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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Races End With A Bang - Western Speedway

By Ken Keating
 


Western Speedway presented a comprehensive show tonight with the Demo Cars, Demo Trucks, Figure 8s, and the Bomber Series racing in Trophy Dashes, Heat races, and Feature events sponsored by Galaxie Motors. As well as the racing, it was also Elton John night with an Elton John look-a-like leading several kids, big and small, to Crocodile Rock and an Elton John karaoke. To further the night's event, Mr. Dizzy completed a car jump into a four tier stack of cars then took part in a van explosion. Kaya Hunter, an accomplished singer, opened the event with the Star Spangled Banner and Oh Canada and then joined Chahala Leanne Boise as a Trophy Girl to present trophies to the night's race winners.

Aaron Camron won the Trophy Dash in the Bomber Series, Aason Baker won the Demo Car Dash, George Haywood took the Demo Truck Dash, while Cam Wilkinson was victorious in the Figure 8 Trophy Dash. Jamie Morgan and Giles Cyr won the Bomber Heat races, Kirk Peacey and Steve Miller won Heat races in the Demo Car Series, George Haywood won the Demo Truck Heat race, and Sean Welch and Kyle Rizok took the Figure 8 Heat races. 

Jeff Foley and Ashton Campbell shared the front row for the start of the Figure 8 Feature event with Foley taking the lead for the first four laps. Blaine Duperreault grabbed the lead on lap five with Foley still trading the lead for the next couple of laps. On lap eight, Doug Richens made his way forward to take over the lead with Foley and Duperreault still in contention. Richens stayed in the lead until lap seventeen when he got taken out allowing Sean Welch to go by and into the lead. Over the next several laps Cam Wilkinson and Richens tried to mount a challenge but the laps ran out and they would finish with Welch taking the win followed by Wilkinson and Richens in another hard fought Figure 8 race.
Fourteen cars took to the track led by Daniel David and Bill Lushaw for forty laps of racing in the Bomber Series. On lap three, Giles Cyr grabbed the lead followed quickly by Troy Tarbuck, driving for Dennis Stewart, Jamie Morgan, and Brandon Steen. On lap twelve, Tarbuck went by for the lead dropping Cyr back to the second position. On lap twenty-two, the front runners were starting to run into serious lapped traffic and on lap twenty-four Morgan was able to follow Tarbuck through a hole and grabbed the second spot quickly followed by Heath Cooper moving to third sometimes racing three wide. With lapped traffic still a factor, Cyr got caught on the outside and Steen went by and into the fourth spot as Cyr began to drop off the pace. On lap thirty-two, Cooper made the pass and moved up to second and Steen found a hole and passed Morgan as well and into the third spot. On lap thirty-nine, Steen passed Cooper and took over the second spot and followed Tarbuck as he crossed the line for the chequered flag. Cooper, Morgan, and Cyr rounded out the top five positions.

Barry Morrison held the pole for the start of the Demo Truck Feature event and was quickly passed by George Haywood after the second lap. This race featured several flat tires and take-outs but on lap five, Kevin Knight grabbed the lead followed by Richard Milne. Over the next several laps Knight was able to stay out of trouble and take out lapped trucks and still maintain the lead. He would go on and win his third Demo Truck Feature of the year followed by Milne and Dustin Dash driving the #16 truck to a third place finish. Kevin said at Victory Square: Where can you have this kinda of fun taking out two trucks including the old man (his father Bruce) in the Suburban". 
Kenny Baker and Joe Liberatore shared the front row for ten laps of racing in the Demo Car Series. Spencer Nicholls and Larry Manson gave up the vans and entered the Demo Cars as Kirk Peacey and Marc Parkinson also returned to race this night making a field of eleven cars. Tyler Clough grabbed the lead after just two laps followed quickly by Peacey and Liberatore. Right from the drop of the green flag in the Trophy Dash, there seemed to be a cat and mouse game with several drivers involved and the Feature would be no different. On lap nine, Clough checked up as he was about to take out a lapped car and several other drivers checked up as well and this allowed Parkinson to blast into the lead and go on to the win followed by Peacey and Liberatore. Eight cars entered a total destruction event and after some great hitting and hard knocks Johnny Earl came away with the trophy in this event keeping his car quite mobile and inflicting punishment on his fellow competitors. 

Mr. Dizzy (aka Mike Buse) brought his "Combined Chaos" team from Munroe Washington to perform a four tier car jump and explosion to Western Speedway on this night. Mike Buse is veteran race car driver and has had much success in auto racing. Mr. Dizzy was born, raised, and still lives in Monroe. His son Wylee (aka Dizzy Jr) is a huge part of this team and is part of the joint stunts originally done with his dad. This year Mr Dizzy has brought on the Crusher and they have become one of the hottest act out there. The Crusher (aka Josh Beckel) buckled up in his car as crews assembled the ramps and stacked four cars on top of one another as well as a few catch cars to be used as a cushion. Given the green light, Josh hammered the car to about sixty to sixty-five mph and slammed into his target three cars up the tier. The sheer force pushed his target forward several feet while the fourth highest car literally was thrown close to two-hundred feet down the track while Beckel done a couple of nose flips and settled down on the roof. Crews quickly rushed to make sure the driver was OK and much to the delight of everyone in the stands, he exited the crushed Ford unhurt and narry a scratch. This team was not finished. After the conclusion of the Total Destruction event, Josh and Wylee entered a van rigged with about ten pounds of dynamite and gasoline. Once given the green light, they set off the charge igniting the gasoline into a huge fireball and quickly exited the van again unhurt and unscathed raising a big cheer from the appreciative crowd and ending this program with a bang.

The next event, at Western Speedway,  is the Wednesday Night Hornet Series sponsored by Steve Copp Construction scheduled for June 29th. The next regular night of racing is the Stock Cars, Mini Stocks, and the WilRoc Lites Series scheduled for July 2nd and sponsored by Richlock Rentals.