Team CANIDAE Reaches Out to Race Fans Everywhere Over the Weekend

This past weekend, Team CANIDAE Racing struck out across North America, from Mexico to Florida to New Orleans to Texas and Arizona, supporting Independent Retailers and sharing the message of Responsible Pet Ownership to hundreds of thousands of race fans and pet owners on behalf of CANIDAE All Natural Pet Foods.

It was a big week for Team CANIDAE with a total of six different events taking place. First up, Branden Jesseman continues to gather steam on the CANIDAE Motosport Kawasaki Supercross team. After winning his qualifying heat, Branden finished on the podium Saturday with a strong second place in New Orleans at the Live Nation SuperCross East-5 race. This was Jesseman's best race of the season and he is in top form heading into St. Louis next weekend.  Read the full story

Jerry Toliver and Jim Dunn Racing turned in their best performance yet in the still-young 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Series season. Toliver has only had 10 total passes in the CANIDAE Monte Carlo so far and keeps improving. At last weekend's 40th annual ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in Florida, Toliver edged out Force Racing's Mike Neff in the first round. Toliver lost traction in the second round and was bested by veteran John Force. Read the full story

Managed by Ed Torrance, the CANIDAE Kawasaki Team Green amateur riders made their mark on the second amateur national of the new season by dominating the week in Texas, with an astonishing total of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishes to their name. The Team Green riders are one step closer to racing at the Amateur National Motocross Championships at Loretta Lynn’s. Full information coming to the CANIDAE Racing blog soon.

The 23rd Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 race saw 226 total starters with only 162 finishers. This grueling 232.4 mile race in San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico concluded Saturday. In the Class 10 division, Scott Gailey and Scott Whipple shared driving duty and powered the CANIDAE Class 10 machine to a third place finish with a time of 6:20:30. Congratulations guys!

In sand drag news, the 2009 NSDA series completed its second race of the season in Yuma, Arizona with some awesome racing on eliminations day. After racing the same day and finishing 3rd at the San Felipe 250 in Mexico on Saturday, driver Scott Whipple and crew member Carl Boley raced back to Yuma making it just in time for the final qualifying session of top fuel.  Whipple and crew ripped off an amazing 2.382 on their only qualifying pass good for the #3 spot on the ladder. Whipple, with only one pass under his belt, went on to be narrowly defeated by only 6/100th's of a second by Matt Ludlow, who ran his career best pass of 2.34 and low ET for the event, in eliminations on Sunday. Shane Switzer went on to grab his first top fuel win. Congratulations to Shane, Mike and his entire crew for a great win. Whipple and the 2008 championship CANIDAE Top Fuel Team currently sit in 3rd place in their quest for another season championship just 12 points off the leader. Whipple was pleased with the team's efforts, and to be the first and only person to race in the Baja 250 and a Sand Drag event in the same day!

In the Top Alcohol bracket, our hats are off to Nick Januik who won his first NSDA T/A championship from our own 2008 T/A season champion Mike DeNunzio when Mike couldn't make it to the line in time after suffering engine damage in his semi final heat win. Take good care of that Nick. Mike wants it back soon!

Stay tuned to www.canidaeracing.com and canidaeracing.blogspot.com for more racing updates. Great job Team CANIDAE!

Toliver, Canidae Racing Team Ready for the Dry Heat of Phoenix

After a challenging, rainy weekend of drag racing at NHRA's season-opening Winternationals at Pomona (Calif.) two weeks ago, most teams should be ready for the desert sun at this weekend's 25th annual Lucas Oil Slick Mist NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway. Jerry Toliver in the Canidae/Lucas Oil Chevy Funny Car is certainly among those just wanting to make laps in his new ride. 

Toliver qualified 16th in the one and only qualifying session that set the field at Pomona and faced No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight in Sunday's first round. After more than four hours of rain delay and cooling temperatures, Toliver and Hight finally faced off with Hight getting the win light with an elapsed time of 4.159 seconds at 302.62 mph as Toliver's car lost traction and slowed to an 8.122 e.t. at 87.22 mph.

"We're very happy we qualified (at Pomona)," Toliver said. "You have to understand, (Sunday of eliminations) was only my second lap in the Canidae car. I've got a lot of things, personally as a driver, that I have to get comfortable with. You bond with a car and you know where everything is, and I'm still searching for stuff and trying to get comfortable, but that just comes with laps and we need some more laps. We're not frustrated by any means."

NHRA officials were able to complete only one round of eliminations on Sunday at Pomona before rain again interrupted action on the track. Ron Capps was eventually crowned the Winternationals Funny Car champ as he bested Jim Head when eliminations were finally completed on Tuesday.

Reinforcing the difficult conditions at Pomona was last year's primary championship contender and second-place finisher in points, Tim Wilkerson, failing to qualify for this year's season opener.

"It's going to be a tough class this year," Toliver said. "There are a lot of good cars out there. I've always said you've got to be in to win. Just qualifying is a feat in itself."

A two-hour telecast of qualifying coverage for the Lucas Oil Slick Mist NHRA Nationals can be seen on ESPN2 on Sunday, Feb. 22, beginning at 12:00 midnight (ET). Coverage on ESPN2 continues on Sunday, Feb. 22, when NHRA Race Day will kick off eliminator coverage starting at 12:30 p.m. (ET), and concludes with three hours of final eliminations coverage beginning at 7:00 p.m. (ET).

Kirk Weeks