By Andy Guest
Monster Trucks and a pit full of race cars helped entertain big crowds over the holiday weekend at Saratoga Speedway – the last two-day race weekend of the season.
Along with the three trucks, the weekend included the Hornet cars, Road Runners, Mad Max and Crash to Pass cars and on Saturday the big crowd got to see the first rollover of the 2018 season.
The rollover happened in the Mad Max main event after Port Alberni’s Brandon Best went straight hard into the tires on turn one with such force this Honda bounced in the air then onto its roof. Even after such force, the car was put back on its wheels and was driven back into the pits.
In Mad Max racing, Craig Gagne tooks wins in both the heat race and main event and in Crash to Pass action, Chris Campbell won the heat race followed by a win in the main event for Troy Ordano.
In Hornet car racing, main event wins in the b class went to Chevy Carlsen and Kana Westra while heat races wins went to Bob Costello, Skyler Carlsen and Chris Hleck. In the A class, Raymond Fortier won the main event with Paul Burke winning the heat race. In road runner action, Carl Carlsen won his second straight main event with point leader Josh Taks taking the heat race win.
On Sunday night, the Monster trucks dazzled a big crowd with some high flying jumps and destroyed cars on both ends of the front straight away in the final show of the weekend and the 2018 season.
The Fountain Tire sponsored night of racing was highlighted by some close competitive races that produced 13 different winners in 14 races.
Following Saturday night where there was plenty of paint swapped, the Hornet B cars ran their night incident free in their heat races which were won by Austin Stevenson, Maya Westra, Sklyer Carlsen and Chris Hleck while main event wins went to Cole Griffits and Hleck. In the A class Brad Grant took home a impressive win in the main event while the heat race win went to Raymond Fortier.
Rounding out the weekend, Mad Max wins went to Craig Gagne and Danille Dunn, while in Crash to Pass racing Tom Dunns won the heat and Chris Campbell the main. In Road runner action, Carl Carlsen won the heat and Chad Taks took home the main event win.
After a weekend of car crushing and metal bending action, the Black Creek oval hosts a night of speed and open wheel racing featuring the IMCA Modifieds, Dwarf cars and the Bomber cars with the scheduled visit by the WILROC Sprint cars.