Terry Guest
Special to The Record
After a long-awaited start, the Island Dwarf cars finally made their first appearance of the year Saturday at Saratoga Speedway’s first open-wheel race night of the season.
The lightning-fast Wilroc Lites accompanied the Dwarf cars with the I.M.C.A Modifieds, Bomber cars and the Roadrunners rounding out the field, with all the fast action sponsored by Novecosky and Associates, Associated Tire and Quality De Signs.
A full field of 16 Wilroc Lites, 11 Dwarfs, eight I.M.C.A Modifieds, six Roadrunners and four Bomber cars filled the pits. Due to overcast skies, the main events ran first to get their main show in.
The Dwarfs’ 30-lap main event saw #55 Kinser Kennedy jump to an early lead and stretch it for the first 18 laps, until #89 Mike Meeres and #20 Stewart Lee caught up to him and took over first and second. Battling bumper to bumper to the checkered flag. Meeres barely held off Lee for the win.
Rather than another heat race, the Dwarf cars ran another, 25-lap, main event with a tight pack of four cars at the front. This time Lee got the last laugh as he made an impressive move on the outside on lap 20 to take the lead and pull away to claim his second main event of the evening.
The I.M.C.A Modifieds were up next for their 30-lap main event. #01 Jeff May jumped into an early lead and stretched it out for the first 10 laps until the rest of the fast cars caught up to him and battled him for the remaining 20 laps. May held off the pack to take home his first-ever Modified main event win.
In the 15-lap Bomber car main event #87 Boston Larson dominated the field, grabbing the lead on the second lap and pulling far away from there to take home his second main event win of the year.
Eighteen laps were given to the six Roadrunners where #18 Austen Hack grabbed the early lead and held on for his first-ever main event win.
The final main event featured all 16 Wilroc Lite cars in a 35-lap race. #8 Brad Purdy started on the pole and led the first 20 laps but could not hold off #33j Jeff Montgomery as he had that car on another level, ripping around at a track record pace to take home his second straight main event win. Purdy finished second with third going to #32 Ryan Orchard.
The overcast skies cleared after the main events, allowing time to run all the classes heat races. Wins went to #22h Mike Haslam, #44 Tim Openshaw, #8 Brad Kotscherofski, #87 Boston Larson and #88 Ryan Guest.
EXTRA LAPS This weekend Marine Harvest will sponsor the first boat race of the 2016 season … this event has proven to be a fan favourite over the years, always bringing a sell-out crowd to watch the Crash to Pass cars destroy some boats … bus racing will also return as two full-size school buses will zip around the track at full speed … the Galaxy Motors Mad Max Extreme racers will be looking to top what was one crazy outing only two weeks ago … rounding out the card will be the Hornet cars who always bring out a huge field …
