A night full of championships won, a pumpkin race, a roll over and a season finale fireworks show capped off the 2017 racing season at Saratoga Speedway.
The Kyte Delivery sponsored night of racing on Sept. 30 featured the championship night for the Road Runners, Crash to Pass, Mad Max and Hornet cars with four of the five championships being decided on the season’s last race night. With clear skies hovering over the Black Creek oval after rain dominated the earlier part of the day, track conditions were perfect for what turned out to be a night of highly competitive races.
In the Road Runner class, Campbell River’s Ryan Guest captured his third straight points championship after collecting fast time and the win in the heat race before having to drop out seven laps into the main event with a broken hub but had clinched the title and ended up 113 points ahead of Austen Hack. The 15-lap main event saw Guest take a lead at lap and was on his way to the win before dropping out, handing the lead to Garret Ann Rosner who purchased Guest’s car for next year and went on to hold off Josh Taks and Hack to capture her first main event in three years of racing in the Road Runner class.
In the Mad Max class, Courtenay’s Danielle Antonik capped off her season by winning the 20 lap main event and in doing so captured the points championship finishing 188 points ahead of last years point champion Damon Dunn with Brad Dimitrov finishing third overall.
The Crash to Pass points championship also went down to the main event result and Troy Ordano used the win in the exciting 20 lap race to capture the points championship finishing 102 points ahead of Rich Hutton and Scott McLellan. The crashers field was bolstered by four cars out of Victoria, making for one of the best Crash to Pass race nights of the season. It resulted in two heat races with wins going to McLellan and Victoria’s Jake Matthews.
The only championship that didn’t need the last race was the Hornet A class with Carter Hintz having clinched the championship the previous race night and ended up 302 points ahead of Luke Dixon. With no championship battle on the line, the A cars delivered with two fast and competitive races. Clancy Beamish won the main event uncontested while Keith Hunt took the win in the heat race.
The tightest point race came in the Hornet B class as no fewer than five drivers had a chance to leave the 2017 point champion and when the checkered flag fell on the 2017 season, only 60 points separated the top four drivers with Courtenay’s Jimmy Antonik joining his mom Danielle becoming the first mom and son championship combo at the speedway. In the final points standings, Antoink finished ahead of James Laidlaw by 44 points, Randi Joyce by 59 and Evin McLuckie by 60.
In Hornet B, heat race wins went to Saje Kurpiela, Stephanie Addison, Chevy Carlson and Laidlaw with main event wins going to Joyce and Arlend Berry The last race of the 2017 season saw Chad Taks take the win in the 42 car Great pumpkin race.
The race season officially comes to a close Oct. 28 with the season ending award banquet at the Oyster river Resort. For ticket info contact 250-923-2982.