Terry Guest
Special to the Record
It was a night of firsts at Saratoga Speedway on Saturday as #99 Gilles Cyr, #24 Wayde Heckford and #44 Tim Openshaw all picked up their first main event wins in their respective classes.
The night got off to a quick start in qualifying, with two track records set. Car #11 Mike Meeres set a record in the Dwarf car division, with his 15.513 time beating the old record of 15.531. Car #53 Kevin Noble also rewrote the record book, this time in the IMCA division, with a lap of 15.275 seconds. Over the past three Modified races, a track record has been set every night.
Seven dashes were run on Saturday. In the Dwarf car class, #5 Jeremy Stevens won the B dash and #11 Mike Meeres won the A. Car #32 Dano Bryant won the B dash in the IMCA division, and the A went to #8 Brad Purdy. Car #72 Travis Stevenson picked up the win in the B dash for the Bomber cars, and #24 Charlie Ackerman won the A. The Motorcycles also ran a dash on the evening, with the win going to #68 Bruce Moran.
Each class also ran heats and invert heats. Car #24 Wayde Heckford won the Dwarf heat, with the invert heat going to #4 Sean Sanger. Car #44 Tim Openshaw picked up his first win of the season in the IMCA heat; #98 Pat Brown ran away with the invert heat, leading every lap.
Stevenson carried his winning ways into the Bomber heat, leading all but two laps. Car #28 Mike Morningstar held pole in the invert heat and led all the way.
Car #1 Chris White held off Moran to win the Motorcycle heat. Moran dominated White in the main to take the win, leading all but three laps. In the 20-lap Dwarf car feature, Heckford grabbed the lead on the first lap. Car #11 Mike Meeres battled Heckford the whole way but couldn’t find a way around him, giving Heckford his first ever main event win in a Dwarf car. Meeres finished second and #4 Sean Sanger took third.
Car #32 Dano Bryant led six other Modifieds to the green flag in their 25-lap feature. Openshaw needed only two laps to get around Bryant then spread his lead to almost half a lap en route to his first main event win of the season. Purdy finished second and and #53 Kevin Noble was third.
Four lead changes occurred in the 30-lap main event for the Bomber. Car #28 Mike Morningstar led the first six laps, but #11 Justin Beaulieu made a nice move on the outside to pass him. Beaulieu stayed out front for 17 laps before #90 Johnny Zanette took over the lead on lap 23. Zanette looked to have it won, but on lap 29 #99 Gilles Cyr flew by on the outside and went on to win his first main event of the season. Zanette finished second and Beaulieu took third.
EXTRA LAPS This weekend marks the final monster truck show of the season …. four trucks will be at the track, including never-before-seen McGruff … California Kid and Rockstar will be back along with Double Trouble, also a relatively new truck … the Hornets, Bombers, Crash to Pass cars, Roadrunners and Tough Trucks will round out the schedule … also on the card is the mid-season championship for all of those classes … the Sunday show will feature less expensive tickets as adults pay $5 less, students pay $10 less, and children pay $5 less …
