Goldstream
Gazette and 100.3 the Q
Canada Day
Demos and Fireworks
Fireworks As Young Sweeps Canada Day
June 30th could only mean that there would be fireworks at any racetrack in Canada and such was the case last night at Western Speedway. Figure 8s, Demo Cars, Demo Trucks, Claimers, and the exciting boat races entertained close to 3000 fans in attendance for the Canada Day celebrations. Cody Young started the fireworks as he won the Trophy Dash and went on to the “clean sweep” by winning his heat and capped it off with the win in a tuff Feature Event at the famed oval.
Chris McInerney, Claimers; Jamie Shepherd, Demo Trucks; and Doug Richens, Demo Cars; won their respective Trophy Dashes to start the night’s action.
Young and Kail Beck raced side by side for several laps until Kail’s car quit on lap 5 giving the outright lead and win to Young in the Figure 8 Heat race. Brian Wakelin found himself in the slow heat which is unusual for him. He was down in power, after a motor change, but held off the rest of the field and took the win with Gary Smith winning the fast Heat in the Claimer Class.
Bill Shire took the Demo Truck Heat, Marty Hansen and Mike Noyce won Demo Car Heats.
Dennis Smith broke out to lead the first lap followed by Brad Watkins in the Figure 8 Feature race but the field was slowed by a yellow flag with a couple of cars in a precarious position just seven laps down. The field was then red flagged to give crews a chance to move one of the cars from the track. On the restart, Kyle Ridley led the field to the green and with cars spinning out, quitting, and being knocked around, Young exited the mayhem taking the checkered flag and a “sweep” in the Figure 8 Class.
Marty Hansen and Jim Young shared the front row for the start of the Demo Car Feature event and they made it through the first corner as the rest of the field crashed and bashed heading into turn one for the remaining spots including a lot of the faster cars. Young took out Hansen and got a big lead until a yellow flag brought the field together after 4 laps. On the restart, Richens took out Young for the lead and again the yellow came out six laps down as a car was facing traffic on the backstretch. Richens led the field again but suffered a flat tire as he got caught up with Hansen and was forced to the pits on lap sixteen. After several laps of passing, crashing, and banging, Jim Young came out with the win followed by Richens, who worked his way back to second, and Mike Makow in third.
Anthony Reaume and Kevin Knight had the front row in the Claimer Feature while Gary Smith was mired in the last starting position. Reaume, Wakelin, and Chris Broughton battled early up front with Reaume having the edge. Officials were trying to usher Wakelin to the pits for jumping the start while Smith had moved in to battle three wide with Wakelin and Chris Broughton with Reaume still leading. The yellow came out and Wakelin was ushered to the pits and subsequently disqualified after failing to notice the stop and go penalty earlier. On the restart, Smith got to the inside of Reaume and took over the lead and worked up a big lead. The yellow came out again when Reaume spun out on the backstretch. On the restart, Smith now led Dennis Stewart followed by Broughton. On the white flag lap Broughton got by Stewart and followed Smith to the checkered flag.
Jamie Shepherd won the Demo Truck Feature ahead of David Cates as only four trucks made the starting field.
The boat race was next with about eight cars staggered along the front stretch and the fourth corner all tied to a boat. The action was quick and furious with cars and boats crashing all around the speedway. Smokin Joe Liberatore suffered a lot of front end damage to his new car as he tangled with the boat tied to Marty Hansen. Several cars met the same fate as car met boat, and boat met car with wood, fibreglass , and metal flying in every corner. When the dust settled Mel Jeffries had the most boat left and was declared the winner.
The finale of the night was the annual Canada Day fireworks and the show was one of the best seen at the Speedway in some time. After the last fire cracker dimmed the crowd showed their appreciation with a very loud ovation for the job done by the crew handling the show.
Photos and Story by Ken
Keating,
Illusion Photography
