Terry Guest
Contributor
Seventy cars graced the Black Creek oval over an amazing two days of racing at Saratoga Speedway on June 29-30. A season-high 19 Crash to Pass cars were accompanied by the Hornets, Roadrunners, Figure 8s and the Wilroc Lite cars who were making their first appearance of the year. Alex Benyuk hit an amazing car jump on Sunday, flying his '87 Firebird into a row of nine cars, diving nose first into the middle of them.
Saturday night produced some amazing racing capped by yet another amazing firework show. A season-high seven Roadrunners hit the track, and #53 Steve Cashan started off well by winning his first heat race of the year. #8 Ryan Guest, who was leading the heat race but had to withdraw due to mechanical issues, was determined to get to the winners circle, and found himself in the lead on lap one of their 15-lap feature and never looked back en route to his first win of the 2013 season.
In the Figure 8 division, #15 Cindy Kennedy once again flew by her competition, winning one of two heat races and the 12-lap main event. In the Wilroc Lite cars debut, #26 Cam McLean started off his night with a dash win and a great 10-lap heat race win.
McLean ran into mechanical issues in their 30-lap main event, knocking himself out of contention, opening the door for #98 Lance Wade, who led all the way to take his first win of the 2013 Wilroc season. The real battle was for second and third, with #55 Jeff Bird getting around #22 Mike Haslam on the final lap to take second.
Twenty-six Hornet cars hit the track Saturday. In the B division, #81 Don Stormo, filling in for his son Jeremy Stormo, made his way from the back to the front in 12 laps to take the lead and led the last eight laps to take his first-ever Hornet car main event. #12 Raymond Fortier took second, with third going to #88 McKenzie Collins, which was his best finish of the year.
In the A division, #02 Daryl Cahill dominated once again in their 20-lap feature race. Cahill took the lead on lap eight en route to winning his second straight main event. Once again the main battle was for second and third with #01 Kevin Lawrenuk finally getting around #14 Kyle Fallowfield on lap 15 to take runner-up honours.
Seventeen Crash to Pass cars battled on Saturday. #25 Darrell Wardrope, who hadn't raced at Saratoga Speedway in over 10 years, dominated to win the B heat with the A heat going to #72 Travis Stevenson, who also led all 10 laps.
An exciting 25-lap main event capped off the night. The first 15 laps saw cars flying everywhere on the track, dropping out left and right, then coming back out left and right. #01 Jeff May finally grabbed the lead on lap 15 and held off a hard-charging #89 Gregg Sagmoen to win yet another main.
Due to mechanical issues from the night before, only five Wilroc Lite cars arrived on Sunday. The first heat winner was #11 Duane Zeinstra and the second was #08 Shane Woolcock. A very fast 20-lap main event saw Zeinstra lead all 20 laps and hold off #55 Jeff Bird and #15s Mark Stuart to take the win.
A season-high 28 Hornet cars hit the track on Sunday. #98 Nigel Neufeld won the D heat, #53 Rowland Westra took the C, #03 Jennifer Lawrenuk won her second straight B heat, and the A heat was won by #14 Kyle Fallowfield.
In the 25-lap B main, slower cars made for an interesting start, giving #53 Rowland Westra a jump on the field. Westra led for 18 laps until #81 Jeremy Stormo passed him en route to the win. In the 25-lap A main, #55 Trevor Dicus took advantage of his pole position to lead all the way and win his first ever A main, holding off #02 Daryl Cahill.
A 19-car Crash to Pass field set a Saratoga Speedway record on Sunday. #69 Mike Whitehead narrowly won the B heat, with the A going to #73 Sheldon Hopp. Eighteen cars lined up for a crazy 15-lap main event with #01 Jeff May dominating the field and winning his second straight main event.
In the Roadrunner division, #73 MacLaren Inglis won his first ever Roadrunner race, leading all eight laps of the heat. Due to mechanical issues only five Roadrunners made the main event, with the win going to #53 Steve Cashan, who led all 10 laps for first ever main event victory at Saratoga.
There were three different winners in the Figure 8 class; #16 Brad Kennedy won the first heat, #01 Kevin Lawrenuk won the second heat and #02 Jasmine Hopp, who was racing Figure 8s for the first time, won the 12-lap main.
EXTRA LAPS This Saturday is the fifth annual Bikini Contest … contestants from all across the Island are vying for first prize of $1,000, second prize $500 and third prize $250 … the third round of drifting is also on the card along with the Hornet cars and heads up drag racing, which is a new event to Saturday night racing …
– Saratoga Speedway