Western Speedway

Pollard Grant, Anderosov, Share Top Billing

Lois Pollard Grant and Ray Anderosov made their cars as wide as possible to snare victories in their respective Feature events at Western Speedway Saturday night. Pollard Grant took the lead on lap 16 in the IMS 4 Mini Stock Series and raced to the victory holding off past Champions. Anderosov took the lead on lap 9, in the Western Region rentals Jack FM Stock Car Series Feature, holding off Curt Haugen and Marc Parkinson down the stretch. Also, on this card, was the Old Time Racing Association Series with Trophy Dashes, Heats, and Feature races.
                Thirty laps would make up the distance for the IMS 4 Mini Stocks with Sean Constantine and Chris Thomsen sharing the front row with Gilles Parenteau, Mitch Egner, Pollard Grant, and Justin Woodske all heaped in the back rows. Thomsen led the first lap and was quickly overtaken by Gord Percival who led the next eight. By this time, Pollard Grant jumped from her 10th spot to run third after only five laps. Percival built a good lead but a hard charging Mitch Egner reeled him in and took the lead on lap 10. The race was red flagged on lap 14 as Ken Schuurman blew an engine crossing the line in a huge ball of fire coming to a stop on turn one. He quickly got out from the car and was uninjured.
                On the restart, Officials had Percival leading followed by Pollard Grant and Chad Dobranski with Egner now bringing up the rear due to delay in firing his car after the red condition on the track. One lap later, Pollard Grant moved to the inside of Percival and took the lead. Behind her, Parenteau, Woodske, Kevin Knight; driving the #26 car; Percival, and Dobranski were in a dog fight for positions. Pollard Grant built a sizable lead until Constantine hit the front stretch wall bringing out a yellow and thus tightening up the field for a restart.
                By lap 26, Parenteau took over the second spot pushing Knight back to third with Woodske now up to third with Egner all the way back to 4th. Over the remaining laps, Parenteau and Woodske tried to mount a challenge but the talented, hard charging lady from Sooke held her ground and took her first Feature event for 2007. There were 13 IMS4 Mini Stocks that qualified for this event.
The Old Timers were set to go for thirty-five laps but Mother Nature intervened and rained on their parade virtually cutting the Feature in half. There was just enough moisture to make track conditions greasy for the open wheel drivers to continue. Terry Cessford led the first lap and then surrendered the lead to George (The Jet) Jenson one lap later. Rob Morneau moved from his 9th starting position to take the lead on lap 9, a lead he would not relinquish. He was followed by Jenson and Joe Dardengo in 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 18 lap event in which 17 Old Time Stock Cars qualified. Uncharacteristically, Dan Morneau dropped out after running as high as 2nd in the early going.
As quickly as the rain came it quickly disappeared and Officials had the Stock Cars on the track drying it up just as soon as the last Old Timers got off the track from their Feature race.
Aaron Wilkie led the first 8 laps of the scheduled fifty lap event with 23 Stock Cars on the track looking for some room. Mike Dionne, Ken Hearns, Jim Steen, were the first few cars to battle while the fast cars were trying to get through traffic from the rear of the field. Ray Anderosov moved quickly from 10th to 1st in just 9 laps bringing Marc Parkinson up to challenge with the front runner. On lap 14 the yellow flag came out for debris on the track.
On the restart, Anderosov led Parkinson, Shane Scott, Wilkie, and Jeff Cesari to the green flag. As earlier positions were being challenged all around the speedway as Curt Haugen, Ryan Wade, and Brian Clutchey were beginning to move up as well. At one point mid race Clutchey, Wade, and Wilkie were three wide through turn one and down the back shoot.
By lap 26, Haugen had taken the third spot behind Parkinson with Scott still in the hunt. On lap 41, Wade continued his march forward taking over the forth spot but he could not get any closer. Clutchey survived a scary moment earlier as he wobbled coming out of turn 4 as he challenged for position and almost caught the inside wall. It took several laps for him to collect things but he fought back for a top 5 finish. Anderosov managed to hold off the late charges by Haugen and Parkinson to claim his third Feature win for 2007. These charges only have a week before they go back at it again and who will win next time is anybody’s guess.