Terry Guest
Special to the Record
Fourteen of the fastest cars on Vancouver Island ripped it up at Saratoga Speedway on Saturday. The Wilroc Lites made their second appearance of the year and gave us some of the best racing we have seen all year. The Dwarf cars, Bomber cars, Motorcycles and the Island Mini Stocks, who made their first appearance of the year as well, accompanied the Sprint cars.
With conditions being great all night, the Wilroc Lite track record was broken three times by two different drivers in qualifying, with the final record going to #22h Mike Haslam with a time of 14.459, holding off former record holder #15s Mark Stuart who set a time of 14.467.
In the dashes, the B went to #08 Shane Woolcock and the A to #22s Dave Emmerson. In the first of their two heats, #55 Jeff Bird led all 10 laps to take an impressive win, with the second heat going to #32 Ryan Orchard, who led all but two laps.
In the 30-lap main, #98 Lance Wade led the first 16 laps, but a spin in turn three ended ended his chances and opened the door for Emmerson to grab the lead. He never looked back, holding off Stuart to win his fourth straight Wilroc Lite main event.
A season-high 10 Dwarf cars took to the track, with #48 Stewart Lee winning the dash. The battle for the rest of the night was between Lee and #11 Mike Meeres with Meeres taking the first 10-lap heat and Lee taking the second eight-lap heat.
In their 25-lap main event, Lee and Meeres pulled away from the pack early and staged one of the best two-car battles you will ever watch. Lee and Meeres came up to lap traffic late, and Lee grabbed the lead on lap 23 then held off Meeres to win one of the best Dwarf main events of the year.
Five Island Mini Stocks put in their first appearance of the year. In their four-lap dash #77 Jeremy Waksel led all the way to take home the trophy. #18 Matt Szauer found himself in the winner's square after the first 10-lap heat, with the second eight-lap reverse going to #96 Alex Mouner.
In their 20-lap feature race Mouner grabbed the lead early and held off a very tight field.
Six Bomber cars arrived Saturday, including one brand new bomber truck. The Larson family dominated the field. #51 Boston Larson took the dash, his Uncle #9 Darrel Larson won the first 10-lap heat, and his dad #5 Darren “Bam Bam” Larson won the reverse heat.
In their 20-lap main event, Boston jumped out to an early lead and was never challenged, winning his first-ever Bomber car feature. Second went to his uncle Darrel and third to his father Darren.
EXTRA LAPS Monster Truck Mafia returns to Saratoga over the August long weekend … Rockstar, California Kid, Iron Man and Identify Theft will be hitting some incredible air over the front stretch and showing off some amazing wheelies … the Crash to Pass cars, Hornets, Roadrunners and Figure 8s are also be on the rain-or-shine race card …
– Saratoga Speedway