It took the last race of the 2008 season and a post race tech inspection to decide 5 of the 9 point champions for Saratoga Speedway (http://www.saratogaspeedway.bc.ca/) as the 28th season of auto racing at the Black Creek oval came to close Saturday night (Oct. 11).
With 4 point champions already decided the remaining 5 went right down to the last race of the night in 4 of them while one of them went a little further as a post race inspection in the Bomber class decided the point champion.
Heading into their final main event of the season Port Albernie’s Rob Gaudrealt had to just finish ahead of Stewart Lee to clinch his 2nd speedway point championship his 1st coming in 1992 in the Hobby Stock class. The championship looked to be his after he finished 2nd behind Kyle Harrison in the 50 lap championship race while Lee was down laps after mechanical problems sent him into the pits while running 4th. After the trophy’s for the race were handed out the top five point cars of Gaudrealt, Lee, Harrison, Andy Meyers and Justin Beaulieu headed to a tech inspection which is where the championship was decided as both Lee and Gaudrealt failed a spring inspection which in turn saw all the points they earned on the night taken away.
With both Gaudrealt and Lee having their points taken away the championship fell into the hands of Kyle Harrison who came into the night just over 100 points back and did what he had to by winning the 50 lap race. While running third Harrison made a brilliant down low pass of race leader Charlie Ackerman and Gaudrealt who got caught up in lapped traffic and could only watch as the lead swapped hands with Harrison holding off Gaudrealt for the remaining laps to pick up the valuable main event double points which in the end gave him his 2nd speedway championship to go along with his 2006 Claimer car championship. Harrison went thru the 08 season by being consistent by not winning a lot of races but by finishing in the top five in most which allowed him to be in a position to have a chance for the championship which he was able to take advantage of. The final point standings had the top five finishers being Harrison, Meyers, Gaudrealt, Lee and Beaulieu.
Campbell River’s Travis Stevenson ended his Crash to Pass season the same way he started it by winning the main event ahead of Kermit Dahl and Jeff Monks and in doing so the likeable racer clinched his 1st ever points championship after leading the point’s race from the opening night’s race back in April. The top five point getters in the Crash to Pass class behind Stevenson were David Dahl, Ryan Monks, Brad Kotscheroski and Jeff Monks
In the hunt for the Hornet car championship Dave Hargrave went into the 35 lap A main only having to finish better than 2nd place point sitter Doug McLean whose hopes for the championship ended half way thru the race went when he got involved in a accident which ended his season on the back of a tow truck giving Hargrave the speedway’s oldest driver at 74 his first ever championship. The top five in the ever growing popular class behind Hargrave and McLean were Brandon Steen, Lyle Bowlan and Jocelyn Popowich.
In Figure 8 racing Steen joined his dad Kerry the 08 Stock car point champion as a speedway point champion as he finished 2nd in both the heat race and main event to Walker Welsh but ahead of Rachael Sawatzky who went into the night in 2nd spot and a chance to overtake Steen for the top spot. Steen had a very successful season as he was a top finisher in almost every race he finished and did s by also by driving a Hornet car almost right after every Figure 8 race. The top five finishers in Figure 8’s were Steen, Sawatzky, Welsh, Michael Corder and Aaron Spam.
In the Road Runner class Kermit Dahl came away with the season championship after the Kenny Davis car in 2nd overall with Dan Kemp behind the wheel failed to gain enough points to overtake him after he sold his car to Lyle Newton who drove it for the final race night, With Newton behind the wheel he won the heat race then grabbed 2nd in the main event behind Riley Carter while Kemp suffered a flat tire ending any chances of Davis winning his 2nd straight championship. The final top five in the Road Runner class behind Dahl and Davis were James Buchanen, Hans Baan and Carter.
The final Speedway function for the circle track racers in 2008 will be November 15th in Courtenay at the Best Western Hotel with the awards banquet and tickets are still available until November 3rd and can be purchased at the speedway on that date or before by phoning 250-923-2982 or check the speedway web site at saratogaspeedway,bc,ca.
In closing congratulations from myself Andy Guest to point champions Travis Stevenson, Kermit Dahl, Dave Hargrave, Brandon Steen, Kyle Harrison, Kerry Steen, Tony Johnson, Dean Thompson and my son Ryan Guest who I am so very proud of. With the end of this season it ends for me a era in which I was part of local racing as I have decided to retire from being involved to spend more weekends with my boys and to next season help Ryan with his next step in racing into a Hornet car as well as myself turning to having fun instead of watching others by running my own Hornet car. To you the race fan thank you for following local racing and drivers thru my reports and please continue to support the sport of auto racing as it is a great sport.
From Andy Guest / Saratoga Raceway
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