Terry Guest
Special to the Record
Have you ever seen a crazy Ukrainian guy purposely flip a car over? Fans at Saratoga Speedway on Saturday were treated to this as Alex Benyuk flipped over his old Hornet car twice.
This is Alex’s second stunt of the year as he drove his black F150 through two motorhomes two weeks ago. Ten beautiful Big Rigs were also on display. These stunning trucks came from all across Vancouver Island.
A season-high 26 Hornet cars took to the track. #95 Carter Hintz from Port Alberni led all 10 laps of the C heat to win his first ever Hornet race, with the B going to #10 Blair Mangles and the A to #01 Kevin Lawrenuk. The three reverse heats saw #52 Ben Fortier take his first ever win, taking home the C reverse heat. #87 Boston Larson took the B reverse heat, with Lawrenuk taking the A heat
The 35-lap main featured 23 cars. A few early cautions scrambled the field and #12 Raymond Fortier capitalized, taking the lead on lap seven en route to his second main event win of the year. #81x Jeremy Stormo finished second and #99 Glenn White was third.
In the B division, #87 Boston Larson held off a hard-charging #53 Rowland Westra to take home his second straight B main win, with third going to #10 Blair Mangles.
#73 Sheldon Hopp once again had a dominating night in the Crash to Pass class, setting fast time, winning the heat race and leading all but eight laps to take home yet another main event win.
A full field of closely matched Roadrunners battled throughout the night. The first of two heats saw #18 Mike Whitehead lead all 10 laps to win his first Roadrunner race of the year, with the second eight-lap heat going to #77 Trace Stevenson.
The 15-lap main event featured a four-car battle for the first 10 laps, but Stevenson and #73 MacLaren Inglis pulled away from the field, with Stevenson holding off Inglis to take home yet another main event win.
#17 Brad Dimitrov swept the Figure 8 division, winning the four-lap heat and leading all eight laps of their main.
EXTRA LAPS This weekend marks the second appearance of the Wilroc Sprint cars at Saratoga … these cars are fastest cars you will watch on Vancouver Island, averaging 13-15 seconds a lap … accompanying them will be the Island Mini Stocks (making their first appearance of the year), Dwarf cars, Bomber cars and the Motorcycles … the following weekend marks the second appearance of the monster trucks, with four high-flying trucks putting on yet another crazy show …the Crash to Pass cars, Hornets, Roadrunners and Figure 8s will be joining them over the long weekend, which runs rain or shine …
– Saratoga Speedway
