Cole Sorenson/Special to the Gazette
One of Western Speedway’s oldest races took place this past weekend with the track playing host to the West Coast Tire and Wheel Strawberry Cup, featuring the WILROC Non Winged Sprint Cars, Wayne’s Trucking Winged Sprint Cars, and the West Coast Vintage Racers Super Modifieds and Sprint Cars.
In all of the Sprint Car races this season there has been one common denominator and that is the domination of Langford’s Jeff Montgomery. Entering the forty lap Saturday night for the Non Winged Sprint Cars, Montgomery had already won two main events, sweeping both the WILROC and Winged Sprint Car races on Friday night. Having just finished second in the Winged Sprint Car race, Montgomery made the quick switch over to his Non Winged car to try and capture the Strawberry Cup.
Jer Bird and Tovay Helgesen made up the front row for the Strawberry Cup main event, with Helgesen leading the opening lap. Duane Zeinstra took over the top spot on lap two, with the caution coming out on lap five for James Miller and Tyler Clough, who got together on the backstretch.
On the restart, Zeinstra started to pull out to a lead, with Jeff Montgomery starting to work his way up through the field. The next caution came out on lap 11, when Mike Schott and Tovay Helgesen made contact entering turn one. On the restart, Jeff Montgomery took the lead going into turn one, with Dave Emmerson following right behind in second.
For the last half of the race, it was a battle between Montgomery and Emmerson, with a caution for Brad Aumen and Shane Woolcock bunching up the field for a restart with just 10 laps to go. Montgomery would not be denied however, checking out from the rest of the field and snatching the Strawberry Cup ahead of Dave Emmerson, Mike Haslam, Ryan Orchard, and Duane Zeinstra.
The next race at Western Speedway is the Millstone Heating and Sheetmetal Night at the Races, featuring the Rick O’Dell Memorial Twin 50’s for the Keg Late Models, as well as the Galaxy Motors Stock Cars, Sooke Disposal Mini Stocks, Old Timers, and the Island Dwarf Cars.
