By Andy Guest
The third last race of the 2017 season at Saratoga Speedway Saturday night was highlighted by the first third-generation racer to win a main event.
The night of racing featured Crash to Pass, Road Runners, Mad Max and the Hornet cars. Josh Taks – the son of Bomber driver Chad and grandson to Al who raced a Bomber car in 1995 and 1996 – celebrated his 13th birthday by holding off defending and current class point leader Ryan Guest for the win in the 15-lap Road Runner main event.
The younger Taks began the season in a Hornet car switched over to the Road Runner class and was running for just the second race night. Guest increased his point lead over Austen Hack by 90 points with two race dates remaining after he posted the fastest time and grabbed the win in the heat race before battling Taks in the main and settling for second place.
It was a double win night for Courtenay’s Cory Sanderson in Crash to Pass racing after he posted wins in the heat race and main event. In Mad Max racing, Toryon Davies won the heat race and point leader Danielle Antnoik won the main event to increase her point lead to 127 over Damon Dunn.
A full field Hornet B cars produced six races with six different winners with heat race wins going to Cole Griffiths – his first ever win – followed by wins for Isacc Davis, Chris Hleck and Randi Joyce.
In main event action, Port Alberni’s Chevy Carlson won his third main event of the season in the B main winning ahead of Austin Stevenson and Austin Klee.
The A main saw Arlend Berry lead every lap on his way to the win ahead of Jimmy Antonik with third place going to Hleck. With his second place finish Antonik moved into first place in the points battle 11 points ahead of Randi Joyce who has lead the points race for most of the season.
In Hornet A racing Clancey Beamish held off a strong challenge from Micheal White then drove away to win the 25-lap main event ahead of White and Darren Monk with the heat race win going to White. The 2017 season comes to a close for the Crash to Pass and Hornet cars on Sept. 23 while the Road Runners and Mad Max cars have two race dates remaining including this Saturday nights championship night for the Modifieds and Bomber cars.
After Saturday night’s racing the point battles heated up in the Hornet B’s as White as mentioned leads Joyce by 11 points but only 61 points separate the top four as James Laidlaw in third and Evin McLuckie make the battle for the championship the closed battle of all seven classes. Heading into their final race night of the season the championship has been decided in the Modified class with Chris Beaulieu having a uncatchable 225 point lead on Travis Stevenson who is solidly in second leaving a tight battle for third as Jeff Monks currently sits in third but only 46 points separate him Dano Bryant and Peter Muloin.
In the Bomber point battle Boston Larson heads in sitting first overall only 48 points ahead of Chad Taks and 110 ahead of Charlie Akerman.
Speedway Go Kart rentals run for two more weekends weather permitting with running hours 12-4 Saturday and Sunday.