DEMO CARS, CLAIMERS, DEMO TRUCKS, MINI FIGURE 8’s and MINI VANS June 7th, 2008 Brad Smith Wins Wild Demo Main: Langford, BC., June 7, 2008. Story and Photos by Ken Keating, Illusion Photography                 A very large crowd witnessed the Reynolds Secondary School Marching Band perform Canada’s National Anthem to open the race program at Western Speedway Saturday night. The band consists of 120 members and is one of the premier bands around and always takes part in the Victoria Day parade as well as other events.                 This program included the Figure 8s, Demo Cars, Demo Trucks, Mini Vans, and the Claimer Class and as usual the competition was hot and furious. Between the Heat races and Feature events, fans were asked to vote, by applause, for a name for the Mascot. He/she will be now known as “Skidmark” and will be at the track for the remainder of the season. Brad Watkins lead several laps in the Figure 8 Main but he got taken out. Several cars suffered heavy collisions throughout but when the dust settled it was Shawn Hitchings taking the Checkered flag. This marked his third Feature win in a row for the second year driver. Watkins hung on to second while  Sean Young came in third.                 Troy Tarbuck took over driving duties for Glen Percival in the Mini Van Feature but his truck suffered transmission problems and his night was done. Meanwhile on the track, a young Kail Beck led most of the race with his dad on his bumper. Roger had his hands full trying to get by the youngster but managed to go to the inside to make the pass and go on to the checkered flag. Kail held on for second with David Dewitt in third.                 Twenty-five laps would be the distance for the Claimer Feature event with Jared Solberg, driving the #77 car, holding the pole position with Morgan Giles on the outside. It didn’t take long for Brian Wakelin, Mike Noyes, and Eric Fournier to start their march from the back to the front. Wakelin got together with Noyes and had to pit for tires early in the race while up front Rich Benson grabbed the lead followed by Paul Verhagen. Noyes was forced to pit for tires after some contact and placing another contender at the back of the pack. Solberg got together with the #9 car putting him into the backstretch wall and bringing out a yellow. On the restart, Benson got away again but Fournier had avoided all of the early collisions and worked his way into the top four putting all sorts of pressure on Matt Verhagen, Paul Verhagan, and Fournier. These four put on a great race even when they got into lapped traffic. Benson went low and Fournier high and was almost put into the wall going by the lapped car as he didn’t know Fournier was there. Yellow flags plagued the race forcing cars to go back to their position of the last lap so Fournier had to drop back a couple of times and try again when the race returned to green flag racing. After one such yellow, Fournier got to the outside and made a clean pass for the lead. One more yellow bunched the field but on the restart Fournier got away and went on to win. Rich Benson managed to hold off Paul Verhagen for second in the tuff, tuff Claimer feature.                 Billy “Bob” Stidston survived a hard hitting Feature in Demo Truck action. He took over the lead about half way through and won his third Feature in a row. He had to hold onto that truck even though he lost his power steering also around the half way mark. He was followed by Dave Cates and Barry Morrison to the flag.                 Demo Cars looked at twenty laps to determine a winner in their Feature event. Keith Hansen got the early lead but a yellow flag came out when Mike Makow spun out and couldn’t refire his car. Hansen used this to get a new tire as one of his was flat. Shortly after the restart, Brad Smith took the lead followed by Jim Young and Doug Richens with four laps in the books. When the starters threw the green flag, Smith got away clean but Young, slow to get going, got hammered by the big Cadillac driven by Dean Mackney. Richens, now in second took out Smith for the lead but that didn’t last long. Hansen, Robin Trotter, in his first race this season, and Bill Koenders were moving in on Richens. Hansen took out Richens and worked himself to a full straight away lead but going into turn one his motor blew up. Before the yellow came out several cars got into the oil with the #101 car sliding into the tires next to the turn one wall. The car went up in the air and settled back down laying on its side. The driver got out on his own and was unhurt. Little damage was done to the car and after about a half hour red condition, for clean-up, he was back in the car ready to go. This all happened on lap fourteen. On the restart, Smith had the lead followed by Trotter and Koendeers. Trotter put lots of pressure on Smith but couldn’t get by over the remaining laps. Smith took the checkered flag with Trotter second and Koenders third. CLAIMER CLASS: Fast Time:  #44 Michael Noyce DASH:  Michael Noyce; Brian Wakelin; Ron Begg; Erik Fournier 1st HEAT:  Paul Verhagen; Ray Wilkinson; Jared Soberg;                Morgan Giles 2nd HEAT: Michael Noyce; Brian Wakelin; Matt Verhagen;                Rich Benson MAIN:  Erik Fournier; Rich Benson; Paul Verhagen; Matt Verhagen           Ray Wilkinson   DEMO CAR CLASS: Fast Time:  #15 Brad Smith DASH:  Brad Smith; Doug Richens; Michael Noyce; Tyler Clough 1st HEAT:  Jim Young; Dean Mackney; Gary McNeal; Cody Young 2nd HEAT: Brad Smith; Doug Richens; Robin Trotter;                Michael Noyce MAIN:  Brad Smith; Robin Trotter; Bill Koenders; Jim Young;           Gary McNeal   DEMO TRUCK CLASS: Fast Time:  #95 Billy Stidston DASH:  Cory Nightingale; Barry Morrison; Billy Stidston;            David Cates HEAT:  Barry Morrison; Billy Stidston; Richard Milne; David Cates MAIN:  Billy Syidston; David Cates; Barry Morrison; Aasen Baker;           Trevor Hardy   DEMO VAN CLASS: Fast Time:  #34 Roger Beck DASH:  Troy Tarbuck; Roger Beck; David Dewitt; Kail Beck HEAT:  Roger Beck; Kail Beck; Troy Tarbuck; David Dewitt MAIN:  Roger Beck; Kail Beck; David Dewitt; Troy Tarbuck   MINI FIGURE 8 CLASS: Fast Time:  #82 Tim Fraser (New Track Record  14:03) DASH:  John Earl; Kyle Ridley; Jeff Foley; Tim Fraser HEAT:  John Earl; Shawn Hitchings; Brad Watkins; Bryce Muir MAIN:  Shawn Hitchings; Brad Watkins; Sean Young; Kyle Ridley;           Bryce Muir Meet our newly named mascot, "Skidmark"