioned that the success of the team’s dragster program was due to crew chiefs Jim McCann and Rich Ingram.

“We want to thank Jim and Rich for all their help and guidance with the blower car,” Hyde said. “We wouldn’t be where we are without them. We relied on them constantly, and you can expect to see Jim and Rich around the Hyde pits again this year.”

The team is gearing up for the new ride, and is looking forward to getting into the Cobalt.

“I can’t wait,” said Hyde, a graduate of the Frank Hawley School of Drag Racing. “It is certainly going to be different.”

He added the team is planning to go south in the next couple of months for some initial laps with the new car, and Spiering will be involved for this testing session.

“We’ll start with the eighth-mile. We’re going to start easy and work our way up.”

Hyde also mentioned his sister Sydnie, who has been driving a Junior Dragster the past several seasons, will step into the Top Dragster eventually.

The Cobalt will remain in its red livery at the present, and will sport the Hyde Racing team sponsorship of NAPA Auto Parts, Ideal Supply, Hyde Construction, Transit Petroleum, Hyde Electric, Dordan Mechanical Contractors, DuPont, Samson, Ronnoco, Budweiser, Art & Function, Fastpixs Digital Media, N A Engineering, Wilhelm Concrete, Steve Smith Construction, Sutton Group (Paul Graham) and Orr Insurance.

Photo Credit: Bill Mehlenbacher Photography – www.nxphoto.com and Mike Goodwin – www.mgdigital.ca

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