By Doug Waller
Special to Black Press
Die-hard race fans braved the rain at Saratoga Speedway Saturday night to witness the 2021 Champions get crowned.
The event was fun and a great wrap on the local racing series under the new ownership and management of the Leightons.
It was a championship night for all four track classes, the Ace Brewery Bombers, the Kyte Delivery Hornets and the Sunwest RV Crash to Pass class. The Champions night was sponsored by Waypoint Insurance.
The evening began with the Glacier Valley Homes qualifying of the Kyte Delivery Hornet Divisions. In the Hornet B class Brandon Hopp was fastest of his group with a 19.096-second lap. Hornet A driver Nigel Neufeld was his division’s fastest with an 18.077 lap. Sheldon Hopp was the fastest of the Sunwest RV Crash to Pass vehicles with an 18.401-second lap and Charlie Ackerman was the fastest in the Ace Brewery Bombers with a 17.498 fast lap.
In the main events, Austin Klee won the Kyte Delivery 25-lap main with Owen Hohnstein in second and Luke Curry in third. Colton Ohman won the Hornet A 20-lap main with Boston Larson 0.04 behind in a photo finish. Neufeld captured third. Sheldon Hopp held his lead to win the rained-soaked Sunwest RV Crash to Pass 20-lap main with Brad Kotscherofski in second and Erik Jessen in third. Jessen also won the Sunwest RV season Crash to Pass Championship.
The feature race was the Ace Brewery 50-lap Bomber main. Ackerman lapped all the other cars except one to be first to the checkered flag. Chad Taks took the same route as Ackerman, finished in second and in the process won the 2021 Ace Brewery Bomber Championship. Raymond Fortier finished just behind in third. All champs were celebrated with a wonderful dose of champ fireworks at the end of the evening while the rain briefly held off.
The next event for the Saratoga Speedway will be on Oct. 8 and 9 when the NSRA winged Sprint cars, the WILROC non-winged sprint cars, the IMODs and the Dwarf Cars come to play and entertain. Check saratogaracing.ca for news and updates on scheduling and events.
