Submitted by Andy Guest
The end to the 50th racing season at Saratoga Speedway Saturday night saw seven point champions crowned — which lost its lustre after a horrible crash in the Hornet A main event sent a man to hospital.
On the last lap, a tangle-up on the dog-leg sent a car into the logs. It flipped onto a parked race car, and hit a worker setting up for the fireworks show. After a nearly 90-minute delay, the worker was taken by ambulance and sent to Vancouver for surgery. I have taken it to myself not to describe any injuries in this report but do realise that this man’s health became more important than the season’s final race night. The planned fireworks show was respectfully cancelled.
Going into the final point race of the season, three of seven championships had already been clinched by Josh Taks in the Road Runner class, Danielle Dunn in Mad Max and Chris Beaulieu in the Modififdes.
After a track record 88 cars qualified followed by 19 races, championships were won by Boston Larsen in the Bomber class, Raymond Fortier in Hornet A, James Laidlaw in Hornet B, and Troy Ordano in Crash to Pass.
The last main events of the season saw wins going to Chris Hleck, Laidlaw and Micheal White in Hornet races. Don Hallgarth won the Modifide main, Taks won Road Runners, Damon Dunn won Mad Max, Larsen won the Bomber and Sheldon Hopp came away with a 15-car main event win in the Crash to Pass main.
Before the main events, 11 heat races saw wins going to Hleck, Rider Lipovits, Nigel Neufeld and Evin Mcluckie in the Hornets, Hallgarth in the Mods, Damon Dunn in Mad Max, Larsen in the Bombers, Austin Klee in Road Runners, and Hopp and Chris Campbell won the Crash to Pass heats.