Heath Cooper and John Quesnel led a field of twenty-two cars to the green flag for the start of two hours or two hundred laps of racing in another of the Steve Copp Construction sponsored winter Hornet Series Enduro. Cooper grabbed the lead on the first lap followed quickly by Cody Aumen, Rory Smith, Darrell Midgley, and Marc Parkinson. Howie Mace, winner of the last event, moved into the fifth position by lap eleven from his eighteenth starting spot while Steve Copp, with his passenger and son Trevor, also came from deep in the field to run sixth by lap seventeen. On lap nineteen, Aumen passed Cooper for the lead while Smith, Midgley, Mace, and Copp stayed in the hunt. Aumen began to build a pretty good lead while the battle raged behind him as Mace passed Midgley for fourth and then got by Smith for third place by lap thirty-five. By this time, Aumen had almost a full lap on the field only to see the caution come out on lap thirty-nine as the #1 car, driven by Alex Atkinson, slammed into the tires on the frontstretch.
On the restart, Aumen got away first and before the lap was complete, Smith had taken over the second spot followed by Cooper, Midgley, and Mace. Aumen again built a big lead and by lap sixty-three raced by Mace putting the fifth place car a lap down. Midgley moved into the third spot on lap sixty-seven putting Cooper back to fourth while Mace still maintained the fifth position. Over the next several laps the field remained virtually the same except Smith closed the gap on Aumen and on lap eighty-six passed the leader to take over the top spot. Aumen stayed riveted to the rear bumper as they made their way through traffic and around the chicanes on the race track passing back markers at will. As so often the case, in these races, a driver can build a big lead over the next opponent only to see it evaporate as did Midgley and Cooper as they battled for third and fourth. Midgley had Cooper all over him which was the next best race behind the two front runners.
On lap ninety-nine and heading out of the inside pit to the backstretch, Aumen went to the outside using a slower car as a pick and got by Smith to retake the lead on lap one hundred. Two laps later, Aumen went by the fourth place car driven by Cooper putting him a lap down setting his sights on the third place car driven by Midgley. Seven laps later that chore was accomplished. Smith, however, would not go away and closed the gap on the leader and took over the lead again on lap one hundred and twenty-five. On lap one hundred thirty, the yellow flag come out as tires had to be adjusted however Smith and Aumen never had that much room between them anyway as the field returned to green flag racing. On this same lap, Midgley slammed into tires going out on the backstretch but only lost one position and recovered six laps later to retake the third spot back from Cooper. Also, on lap one hundred thirty-six, Mace went by Cooper as Cooper entered the pits but returned to racing only losing one spot.
Up front it was still a battle between Smith in the lead and Aumen glued to his bumper while Midgley ran in third followed by Mace and Cooper. On lap one hundred fifty-five, Cooper re-entered the pits handing the fifth spot to Steve Copp who had been driving in sixth for a huge number of laps taking that position on lap seventeen. On lap one hundred sixty-seven, Mace entered the pits with a flat tire turning the fourth position over to Copp and losing the fifth position to Glen Rand before he could get back to racing.
Up front and still leading, things went from good to bad in a hurry as the hood came up on the lead car restricting the view for Rory Smith on lap one hundred eighty. He tried valiantly to hold on but on lap one hundred eighty-one, Aumen went to the outside as the two drivers came out of the pits and headed for the backstretch and the two drivers got together a bit with Smith losing enough control to allow Aumen to take the lead position. Smith came into the pits to lock down the hood and before he could get back to racing, Aumen went by leaving him as the only driver to complete two hundred laps. Smith held on for second, Midgley maintained the third spot with Copp and Glen Rand rounding out the top five. As in the past Midgley turned his finish over to Copp who will officially take home the third place trophy after running a very consistent race from start to finish. This marked the third victory for Cody Aumen, in the winter Series, with two races remaining. One will never know, if it hadn't been for bad luck with the Smith car, if Aumen could have got by for the win but that's racing and what a race it was until luck played a part.
The next race is scheduled for February 27th rain or shine with the last race scheduled for March 20th.