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There is a bit of breaking news to tell you about at the top of this column. Wayne Smith, better known to Maritime race fans as the “Oval Outlaw”, has taken on a big challenge. He has teamed with the Nova Construction Race team and will be driving the 98 in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at Riverside International Speedway on September 18th. This brings the total of local entries to two, as Donald Chisholm will once again enter this event. This will be the fourth year that the National Series will make its way to Riverside and Chisholm has been in the previous three. There is always a big crowd on hand for this one and with the addition of Smith, the crowd is sure to be even larger. Points Championships are held at each track over the course of the summer, and this year is no exception, except that some of the races are so tight that predicting a winner is next to impossible. Two of these races are concluding this coming weekend so I’m going to bring you up to speed on them. Starting with Centre for Speed in nearby Shediac, or more correctly, Grand Barrachois, four divisions have been battling for titles all summer. In the “Four Fun” division, Scott Bourque has a comfortable lead on Serge Robichaud in the chase for the title and looks to be championship bound. Martin Landry is home and “dried off” in the “Ministock” division with an unsurmountable lead on the rest of the field. Landry has been strong all season long and recently has been given a couple of days of experience in Dan Bourque’s Super Sportsman as well. Now we get to the Shediac Sportsman (Street Stock) division, and is there some battle shaping up in this one. Don Marcoux is the current leader but three other competitors, Tim Layton, Tyler Rossiter and Doug MacEwan are all within 6 points of Marcoux. MacEwan has been on fire in recent weeks and could easily grab it all, but don’t expect any of the others to lay down and let it happen. This one should be filled with excitement from start to finish as you can throw a blanket over them in every race. It’s hard to believe, but the Super Sportsman race is even tighter. Craig Ward has been racing at Centre for Speed for ten years now and never posted a win at this facility until this year. Now he has three of them and currently sits on top the leaderboard in this division. Ward better not look back though as the perennial challenger, Luc Bourgeois is a mere two points behind. Two points is next to nothing in racing and you can bet that Bourgeois wants this title as much as Ward. Look out because the sparks are gonna fly and neither one of these guys will give up without a fight !!! Action at Centre for Speed gets underway at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. Now, lets turn our attention to Speedway 660 where more heated battles are coming down to the wire. The Bandalero division sees Halifax native DJ Casey clinging to a one point lead over Cole Boudreau. These youngsters always put on a tremendous show, and the points battle will just make them go harder. The “Four cylinder” division” is still a bit of a mystery. Mike Weagle appeared to have this one all locked up, but questionable conduct on track and in the pits led to him being removed from the Speedway. It is unknown if he was just removed for the rest of the night or the rest of the season. If Weagle is indeed gone for the year, a tremendous finish is in store between Kevin Dunster and Kevin Peterson. Currently, there is only three points between them. I wouldn’t hazard a guess as to which of them will come out on top. Things really get “hot and heavy” when you look at the battle in the Street Stock Division. Rick Cashol, one of the feistiest competitors in the world of Street Stocks, has a mere two point lead over Peter Gaddess while Mike Francis, everyone’s sentimental favourite, is only eight points behind Cashol. In a division where anything can happen, and usually does, look for this one to go all the way to the finish line. Michael Banks holds a slim three point lead over the veteran from the Moncton area, Ken MacKenzie in the Sportsman division and as I said earlier, three points is nothing so look out, the sparks are going to fly here as well. Four other drivers are waiting in the wings in case disaster happens to the front runners, but they are just too far back otherwise. In the Pro Stock division, defending champion Greg Fahey has a precarious seven point lead over Chris Duncan. Duncan was the first Pro Stock Champion at Speedway 660 when the class was first established in the late 90’s, and is dying to win another one. He will be giving it all he has when the wheels start turning at 7pm Saturday night in Geary. It’ll be a great one !!! There you have it. Two tracks and a whole bunch of action and “fingernail biting” excitement. Next week, I will give you the rest of the story from the rest of the tracks.
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