By Ken Keating
Western Speedway presented yet another hard hitting action packed series of racing with the Demo Cars, Demo Trucks, Mini Figure 8s, and the Bomber Series Saturday night. Trophy Dashes, Heat races, and the Feature events for all classes filled the program on this night. Brandon Steen won the drag race down the frontstretch with Dennis Stewart to win the Bomber Trophy Dash by a narrow margin for the first event of the night. Greg Sagmoen, Ashton Campbell, and Kevin Knight were the other Dash winners. Brandon Steen commented that it was not difficult to run over the twenty second barrier after winning the Trophy Dash but both he and Heath Cooper were disqualified for breaking that barrier in Heat race action. There are several cars quite capable of running sub twenty seconds but the challenge is to stay over that mark and still win a race which leads to a lot of side by side and bumper to bumper racing.
Smokin Joe Liberatore built a pretty good lead in the Demo Car Heat race and lead for the first five laps until Tyler Clough and Jake Matthews got locked together bringing out the yellow flag. With the field now bunched, Tarbuck got a good jump and spun Liberatoe around taking the lead and the win in the Demo Car Heat race.
Smokin Joe Liberatore built a pretty good lead in the Demo Car Heat race and lead for the first five laps until Tyler Clough and Jake Matthews got locked together bringing out the yellow flag. With the field now bunched, Tarbuck got a good jump and spun Liberatoe around taking the lead and the win in the Demo Car Heat race.
Tim Sutton and Dakota Hansen shared the front row for the start of the Figure 8 Feature event. Sean Welch grabbed the early lead only to lose it on lap four to Rhett Szevics followed quickly by Kail Beck. This race featured some devastating hits that included a hit on the leader Szevics and another on Richard Carey with the latter winding up behind the sign boards on turn one. Szevics led for most of the race until he got nailed allowing Beck to take over the lead on lap twenty-one. Beck stayed out of trouble from that point to take the win followed by Welch and Ashton Campbell.
Between the Figure 8 and Bomber Feature event, a draw took place where an individual in the stands won tickets to an upcoming Supertramp concert in Vancouver. This was a part of the Prostrate Cancer Night and the "Ride For Life" fund raiser.
Andy Riddoch and Brian Wakelin led sixteen cars to the green flag and fifty laps of racing in the Bomber Series Feature event. Riddoch led for the first two laps until Wakelin got by him and into the lead. Wakelin continued to lead over the next six laps while behind him Riddoch, Jamie Morgan, and Brandon Steen were moving up through the field. On lap nine Steen took over the lead with Morgan following him past Wakelin and into the second position. On lap ten Heath Cooper moved up to run in third with Dennis Stewart also moving up dropping Wakelin way back to fifth. Stewart was running very well until he suffered a stop and go for spinning Daniel David around and this allowed Chris Stone and Aaron Campbell to move up a spot. Heath Cooper moved up to the second spot on lap twenty-six and Morgan, who had been running there, went into the pits for what looked like an over heating problem. On lap twenty-nine the yellow flag came out as Tyler Woods was up against the wall on turn two. While running under this caution, Cooper had to enter the pits as a tire was going down taking him out of the second position and then the red came out as Andrew Wilson entered the pits as his car caught fire from a suspected brake problem. On the restart, Steen got away first and led the remaining laps to win his second Feature in a row followed by Stone, Stewart, Aaron Cameron, and Cooper rounding out the top five.
Bruce Knight had the pole for the start of the Demo Truck Feature event but got taken out early in the first lap. Kevin Knight grabbed the lead with Adam Detlor and George Haywood battling behind him. On lap six, Richard Milne moved up to the second spot until he tried to take out Detlor on lap eleven. They got tangled up against the wall bringing out the yellow flag. Trucks were flyng all over the track including Bruce and Kevin Knight but when the dust settled it was Milne with the win followed by Bruce Knight and Detlor.
Jake Matthews had the pole for the Demo Car Feature race but Troy Tarbuck grabbed the lead before the first lap was complete. Behind him the battle was intense for Matthews, Greg Sagmoen, and Joe Liberatore with cars banging and hitting on every turn. At one point, Liberatore trapped two cars up against the wall on turn one, Joe himself got taken out a couple times, and most of the drivers suffered a spin at one time or another. When the air cleared on this race, Tarbuck came away with a well deserved win followed by Sagmoen, Tyler Clough, Matthews, and Liberatore.
The next event at Western Speedway will be on Saturday the 14th with the Late Model Series, Stock Cars, DWARF Cars, and the I.M.S. 4 Mini Stocks.