Big Crowd, Big Rigs, Big Crash - Western Speedway

By Ken Keating

Another large crowd filled Western Speedway to watch the Demo Cars, Demo Trucks, Figure 8s, and the Bombers Saturday night. Along with the Demo Series, the Big Rigs made a return visit to the Langford oval along with a Total Destruction event and a semi truck jump sponsored by Wilson & Proctor Engine Rebuilders and William Scrap Metal. Smokin Joe Liberatore continued his quest and fund raising for the Cops For Cancer and on this night he collected $3,574.00 for the cause with more events planned over the next short period of time with proceeds going to help those less fortunate.

Trophy Dash wins went to Chris Stone in the Bomber Series, Robin Trotter in the Demo Cars, Rhett Szevics in Figure 8s, Corey McMeckan and Cam Sully in the Big Rig clash, and Paul Scotthorne in the Demo Truck Series. Paul asked, "Can I just stay here? It took five years to get here can't I just stay??" This was his first win in the Demo Truck class although one of his drivers is leading the points chase in that series as Kevin Knight is a consistent winner in a Scotthorne owned truck. Heat race winners were Daniel David and Heath Cooper in the Bomber Series, Kirk Peacey in the Demo Cars, Richard Milne in Demo Trucks, Dan Madden in the Figure 8s, and Darwin Berdahl and Colin Fraser in the Big Rigs. Glen Creed put on quite a smoke show in his dump truck doing a big burnout and several donuts in the center of the track that left piles of burning rubber long after he completed the run.

There was a very small field of Figure 8s that took the grid for the Feature event, but that didn't stop the big hits. Ashton Campbell came away with the win and only three cars were left running. Dan Baluch led for most of this race but lost the lead on lap twenty to Campbell. Rhett Szevics got hit dead on at the crossover and could not refire and two other drivers also collided at the crossover. Baluch and Jeff Foley rounded out the top three.

Robin Trotter inherited the lead from Kirk Peacey on lap five of the Demo Car Main event and went unchallenged the rest of the way for the win. Mike Noyce and Mike Buhlert rounded out the top three positions. Peacey led for two laps before entering the pits with a problem. Cody Sadler led the way for three laps in the Demo Truck Series until he was passed by Richard Milne on lap four. Kevin Knight also moved into contention on lap four taking the second spot as Paul Scotthorne moved to third. On lap six, George Haywood passed Scotthorne and took over the third spot. When the chequered flag dropped, Milne had the win with Knight on his bumper and Haywood holding on to the third spot.

Mike Melin and Mark Lockhart shared the front row for the start of forty laps of racing in the Bomber Series. Mark Lockhart had the lead for the first eleven laps until he was passed by Heath Cooper with Chris Broughton taking the second spot and Chris Stone also in the mix taking the third position. On lap twenty-one, Stone pulled his car into the pits with a problem handing the third position to Brandon Steen. Over the next several laps, Cooper worked himself into a decent lead as the he worked through lapped traffic. Behind him Broughton and Brandon Steen were running side by side for the second and third spot. On lap thirty-three the red flag came out as Melin spun in turn two. When he tried to re-fire his car caught on fire. On the restart, Cooper now had Broughton and Steen on his rear bumper but he was able to maintain the lead but on the next lap the red flag came out again as Steen nailed the frontstretch wall as something broke in his car. He was not injured in this crash but his night was finished. When the chequered flag dropped, Cooper secured the win followed by Broughton, Tyler Clough, Jamie Morgan, and Lockhart rounding out the top five.

Eleven Big Rig trucks lined up for their Feature event scheduled for thirty-five laps. The first red flag came out on lap three as two trucks got together that include Corey McMeckan with McMeckan hitting the wall, between corner one and two, thus ending his night as the steering suffered lots of damage. On the restart, Terrill Schmidt grabbed the lead but on lap six, Cam Sully passed for the lead with a good battle behind him for the second spot that included Glen Creed, Schmidt, Ron Singer, and Darren Berdahl. On lap thirteen Berdahl moved into the second spot as Creed moved to run third. On lap seventeen the red came out again as Peter Van Dyke, in the Pinkfoot truck, got together with another truck and the race was stopped to clear the wreckage. Van Dyke entered the pits with his run finished with a lot of damage to the front end. Neither driver was hurt in this crash but the front steering was completely ripped from under the other truck. With time a factor, the race was shortened to twenty laps with Sully taking the win followed by Darren Berdahl and Glen Creed rounding out the top three. All drivers had trophies presented to them by Betty Kate and Kecia Bremner at Victory Square.

After several minutes of bang and crash, Mike Noyes came away with the win in the Total Destruction event as he was the "last car standing". The ramps were put in place as well as several catch cars and a school bus as Gary Williams prepared to jump a semi truck. He barrelled down the track and over the ramp flying several feet before plowing into the top of the bus imbedding the semi into the roof and turning the bus almost over on its side. A very excited Williams exited the semi unhurt in this spectacular jump, one of the few remaining vehicles he has not tried over the ramps to this point. What's next for Gary?? Who knows?

The next event at Western Speedway is Championship night for the Steve Copp Construction sponsored Hornet Series scheduled for August 31st. This is the last race of the regular season for the highly competitive Hornet cars. The next regular race is scheduled for September 3rd with the first ever ASA Advnce Testing Tour with the Late Model Series in the Canada 200. Also on this card is the OTRA series and their open wheel action.