One week before the first visit to Saratoga Speedway in 2018 by the always popular monster trucks Saturday night, the Black Creek oval hosted the Island Dwarf cars, Bomber cars and Modifides competing for the Darrel Wardrope Memorial trophy.
Last Saturday, the Dwarf cars raced for the second time after opening their season the week before. Eleven cars produced four competitive races with four different winners. Kicking off their night was a win in the Trophy dash for Dan Scott followed by heat race wins for Courtenay’s Mike Meeres and Victoria’ Brad Struck. They closed out the evening with a green, white checkered 30 lap main event that saw Kyle Kennedy win his first ever main followed by Braydon Aumen and Campbell River’s Stewart Lee.
The first night for the Bomber cars saw Campbell River’s Boston Larsen capture fast time which was followed by a trophy dash and back to back heat race wins by Charlie Akerman who couldn’t survive a last lap spin while leading the main event leaving the door open for Darren Larsen to grab the win.
The Modifides were paying homage to fellow racer and friend Darrel Wardrope who sadly lost his battle to cancer before the 2017 season making Saturday nights race the 2nd annual. Last year seasons point champion and the 1st winner of the Memorial race Chris Beaulieu continued where he left off by dominating the night with fast time then a win in the 1st heat then collected the main event win ahead of Travis Stevenson and Mike Dionne with Brad Kotscherofski collecting the win in the 2nd heat.
This Saturday and Sunday night is monster truck weekend at the speedway. The trucks will thrill big crowds with some car crushing, wheelies and donuts. They will be joined by the 30-foot Robo Dragon, who will chew up and set fire to an unexpected car. The two-day weekend has regular start times. Gates open at 5 p.m. Qualifying is at 6 p.m. followed by the first green flag at 7:05 p.m. Both days will feature the Hornet cars, Road Runners, Mad Max and Crash-to-Pass weekend warriors.
guest talk…..A new season a new track motor swap for the modifides as Stevenson blew his motor in hot laps and after some intense work from fellow mod drivers and Jason Beaulieu Stevenson would only miss qualifying ….before the racing began Carol Chapman shaved Chris Beaulieu’s hair which he has been growing long since last season which was donated to charity.