DEMO CARS, CLAIMERS, DEMO TRUCKS, MINI FIGURE 8’s and MINI VANS
May 24th, 2008Doug Richens Wins Tough Demo Main:
A beautiful night for racing greeted a large crowd to watch the always tough Demo Classes and the very competitive Claimer class race at Western Speedway Saturday night. Even the big infield time clock had a tough time working as for the most part it didn’t work as there was a glitch somewhere.
First up for Feature event action was the Mini Figure 8 class with Shawn Hitchings and Sean Welch holding the front row for the start of thirty laps of racing. Banging and crashing was certainly the order of the day as several cars suffered some hard hits. Bryce Muir led for the middle part of the race and then a red flag came out on lap twenty as Sean Welch, with a little help from Hitchings, wound up on his roof. He tried to re-fire but couldn’t make it happen and was pulled to the pits. On the restart, Hitchings banged his way to the front taking the checkered flag ahead of Brad Watkins and Jeff Foley.
Glen Percival and Bruce Knight led the six Mini Vans to the green flag for the Feature event. Percival just has too much truck as he led start to finish. Earlier, Percival took the Trophy Dash, and the Heat race to complete the “clean sweep” for the night. For the most part it was a three horse race as young Kail Beck and David Dewitt kept the pressure on Percival but couldn’t get by. They would finish in that order.
The Claimers lined up behind the Western Speedway Pace Car for their Main event with the #41 car on the pole ready for twenty laps. Brian Wakelin and Chris Broughton, driving for Eric Fournier, started in the rear of the pack. Mike Noyce started 4th and wasted little time taking the lead while Wakelin and Broughton wasted little time coming from the back of the pack. By the 10th lap Wakelin had taken over the second spot while Broughton had the third spot. The yellow flag came out as Teresa Johnson tried to get out of the way of the leaders and got caught up with Broughton going through turn four. Little damage was done and the field again took the green flag a lap later. Noyce took off with Wakelin right on his bumper while Broughton was all over Wakelin. Over the last few laps, Noyce stretched his lead as Wakelin couldn’t cope as well with a slippery track and Broughton also fell back but finished third. Johnson managed a good 4th place finish.
Rob Wood was driving for Mark Lefebvre in the Demo Truck class this night. Earlier he won the Trophy Dash and took 4th in the Heat race. Aasen Baker took the Heat race with Richard Milne 2nd and Billy Stidston 3rd. In a very hard hitting Feature event, it was Stidston banging his way to the win followed by Wood and Baker. In the post race interview, Stidston said his was an older truck but could still hit. He also mentioned about another ten trucks that are not running and hoped they would come out to lift the truck count. High costs and time constraints seemed to be contributing factors but 12 trucks would make a great race in his opinion.
Demo cars would run 25 laps for their Feature event with last year’s Champion, George Haywood on the pole and taking the early lead. Hits were hard and often throughout. Lead changes also were plentiful. The 02 car brought out a caution as he came to a stop on the 4th corner on lap 12. By this time the #42 car had the lead with Smokin Joe Liberatore on his bumper followed by Haywood. Liberatore took the lead on lap 14 and Doug “the Slug” Richens had moved up from the back to take the 2nd spot. Going into turn 4, Richens got the inside on Joe and spun him out taking over the lead. Robin Trotter got into the mix driving the #15 car and was all over Richens. Mel Jeffries had his car quit bringing out the yellow bunching up the field. With 7 laps left, Trotter took out Richens taking the lead with Liberatore back into 2nd. With about 4 laps to go Liberatore took out Trotter for the lead. By this time, Richens was back in the fray and closing fast on Liberatore. On the last corner, Richens took out Liberatore again allowing Trotter to regain the 2nd spot and Liberatore regained the 3rd spot as they followed Richens across the finish line in that order.
Next weekend the VI Rentals Stock Car series, OTRA, Dwarf Cars, and the Sportsman Series return to Western Speedway certain to provide exciting races. Don't miss it.CLAIMER CLASS:
DASH: Brandon Giles; Bill Lushaw; Raymond Wilkinson
HEAT: Brian Wakelin; Chris Broughton; Matt Verhagen; Paul Verhagen
MAIN: Michael Noyce; Brian Wakelin; Chris Broughton; Teresa Johnson; Matt Verhagen
DEMO TRUCK CLASS:
DASH: Rob Wood; Richard Milne; Trevor Hardy; David Cates
HEAT: Aasen Baker; Richard Milne; Billy Stidston; Rob Wood
MAIN: Billy Stidston; Rob Wood; Aasen Baker; David Cates; Trevor Hardy
DEMO CAR CLASS:
DASH: George Hayward; Jeremy Gardener; Mike Makow; Mikie Rutty
1st HEAT: Michael Noyce; George Hayward; Jeremy Gardener; Mike Makow
2nd HEAT: Keith Hansen; Robin Trotter; Joe Liberatore; Bill Koenders
MAIN: Douglas Richens; Robin Trotter; Joe Liberatore; Michael Noyce; Bill Koenders
DEMO VAN CLASS:
DASH: Glen Percival; Kail Beck; David Dewitt; Bruce Knight
HEAT: Glen Percival; Roger Beck; Bruce Knight; Kail Beck
MAIN: Glen Percival; Kail Beck; David Dewitt; Bruce Knight; Chris Devoe
MINI FIGURE 8 CLASS:
DASH: Shawn Hitchings; John Earl; Sean Welch; Brad Watkins
1st HEAT: Brad Watkins; Sean Young; Sean Welch; Shawn Hitchings
2nd HEAT: Jeff Foley; Bryce Muir; Shawn Conarroe; Bob Day
MAIN: Shawn Hitchings; Brad Watkins; Jeff Foley; Sean Young; Bryce Muir
