By Andy Guest
One of the most spectacular crashes ever witnessed at Saratoga Speedway highlighted the Saturday night racing program last weekend, which featured Wilroc sprint cars, IMCA Modifides and bomber cars.
The scary mishap came on the second lap of the Wilroc sprint car B dash and involved Victoria’s Tyler Clough and Port Hardy’s Brad Purdy. The two got tangled up which sent them into the tires. Purdy’s car went up over Clough’s, which sent him barrel rolling up over the 30-foot high billboard signs landing on his wheels in between two trees. A credit to the safety rules in sprint car racing left Purdy unhurt. His racer – which took nearly a half hour to remove from behind the signs – was heavily damaged, however.
The Brian McLean/Tyee Chev-sponsored night of racing saw Victoria’s Mike Haslam, the current series point leader, complete a clean sweep of the main events this season at the Black Creek oval by winning all three main events including Saturday night’s. Earlier races saw James Miller winning the trophy dash with heat race wins going to Jer Bird and Jarrod Heap.
With only one race night remaining in his 2018 season, modified points leader Chris Beaulieu clinched the season championship after winning the main event while second- place runner Traivis Stevenson finished seventh after a heat race crash forced him to miss the first nine laps of the 25-lap race.
Courtenay’s Peter Mulion came away with two wins in the trophy dash and heat race.
In bomber car action Campbell River’s Chad Taks also came away with two wins after going uncontested in the main event after taking the win in the trophy dash with the heat race win going to Boston Larson.
This Saturday night the speedway hosts their second travel trailer race where cars tow the trailers around the oval with hopes of having the most trailer remaining at the end of the event.
This Saturday night will also feature the road runners, hornet cars, mad max and crash to pass cars. This weekend’s races are a go, rain or shine.
