Terry Guest
Special to The Record
One of the best monster truck shows to ever hit Saratoga Speedway was held over the BC Day long weekend as Wild Flower, Time Flys, Blown Income and Island Outlaw put on an amazing show, hitting outrageous air and doing amazing Hurricane Donuts for two sellout crowds.
The Crash to Pass cars, Hornet cars, Roadrunners and Galaxy Motors Mad Max cars rounded out the action, with Columbia Fuels and Coastal Canadian Credit Union sponsoring all the fun.
A full field of 42 Hornet cars took to the track over the weekend. On Saturday, heat race wins went to #30 Stephanie Addison, #59 Dana Ackerman, #61 Michael White, #45 Darren Monk and #62 Shawn Allen.
All 23 B cars entered the 25-lap main event. An early spin spread out the field, but #31 Clancey Beamish had his car flying and he made up the gap fast and took the lead on lap 12.
He battled bumper to bumper with #20 Keegan McCoch and White for the lead and barely held them off to take home his first-ever main event win.
In the 25-lap A main, #10 Blair Mangles battled his way to an early lead and stretched it for the first 20 laps. Behind Mangles, #36 Ryan Jensen and #01 Kevin Lawrenuk were working their way through the pack until they finally broke free on lap 18 to catch up to the leader.
But Mangles would not be denied as he held off Jensen to take home his first main event win of the year. Sunday night saw even more great racing, with heat wins going to #96 Brandon Carter, #30 Stephanie Addison, #3 Josh Webster, #19 Don Clark and #99 Glenn White.
Three mains were awarded to the Hornets on Sunday. In the C #8 Terry Guest jumped into an early lead and pulled away from the pack. Unfortunately he ran out of gas on lap 17, opening the door for #18 Arlend Berry to take the lead and and win his first-ever main event.
In the B main event, birthday girl #54 Kiana Westra started on the pole and led all 25 laps to take home her first-ever main event win. In the A main, #62 Shawn Allen and #99 Glenn White found themselves up front early. They battled for the lead the entire race, with Allen helding off White for the win.
The Crash to Pass field saw 12 cars take to the track over the weekend. #73 Sheldon Hopp dominated on Saturday, setting fast time in qualifying then winning the heat and the main to take the clean sweep.
Sunday night produced the most hitting we have seen in the class this year. The heat featured some of the hardest hitting, with cars flying in and out of the pits and #72 Travis Stevenson holding on for the win.
Stevenson continued that into the main as he held off Hopp to take his own clean sweep.
The Roadrunner class had six cars in action. On Saturday #88 Ryan Guest and #11 Tristen Zeinstra had a great battle all night. Guest got the edge in the heat, but Zeinstra held off Guest in the main. Sunday night saw more of the same action but this time Guest dominated the main, grabbing the lead on lap eight and running away with it from there.
Finally the Galaxy Motors Mad Max cars put on an amazing show over the weekend. Saturday night’s action saw #21 Toryn Davies in his Scooby Doo machine grab the heat race win.
A 20-lap feature saw lots of lead changes and hitting early, mixing everyone around, before #17 Dan Kemp grabbed the final lead change and held on for his first-ever Mad Max main event win.
On Sunday, Davies and #90 Damon Dunn battled all night. Dunn took the heat race win by only a small margin and it was looking like he would do the same in the main. But Davies found his way around Dunn on lap 18 and held on for the win.
EXTRA LAPS This weekend the I.M.C.A Modifieds are back to put on a show at Saratoga … this is fastest local class that races at the speedway, with lap times averaging 15 to 16 seconds … going into the night #72 Travis Stevenson holds a slim 42-point lead over #92 Dano Bryant and a 101-point lead over #91 Chris Beaulieu … the Bomber cars will also be on the card, with their points battle being between the two Larsons, as #9 Darrel Larson sits 132 points up on nephew #87 Boston Larson … the Hornet cars will round out the card; their B class race is as tight as ever, with #61 Michael White holding a very slim 18-point lead over #20 Keegan McCosh and a 295-point lead over #8 Terry Guest … #10 Blair Mangles leads the A class by 157 points over #62 Shawn Allen …