Cooper Wins Bomber Feature - Day Two - Western Speedway

By Ken Keating
Illusion Photos

IslandCarBuyers.com and Wayne's Trucking sponsored day two of the Weekend Of Mayhem event hosted by Western Speedway with a complete program of Trophy Dashes, Heat races, and Bomber Feature events plus a boat race and Colin Heacock Crazy Canuck car jump.

Trophy Dash wins went to Chris Stone and Heath Cooper in the Bomber Series, Gregg Sagmoen in the Demo Cars, Kail Beck in Figure 8s, and Kevin Knight in the Demo Truck Series. Heat race wins went to Richard Milne in the Demo Trucks, Doug Richens and Shawn Hanson in the Figure 8s, Troy Tarbuck in Demo Cars, Jamie Morgan and Heath Cooper in the Bomber Series.

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. Unofficially, at the time of writing, 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.

Western Speedway also tried a novelty race where two vehicles were chained together with one facing forward and the other backwards and had to run two laps, change leaders and run two more laps creating quite a challenge for the driver that had to run backwards. Several times the car backing up grazed the walls often slamming the lead car. Six cars and trucks lined up for the start of the always entertaining boat race and again parts and fibreglass were flying in all directions with several boats getting air time behind their tow vehicle. When the dust settled, Troy Tarbuck had the most boat left and was declared the winner.

Colin Heacock, the Crazy Canuck, was set to try another car jump and land on his designated target about one-hundred and fifty feet down the track. When his car landed nose first, into the catch cars, it bounced like a basketball sending him spinning in the air, landing on the back bumper, again spinning him in the air and landing on the roof after a complete somersault. Emergency crews rushed to the overturned vehicle and quickly gave the A-OK signal to everyone as they helped Colin exit the crushed car. Its on YouTube if you want to see a wild ride.

 

The next event, at Western Speedway, is the Steve Copp Construction sponsored Wednesday Night Fever with the Hornet Series on August 17th. On Friday and Saturday night it is the two day Daffodil Cup event with the NSRA and WilRoc Sprint Car Series with the fastest cars and drivers in the Pacific Northwest here to compete for one of the most historic trophies up for grabs. Also, both nights will feature the WilRoc Lites with their brand of wingless sprint cars in another very competitive Series. Both nights will be sponsored by P&R Truck Centre/Western Star, and Richlock Rentals.