By Ken Keating
Langford's own Glen Creed usually can be found in the top trucks driving his big Louisville Ford and has a great knowledge of Western Speedway as a past Champion in the Demo Series as well as a Big Rig Championship. Last August, Cory Mckmeekin led ten trucks for the drop of the green flag and twenty-five laps of racing for the Big Rigs. Before the first lap was complete, Colin Fraser took the lead and was quickly followed by Peter Van Dyke and Ron Singer Jr. On lap twelve, Van Dyke, from Airdrie Alberta, took over the lead with Darren Berdahl taking the second spot two laps later. Glen Creed made his move to the third spot on lap fifteen as both he and Berdahl tried to reel in the leader. Several times it looked like Van Dyke was about to spin out with Berdahl trying to get the inside groove but the veteran driver shut the door each time. On the final lap, Van Dyke again went a little wide and it looked like Berdahl would make it with the chequered flag in sight. Van Dyke was able to win the drag race and came in with the victory with Berdahl in second and Creed finishing third right behind Berdahl.
The last appearance for the Demo Series was the two day Weekend of Mayhem held August 11th and 12th. Along with the Demos, there was a two day combined points for the first ever Island Bomber Championships pitting Bombers from Saratoga against the Bombers from Western Speedway. Chris Broughton made a successful return, after a lengthy absence, and won the fifty lap Feature event on day one. Heath Cooper also found Victory Square on day two holding off a determined Brandon Steen. Over the two days, however, Steen accumulated enough combined points to walk away with the Island Bomber Championship and also enough points to take over the lead in the points battle for this year's Championship.
On day two, Andrew Buchanan and Jacob Burns shared the front row for the start of the Figure 8 Feature event but it was Kail Beck that took the lead on lap two followed by Sean Welsh two laps later. As in last night's race, the track was littered with stalled or damaged cars and at times it looked more like a total destruction event as several cars suffered big hits. On lap nine Ashton Campbell moved up to take the second spot dropping Welsh back to third. Dan Madden moved into contention on lap nineteen taking over the third spot. On lap twenty-three Kyle Rizok moved into the third spot dropping Welsh back to fourth. Up front Beck was still gingerly picking his way through traffic and through the many obstacles that lay ahead of him and many times he got hit. When the dust settled Beck came through for the win followed by Campbell and Rizok rounding out the top three. Fifteen cars started the race with only four cars left running and at the end Beck was the only car on the lead lap.
Bruce Knight had the pole for the start of the Demo Truck Feature event but Richard Garhardt led the first lap only to give that up to George Haywood who led the next two. Kevin Knight spun Haywood around and took the lead on lap four as Richard Milne also moved up to run in third. Kevin cruised through for his fifth Feature win in 2011 followed by Haywood and Milne rounding out the top three positions. Kevin has run many different Series but seems to have success with the Paul Scotthorne owned and sponsored Demo Truck team called The Team Punishment Knight Racing.
Greg Sagmoen was looking for his second clean sweep of the weekend as he started fourth in the Demo Car Feature event. He took the lead before the end of the first lap followed by Bryce Muir for two laps until Keith Hansen took the second spot on lap three as Troy Tarbuck took the third spot on the same lap. Smokin Joe Liberatore's engine blew up early and the red flag came out on lap nine as Mark Cresswell spun out, with some help, and had his car almost on its side as he slid into the light standard going into turn three. His car landed back on its wheels and he was not hurt but his night came to an end. On the restart, Sagmoen again grabbed the lead and was cruising when, with just two laps remaining, his tire went flat sending him to the pits. Troy Tarbuck came home with the win with Sagmoen still finishing second in another wild Demo Car Feature.
Kyle Matthews and Brenden Moore shared the front row for fifty laps of racing in the Island Bombers Championship race with Moore getting the early lead followed quickly by Tyler Woods and Mike Ryce. On lap four, Chris Broughton moved into the fourth spot with Heath Cooper and Brandon Steen putting themselves in contention. On lap twelve, Steen took over the lead with Broughton moving in to run second and Cooper into third. On lap seventeen, Cooper made a pass for second dropping Broughton back to third while Jamie Morgan and John Zanette moved into the top five and had the best race for position for several laps. On lap thirty-three, Steen was issued a stop and go for running under the twenty second mark and entered the pits surrendering the lead to Cooper followed by Broughton and Zanette and Morgan still in the mix. On lap thirty-nine, Zanette took over the second spot dropping Broughton back to third who now had Steen back in the hunt running fourth. About this same time, flagman issued a black flag to Zanette for running too fast a lap, a flag that was ignored as he continued to run. This resulted in a DQ for the Port Alberni driver. After fifty laps of racing Cooper drove to the chequered flag followed by Brandon Steen, Rob Gaudreault, Chris Broughton, and Jamie Morgan rounding out the top five positions. The run for the Island Bomber Championship sees Brandon Steen with 202 points followed by Chris Broughton - 191, Jamie Morgan - 186, Aaron Cameron - 157, and Dennis Stewart - 156 points rounding out the top five in the two day total points chase. Championship Night is not far off so you can bet all these drivers will be driving to the limit to gather all the points they can from here on out. Come out early for the best seats as they will go quickly.