Roger Bateman- IHRA Rocky Mountain Nats Preview

Friesen Motorsports shifts into high gear for Edmonton’s Rocky Mountain Nationals

WINNIPEG — Canada’s leanest, meanest quarter-mile team is ready to hit the high revs on home turf.

The Winnipeg-based Doc’s Holiday top alcohol funny car (TAFC) team will be making a triumphant homecoming during the River Cree Rocky Mountain Nationals, the sixth event on the International Hot Rod Association’s national Nitro Jam schedule, at Edmonton’s Castrol Raceway from Thursday, July 3 through Sunday, July 5.

It’s been two years — the 2007 Rocky Mountain Nationals, to be exact — since driver Roger Bateman of Calgary launched the Friesen Motorsports Ford Mustang-skinned funny car on Canadian soil. Since then, the team has transformed itself into one of the National Hot Rod Association’s most feared TAFC outfits . . . and, remarkably, done it all on the financial straight and narrow.

“With an unsponsored car, it’s hard on everyone to be able to accomplish what we do,” says team owner Dr. Brian Friesen. “We’ve got a top-rated car because of our passion, our hard work, our research and our careful expenditures.

“We have the best engine parts. We put the energy where it needs to be. But that also means we do everything else as economically as possible. We don’t fly to the races —we drive — and we’re right back at work Monday morning. A title sponsor for our team would be a big weight off our shoulders.”

During the 2008 season, Bateman drove the Friesen Motorsports Mustang to the NHRA’s Division Five, or West Central Division, championship, and finished an eye-popping fourth place in the NHRA’s overall top alcohol funny car standings.

This year, the Doc’s Holiday team has picked up where it left off in the West Central — building up a commanding lead over heavy hitter Vern Moats of Des Moines, Iowa, in NHRA divisional standings, thanks to two wins (Brainerd, Minn., and Denver) and one runner-up finish (Great Bend, Kan.) in the first three events of the season on the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series schedule.

Bateman’s narrow loss to Sean O’Bannon of Ontario, Calif., on Saturday in Great Bend, which concluded a rain-delayed event that began in April, will almost certainly push Friesen Motorsports into the NHRA’s top five TAFC teams from seventh.

And it hasn’t even been a month since Bateman, during the NHRA’s Route 66 Nationals at Joliet, Ill., shattered the ET record for Canadian-based TAFC teams, laying down a scorching 5.566-second run in qualifying that eclipsed his own mark by a hundredth of a second.

“If anything, I think things are going better than last year,” says Bateman. “Before, we got a little lost here and there. Now, we’ve had a year of experience at doing well; we have our own information to fall back on, should we lose our way.

“We switched our motor program last year (opting for Brad Anderson engines), and it took us a while to get comfortable,” adds Bateman. “But success came at the end of the year, and we’ve carried that forward. I think we’re better, more consistently, this year than we were last year.”

Friesen, Bateman, crew chief Ken Murray, and team members Todd Murray and Jim Kalb admit to being a little miffed over the way Saturday’s final played out in Kansas — “there was an oil down from the (TA) dragster final, they didn’t see it because it was so late at night, and Roger got out of shape when we clearly had (O’Bannon) beat,” sighs Friesen — but are looking forward to making amends in Edmonton.

Alberta’s capital regularly turns out the biggest crowds on the IHRA’s national schedule, and Bateman is looking forward to stout competition from the likes of three-time IHRA funny car champion Rob Atchison of London, Ont.

“The fans are great, which always makes it exciting,” says Friesen. “The track is great. The competition is fine. We like to go there and show our stuff. We feel we’re the best car in Canada, and it’s good to make a representation there.”

For sponsorship opportunities, or for more information on Friesen Motorsports, please visit http://www.docsholiday.com


Courtesy of Todd Kimberley