By Andy Guest
Seven point-champions were crowned on Saturday, Sept. 29 at Saratoga Speedway as the 2018 points series came to an end in the 50th season for the Black Creek oval.
The Kyte Delivery-sponsored night of racing was to be the last of the season. The speedway has now scheduled a rain or shine night of racing, the great Pumpkin Race and a fireworks show to officially end the season on Oct. 20.
The event will serve as a fundraiser for Jonathan Sedman, the fireworks worker who was badly injured on the 29th.
The speedway has decided that they will donate the net proceeds from the night’s racing which is open to all classes and from any outside track. To honour his son, Sedman’s dad will be on hand to help set off the fireworks his son set up.
The special event has a special start time as gates will be open at 3 p.m. and racing at 5 p.m. and any child wearing their Halloween costume will get in for half price.
The end to the 2018 point races for all seven classes came to an end Sept. 29 with the closest battle being in the Bomber class which saw Boston Larsen finishing 51 points ahead of Chad Taks while the biggest margin came in the Road Runner class where Josh Taks finished 298 points ahead of Garret Ann Rosner. Being away on vacation and missing the season’s last race saw Chris Beaulieu’s winning margin in the Modified class cut to 120 points ahead of Peter Mullion and Mike Dionne while Danielle Dunn’s point total was uncatchable as she would finish 190 points ahead of husband Damon in the Mad Max class. A season high 15-car Crash to Pass cars made the championship race on the main event finish and for the second straight season, Troy Ordano would walk away with the championship by finishing 67 points ahead of Chris Campbell. In the Hornet classes, Raymond Fortier came away with the A class championship by finishing 127 points ahead of Nigel Neufeld and in the B class, James Laidlaw would finish 173 points ahead of Ayden Sandirson to win the championship.
After a season-high 88 cars qualified, 12 heat races led off the night with race wins going to Chris Hleck, Rider Lipkovists and Laidlaw in Hornet A. Austin Klee’s second night racing a Road Runner saw him win his first race in the eight-lap race followed by race wins for Sheldon Hopp and Chris Campbell in Crash to Pass races while Larsen would come away with the Bomber race win and Don Hallgarth in the Modified race.
The end of the five-month season prepared the drivers for the last race of 2018 and the racing saw some tight competitive action with some of the best racing of the season. Three Hornet main events finished their season with wins going to Chris Hleck, Laidlaw in the B’s with Micheal White taking the A class main. Josh Taks finished his championship season off with the final main event win in Road Runners while Larsen did the same in the Bomber class.
Dunn took the win in a exciting Mad Max main while Hopp made his return to Crash to Pass racing a winning one a he matched his heat race win to finish off the season with the win in the last race of the night.