Results June 2nd Goldstream Gazette and the Q 100.3fm present Demo Cars, Demo Trucks, Mini Figure 8’s and Claimer Mel Jeffries Survives Demo Mayhem Mel Jeffries came out on top, in a crash fest, and took the checkered flag in the Demo Car Feature Event at Western Speedway Saturday night. Under beautiful race conditions, Brad Watkins was the Trophy Dash winner in the Figure 8 Class, while Brian Wakelin took the win in the Claimer Class Dash. George Haywood won the Demo Car Dash and Barry Morrison came first in the Demo Truck Trophy Dash. Dennis Smith was victorious in the “B” Heat for the Figure 8s while Shawn Hitchings did the same in the “A” Heat. Kail Beck. one of the young guns, left this action in a cloud of smoke from his new car as he was moving up through the pack. Kevin Knight won the “B” Heat and Aaron Wilkie, driving a very fast car, won the “A” Heat for the Claimer cars. Haywood, “driving a slug” by his standards came first in the “B” Heat and Doug Richens grabbed the checkered flag in the Demo Car “A” Heat. Haywood usually has one of the faster cars but just couldn’t get the performance Saturday but still managed two wins. Keith Hansen returned to Demo action but retired early with an overheating problem that kept him out of further racing. The wild n’ crazy Figure 8 Main Event was a hard hitting affair from the drop of the green flag. Cars were knocked around on every corner and straight away with several drivers leading for a half lap. Kail Beck got his car fixed in time to join the mayhem and quickly started his march to the front. JJ Taylor and Watkins battled up front for a few laps but when the dust cleared it was Shawn Hitchings taking the checkered flag followed by Beck and Gennifer Isles making her debut in this series. Scott Tabbernor had the pole for the twenty lap, fifteen car field, in the Claimer Division Feature Event and quickly took the lead. The mid-field pack tried running four wide several times through out the early running. Tabbernor worked himself into a reasonable lead over the first seven laps but a caution closed the field when Knight spun out on the fourth turn while running second. By this time, Wilkie had moved from the back field to take over second. One lap, after the restart, Wilkie moved to the inside trough turn four, and took over the lead. Tabbernor, Wakelin, and Chris Broughton continued to battle for the second, third, and fourth spot. Wilkie charged to the win followed by Broughton and Wakelin with Tabbernor losing out with a spin with just a few laps left. From a standing start, the Demo Cars started banging early and often. Just a few laps down, several of the fast runners, including Haywood and Richens tangled going into turn three. Smokin Joe Liberatore seized the opportunity to take over the lead. That lasted the length of the front stretch as he was tagged by Bill Stidston driving Liberatore straight into the turn one wall. He was unhurt in the crash but his car was done for the night; well almost. Jeffries worked his way to the lead only to lose a battle with the lapped truck of Dave Cates. In this dust up, Jeffries slammed into Liberatore’s car that was still sitting up against the turn one wall putting him back in the field six laps into the race. By this time, Richens had the lead followed by Stidston and Haywood. Stidston was forced to retire in his march with low oil pressure. A yellow flag came out ten laps down as the #11 truck, driven by Aasen Baker, stalled in turn four. Over the next few laps, Richens seemed to have the race under control patiently passing cars and staying out of possible trouble. His very promising run came to a screeching halt on lap seventeen when his motor blew up sending him to the pits. Jeffries, meantime, had survived several spins and crashes and grabbed the win in a banged up car of his own. Photos and Story by Ken Keating, Illusion Photography