Western Speedway

               Once again, Ray Anderosov proved he is one tuff driver to beat in the Western Region Rental Jack FM Stock Car Series at Western Speedway. For the second time this season, Anderosov has won two consecutive Feature events; the latest, a one hundred-lap race for the Billy Foster 100.
                As usual, Trophy Dashes were up first with Bob Pridge winning the Dwarf Car trophy, Gilles Parenteau taking the win in the IMS 4 Mini Stock A Dash, and Ryan Paterson won the B Dash. Ray Anderosov took the Stock Car A Dash while Kyle Cottam won the B Dash.
                Heat Race winners were Rick Kosolowski, driving for Jeremy Stevens, in the Dwarf Car Series, Justin Woodske took the win with the IMS 4 Mini Stock Series, Marc Parkinson won the Stock Car A Heat, Jeff Cesari won the B Heat, while Tyler Clough won the C Heat.
                BJ Bradley led the field to the green flag to begin the Dwarf Car Feature race and he held the lead for the first two laps as Don Banansky, driving for Bob Greenaway, took over the top spot. The yellow flag came out on lap five as Miles Maxie spun out collecting Gord Kraus coming through turn three and four. Banansky led Bradley and Kosolowski back to green flag racing until Kosolowski took over the second spot an lap six and four laps later passed Banansky for the lead. Two more caution flags came out for minor collisions but Kosoloski held on for the win followed by Bananski and John McNabb.
                Chad Dobranski and Alex Mouner held the front row for the start of the thirty lap IMS 4 Mini Stock Feature race running for the Jim Haslam Memorial. Mouner grabbed the lead early and held that position for the first seven laps. Mitch Egner began his move to the front from his ninth starting position and by lap 8 was in a battle with Rod Rendle running door handle to door handle for about three laps before he finally took the lead on lap 11. Mouner began to fall off the pace while Pollard Grant, Parenteau, with Woodske changed positions almost every lap. Parenteau caught up to Egner and on lap 23 passed the young driver to take over the lead. The first four cars got a pretty good lead on the rest of the field but on lap 28, Constantine spun on corner four bringing out a yellow flag. On the restart, Parenteau stayed out front taking the checkered flag ahead of Woodske and Egner. Lorraine and Roy Haslam joined Parenteau at Victory Square to present the Jim Haslam Memorial Trophy.
                Prior to the start of the Hall of Fame Billy Foster 100, Rocky Horn introduced many Hall of Fame members invited to take part in the night’s event. They included Roy Haslam, at one time the winningest driver in Canada; Gary Kershaw, who won a whopping 22 Feature events in a row, Dave Cooper, Mad Dog Gary Madden, Keith Cahill, a driver that won Championships in every Demo class running at Western Speedway. Norm Wilcox and Ross Rocket, the two individuals most responsible for the WilRoc Sprintcar Series were also introduced. Bill “Bullit” Smith , Richard Grahame, and Rob Scott were also in attendence.
                Twenty-five cars lined up to take the green flag for 100 laps of Stock Car racing with Jeff Cesari holding the pole with Josh Reaume on the outside front row following the 1965 Mustang Pace Car owned by Gentleman Jim Steen, and at one time, owned by Billy Foster.
                Cesari immediately jumped to the lead on the first lap and it didn’t take long for the action to start. Brandon Carlson and Marc Parkinson got together bringing out the first caution of the evening. After seven caution laps, Cesari led Reaume and Buck Ford back to green flag racing. Meanwhile behind them Anderosov, Ryan Wade, Brian Clutchey, and Curt Haugen were trying to weave their way toward the front. By the 16th lap, Anderosov was in the top five battling with Ken Hearn, Cody Brown, and Haugen. On Lap 27, Anderosov made the move on Cesari and took over the lead. The cars stayed in these positions for about the next six laps when Haugen made the move to take the 4th spot, Wade moved into fifth followed by Clutchey into sixth on the next lap.
                On lap 41 the second yellow came out when Hearn lost his motor pulling off the track on corner 4. By this time Anderosov had built close to a half lap lead on the field. On the restart Anderosov led Cesari, Brown, Haugen and Wade back to the green flag, however, this only lasted one lap as Ford had an axle break on his car sending him around and bringing back the yellow.
                As the green flag fell again, on lap 57, Anderosov was caught unaware and Cesari and Brown seized the opportunity and jumped to the lead and second place respectively sending Anderosov back to third. It took the young driver only four laps to retake the lead sending Cesari and Brown back one position. Haugen took over 3rd on lap 65 with Wade moving up one spot as well. Wade made his way to third on lap 75 and continued his march into second on lap 83. Over the next few laps there was lots of slicing and dicing with Shane Scott moving into 4th spot with Brown, Scott, Wade, Haugen, and Clutchey trading spots on every corner.                No one had anything for Anderosov who again had the big lead and went on for the win in a very entertaining race. With two laps remaining, Brown took the second spot, Scott jumped into third, Haugen got back to 4th and Mike Dibblee charging into 5th from nowhere. These cars are so close that one small miscue can cost you a top five finish on any given night. On a couple of occasions, this class will venture three wide as they did during this event as well as last week. They now have a couple of weeks off before their return on September 3rd.