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Well, she’s over, the Riverside International Speedway’s “IWK 250”, that is. Mother Nature tried her best to drown it in rain, but the perserverence of track management and the racers won out in the end. It was quite a weekend, all in all, with high points, low points, and lots of those inbetween.
The weekend kicked off on Friday evening with the Maritime Legends Challenge and the NAPA Sportsman 100. Ian Mollins demonstrated to all why he is the defending Legends champion, winning both his heat and the feature in convincing style. Actually, the whole Legends field put on a show, running the complete 50 lap feature without so much as a caution. These guys were there to race, and race they did.
The Sportsman events started off in fine style with four very exciting heats and some excellent driving by the competitors. Unfortunately, things went straight down hill from there. Hundred lap races are seldom , if ever, won on the first few laps, but someone forgot to remind the Sportsman drivers of this. The race quickly degraded into little more than a demolition derby, the likes of which this writer has never seen before. The first caution came on lap 6 and unbelievably, it took four tries to get lap 6 completed. More cautions followed, eleven in all, until management finally decided that enough was enough, throwing the checkered flag 60 laps into the event. It took almost two and a half hours to get that far with less than half the field still on track. Most of these were showing the effects of the brutal race as well.
When the dust finally cleared, Darren Wallage was the winner, his first big victory ever. Some fans were upset as were some of the drivers about shutting the affair down early, but in retrospect, the race had degraded into a fiasco, and I feel management made the proper decision. If you can’t run a 100 lap race in two and a half hours, it’s time to call it a day.
Saturday was a disaster. First, Wade Harris hit the turn three wall in morning practice, putting his ride out of commission for the duration. They managed to run the time trials, during which Reagan Smith showed that he was the man to beat, posting the fastest time. Sandy Livingston Jr, was the sixth slowest car on the track, about where he expected to be considering his lack of power.
No sooner did the time trials finish, then the rain started, softly at first, then stopping. Track officials quickly got out the drying equipment including a huge blower that was built and designed by Nova Construction especially for this track. As the track neared race shape, the rains came again, this time washing out the rest of the day’s racing and forcing a rescheduling for Sunday.
Sunday started off fine with the racing very exciting until part way through the 250 lap feature when the rains came again forcing a halt that lasted over an hour. The rains left as quickly as they had come though, and the race resumed with Reagan Smith looking like a sure bet to repeat as champion. The “Oval Outlaw” Wayne Smith, was not convinced however, and chased Reagan Smith until on lap 185, he overtook the NASCAR star and went on to victory. An ugly and unfortunate accident with 8 laps remaining between Shawn Turple and Reagan Smith ended both their days early, as David Reutimann came back from a lap down to finish third. Islander, Kent Vincent, came home in second place.
Smith now has a shot at the Triple Crown, if he can win the “Atlantic Cat” at Scotia and the “Peterbilt 250” in Geary. This feat will carry a fifty thousand dollar bonus, should Smith be successful.
This coming weekend, there is racing almost everywhere in the Maritimes, with the “Big” one being the rescheduled Carquest Pro Stock race at Geary. This should be a good one as the Pro Stocks always put on an awesome display at Speedway 660. Now, if only the weather Gods will cooperate ……..
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