STROUD, ON - When the race fans at Sunset Speedway arrived to watch the Lucas Oil Ontario Off Road Racing Championships, they were not sure what to expect. This was the first time a number of then had ever seen off road racing in person, let alone heard of this style of racing. When they left, they were grinning through their dust covered faces!
The August 5th evening was filled with action from spinouts into cement walls to the first ever off road bus races at the end of the evening. While dust is not normally an issue for spectators at the paved oval, it created even more havoc than the off road racers are used to. Combine that with the difficult transition from pavement to dirt and back, the evening was full of non stop action.
Ray Jennings, a veteran buggy driver in Class 1600, hit the cement wall very hard on the front stretch in the Class 1600 feature race. As Jennings landed from the south jump and worked his way from the dirt to asphalt, the steering locked in his #66 Team Air buggy. The car hit the wall head on at full speed, only to bounce back a few feet before coming to a rest. Surrounded by the race officials and his fellow racers, Jennings slowly emerged from his heavily damaged car with a huge applause from fans and racers alike.
The Class 1600 race continued and it was the #17 car of Stu Talsma wining both the qualifier and feature races. The car was actually driven for this race by truck racing veteran Donnie Smith of Peterborough while Talsma watched from the stands with work related injures. Travis Dinsmore, #43, was hot on the heels of Smith, followed by Ken Brown, #4 and current point’s leader and the 2006 Overall Points Champion, Jeff Zoskey, #600. Fred Gagnier #07 and Tom Horney #70, both from the Windsor area, rounded out the field.
Class 7 mini trucks welcomed the #638 Class 6 Tracker of Brent Campbell due to the low car count for this class. Rob Sanderson #713, who increased his feature event win streak to 3 in a row, also won the qualifier event in his S10. Sanderson battled it out all night long with current points leader James Horton in the #711 Ecotec powered S10. Rookies Nate Monahan, who is currently holding onto second place in the points chase, and Stu , in his first off road race, both battled with problems in their S10 trucks to finish 3rd and 4th respectively. Jeff Sleegers #790 was running strong until the transmission decided to come apart in the Ecotec S10.
The Class 10 Buggy feature race was short and small, but at the end there was a new point’s leader. The leader before the race, Ken Sherrett #015, only had to finish to maintain his points lead. His main competition was sitting out this event with Bob Joseph out with wrist injuries while Paul Robertson’s buggy decided it did not want race by having major engine trouble while loading onto the trailer. Sherrett’s car decided to play tag with the loader tires that outlined the track, causing the steering rack to break.
That left the two Class 1600 cars that bumped up for more seat time. Travis Dinsmore #43 walked away with the win while Fred Gagnier drove his injured #07 buggy around the track. Gagnier had front end problems in the Class 1600 race, but wisely decided to come out and get his starting and finishing points with a few very slow laps. This move put him into the points lead by 7 points over Sherrett.
Class 4 was dominated by Steve McCrossan in his #33 Pro 4 Ford. Rob Purcell worked hard to claim second in the #333 Ford, followed by the four cylinder, 2wd #40 Ranger of Brian Aube and the #403 Chevy of Kevin Kern.
The ladies race featured two Class 7 trucks and two Class 1600 cars. #43 Buggy driver Cassie Dinsmore took the win with a great last lap pass on current point’s leader Barb Monahan in the #705 S10. A special appearance was made by Lucas Oil’s Robyn Kostyshyn who raced Rob Sanderson’s #713 into third place. This was her first time racing off road and was grinning from ear to ear all night.
The final event of the evening was the much anticipated off road school bus races. Club President and Head Flagman Ed Sanderson took time off from his duties to hop into the drivers seat, as did announcer Wes Kibble. They were joined by a gentleman selected from the stands to run in the first ever school bus off road races. Kibble lost his brakes on the second lap and almost pushed his opponents into the cement wall while the jarring of jumping a school bus knocked the fiberglass hood loose from Sandersons bus. It was soon run over repeatedly, much to the fans delight.
The Lucas Oil Ontario Off Road Racing Championships return to Peterborough Speedway on August 25-26 and to Augusta Motorsports Park near Brockville on September 15-16. For more information about the series, check out their website at www.ooraonline.com
From Wes Kibble // Ontario Off Road Racing Association
No comments:
Post a Comment