By Ken Keating
Victoria Hundai was the sponsor for the "Eve Of Destruction" event hosted by Western Speedway with the Demo Cars, Demo Trucks, Figure 8s, and the Bomber Series. Along with regular racing there was a boat race and a limo jump for the close to capacity crowd to enjoy. Brandon Steen got things underway by winning the Trophy Dash for the Bomber Series, and then the action started to pick up. As the Demo Trucks were going for the white flag, Richard Milne tried to go three wide with Mark Keeler, driving the #13 Suburban, Kevin Knight, and George Haywood but went into turn one too hot and spun out. Haywood held on to take the win by mere inches over Knight. Smokin Joe Liberatore took the lead half way through the Demo Car Trophy Dash and took the win by just a couple of feet ahead of the hard charging Robin Trotter. Mike Rutty, driving a Figure 8 car, found Victory Square in the Figure 8 Dash.
Marie Haywood won the "B" Heat for the Figure 8 Series while Ashton Campbell took the honors in the "A" Heat. Teresa Johnson held off a hard charging Jamie Morgan in the Bomber "B" Heat with Chris Stone following suit in the "A" Heat race.
Kevin Knight passed Doug Richens half way through the Demo Truck Heat race for the win. This race was not without some hard hits and collisions. Richard Milne spun in front of George Haywood and got nailed sending both trucks to the pits. Milne was done for the night but Haywood's crew was able to make the necessary repairs to his truck to get him back in action for the Feature event. The Demo Car Heat race also produced destruction as the red flag came out after just two laps. Smokin Joe spun going through turn three and four and got nailed by Mike Derepentigny who didn't see Joe because of the sun. Both drivers had their night come to an end with major damage done to the #63 car. On the restart and going through turn two, three cars that included Bryce Muir, Kenny Baker, and Billy Stidston got locked together sitting on the others hood and front bumper. Robin Trotter was the eventual winner in this race.
Doug Richens and Jacob Burns shared the front row for the start of the Mini Figure 8 Feature event but it was Dan Baluch who jumped to the early lead. Behind him Ashton Campbell, Marie Haywood, Mike Rutty, and Tim Sutton traded spots lap after lap. On lap six the race was red flagged as Marie Haywood suffered a big hit and there was concern for her safety. While under red flag conditions, her crew took exception to the apparent hit by Cam Wilkinson and tried to get at him while his car was stopped too. After getting out of her car, she voiced her displeasure of the hit as well. Even at the conclusion of the race there were verbal exchanges in the pits but cooler heads prevailed. On the restart, Kail Beck led one lap but got knocked back to third as Baluch took the lead for two more laps. Ashton Campbell led for two more laps as did Tim Sutton while positions were changing behind each leader. On lap fourteen, Beck took the lead followed by Sutton and Baluch. As cars quit or were knocked out, Sutton and Baluch continued the chase of Beck. On lap twenty-nine, Baluch took over the second spot but could not catch Beck. When the dust settled Beck came home the victor followed by Baluch, Sutton, Rhett Szevics, and Wilkinson rounding out the top five positions.
Doug, "The Slug" Richens, doing double duty, had the pole for the start of the Demo Truck Feature event scheduled for twelve laps. He got the early jump and led big for the first seven laps and then got tagged by George Haywood who reeled in the leader and went by leading one lap. As he slowed to tag Richens, Mark Keeler, driving the big #13 Suburban caught him and took him out hard. Meanwhile Kevin Knight was charging forward in a hurry and took the lead on lap eight and never looked back. He took the another Feature event win followed by Paul Scotthorne and George Haywood in the top three positions.
Chris Romkey had the pole for the start of the Demo Car Feature event but Craig Holfeld grabbed the early lead with Jake Matthews falling into second place. Holfeld got out to a big lead but behind him, and on a charge, Rockin Robin Trotter started to reel him in. For a few laps Trotter tried to set the leader up for a hit and with one lap to go did so spinning the #33 car around and took the lead. He would go on to the win followed by Holfeld and Mathews in the top three positions.
Teresa Johnson led a field of fifteen Bombers to the green flag and thirty-five laps of racing in the Bomber's Feature event of the night. On lap three the yellow came out as James Buchanan spun in front of the field coming out of turn collecting several drivers as there was no place to go. Brandon Steen, Bill Lushaw, and Andrew Wilson got caught up in this mishap but no one was hurt. On lap four Jamie Morgan worked himself to the lead followed by Danny Matthews and Chris Stone. Stone ran side by side with Matthews for several laps trying to move up into the second spot as several drivers jockeyed for position behind them. On lap eleven Stone finally got the second position dropping Matthews back to third while Mark Lockhart, Heath Cooper, and Brandon Steen were moving up from the rear and into contention. Up front, Morgan, Stone, and Matthews built a pretty good cushion over the rest of the field and running bumper to bumper. Steen was on a charge as well finally taking the fourth spot on lap twenty leaving Lockhart and Cooper to battle for the next positions. With lapped traffic, now playing a part, Stone dove to the inside on lap twenty-seven forcing Morgan high and came out with the lead while Steen used the same traffic to jump into the third spot with Cooper on his tail. On the very last lap, Steen passed Morgan for the second spot and watched as Stone captured the win with Morgan holding off Cooper for the third spot followed by Lockhart rounding out the top five positions in yet another great Bomber Feature race. Over the course of the whole event, drivers done their best to truly make this an Eve of Destruction as several cars and trucks will need extensive repairs to get back into action for the next race.
Several cars and trucks took part in the very entertaining boat race with parts flying in all directions. When the dust settled Chris Romkey had just enough boat parts left on the chain to take the victory. The finale for the night was a limo jump attempted by Gary Williams. He wanted to fly some one hundred plus feet but fell way short colliding with the first car in a line up of several catch cars. He said his accelerator did not perform the best leaving the veteran jumper shy of his target but unhurt and set to jump a big rig semi on August 27th.
The next event, at Western Speedway, is the Steve Copp Construction sponsored Wednesday Night Fever Hornet Series scheduled for July 27th. There is no event scheduled for Saturday July 30th and another Wednesday Night Fever scheduled for August 3rd.