 |
| mckellar photo |
After a 2 day long battle with the weather, the ASA BC Late Models finally ran there 150 main event on Sunday afternoon, marking the first time in 15 years that Saratoga Speedway has raced on a Sunday afternoon. This event was proudly sponsored by Thrifty Foods, who supplied a very full shopping cart full off great groceries to our 50/50 winners.
The night started off very strong in qualifying. 6 Late Models qualified under the previous track record, with the best time going to #14 Brandon Carlson who set a new track record of 14.980. The B dash was won by #76 Tyler Clough, who races of Victoria and the A went to #33 Dave Hemrich who races out of Ladner, B.C,. Hemrich carried his winning ways into the B heat, fighting his way from the back to take the win. #20 Bart Smith, who is one of our local drivers, fought off the field in the A heat to take his only win of the evening. The 150 lap main event started at 3:05 and lasted a total of 45 minutes. #16 Rory Smith held onto the lead for the first 45 laps. #52 Geoff Morris along with his brother Brent, #14 Bandon Carlson and Hemrich all made their way to the front on lap 46, sending smith into 5th. From their Geoff Morris spread his lead for 118 laps of green flag racing, which is a record at Saratoga Speedway. A caution on lap 132 diminished Morris’ huge lead over the field. Lap 145 saw some drama unfold; #2 John Ross, who has been a lap car for the whole race, slowed down on the back stretch right in front of the leader Morris. Carlson, who was running 2nd, snuck in on the inside and took the lead and never looked back from there. 2nd went to Geoff Morris, who led 110 laps of the race, 3rd to #25 Brent Morris, 4th to #33 Dave Hemrich and 5th to #16 Rory Smith. The island stock cars and bomber cars also raced on the evening. The Bomber dash went to #24 Charlie Ackerman, and the Stock car dash went to #32 Aaron Wilkie. The two classes combined for the heat and main; the heat went to #98 Brian Clutchey, and the main was also won by Clutchey. The ASA BC Late Models next race event will take place on July 30 and 31st at Penticton Speedway.
So far we are almost half way through our racing season, and the points races are starting to heat up. #01 Kevin Lawrenuk holds the points lead in the Hornet car division, with 1454 points. 2nd place is held by #02 Daryl Cahill with 1228 points, 3rd #21 Gord Fraser with 1221 points, 4th #08 Daryn Cahill with 1059, and 5th #07 Brandon Phillips with 830 points. #17 Brad Dimitrov holds the lead in the Hornet B division with 530 points. In the Crash to Pass division, #72 Travis Stevenson holds a 145 point lead over 2nd place Dan Kemp. 3rd place is held by #01 Jeff May with 783 points, 4th to #40 Cam Edward with 751 points, and 5th to #37 David Cates with 727 points. #28 Andrew Buchanan holds the points lead in the Roadrunner division, holding a 211 point lead over #25 Andrea Cannon. $53 Kevin Noble holds onto a comfortable 129 point lead over #8 Brad Purdy. #32 Dano Bryant rounds out the top 3 with 463 points, 234 points behind Noble. Next weekend’s racing car will feature the first appearance of the Island Mini Stocks. The Dwarfs cars, I.M.C.A Modifieds, Bomber cars and Motorcycles will also be on the card for next weekend.