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Plenty of thrills at Saratoga Speedway Saturday

IMCA modified race supplied drama throughout, and even afterward
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After a disqualification, Brad Purdey was declared winner of the IMCA modified race Saturday, May 25.

Douglas Waller

Special to Black Press

Warm weather greeted both racers and race fans from all over Vancouver Island when they arrived at Saratoga Speedway on Saturday afternoon for the running of the Novecosky and Associates-sponsored race event, featuring the always entertaining Dwarf cars and the thunderous IMCA modified race cars. The evening would also provide the speedy Hornet A-division cars, the larger Bomber car class and the Road Runner stock division opportunities to navigate the track.

Charlie Ackerman (No. 24) won the Bomber main, while Josh Taks (96) won his division in a combined Bomber/Road Runner main event. Blair Mangles repeated last week’s effort and result by taking the checkered flag in the Hornet A main event. Jimmy Antonik, in the No. 90 car, finished second after winning one of the Hornet A main events last week. Those are two cars to be watched all season, I expect.

In the high horsepower to weight ratio Dwarf car class main event, experience paid off for Brad Struck in the No. 52 car, winning his 25-lap feature event. The blue No. 55 of Kyle Kennedy was 0.70 seconds behind the leader when the checkers flew, wrapping their feature race while the audience applauded the drivers’ skills and results.

In the evening’s big feature race of 13 IMCA modified race cars, the stars and planets must have aligned just right for the results of the event. The race ended with the No. 98 Pat Brown in first but the story continues. Brown was disqualified post-race, which passed the winning position to the #8P driven by Brad Purdey. Okay, simple enough, but that is not where this story ends. The race is an annual event that is a memorial race to honor former modified racer Darrell Wardrope. Darrell’s No. 25 modified had changed ownership over the years and tonight that owner/driver fittingly is Brad Purdy, running Darrell Wardrope’s No. 25 as the blue 8P. Do you have spine tingles? It is interesting how things work out sometimes. Now you know the rest of the story.

Next oval track race day on June 15, for the Fearless Trucking-sponsored logging truck rodeo with many classes participating in great family entertainment racing. June 1 and June 8 will be Street Outlaw drag racing events. Check out Saratoga Speedway on Trip Advisor and on Facebook to see all the images from the race events and the upcoming race schedule.