Langford BC. -- The Wednesday Night Fever returned to Western Speedway in the Steve Copp Construction sponsored Hornet Series with five TRophy Dashes, twelve Heat races, and two Feature events. Trophy Dash wins went to Helen Thorne in the Bumblebees, Cole Schuurman and Chris Davis in the Rookie class, Garrett Smith and Matt Schultz in the Expert class. Tyler Broughton, Taylor Orr, Jay Young, Helen Thorne, and Cole Schuurman won Heat races in the Rookie class while Blair Davis, Cam Stanfield with two, Garrett Smith, John Lerik, and Ryan Smith took the victories for the Expert class. The "C" Heat was quite interesting as Garrett, Ryan, Rhett, Rory, and Brent Smith went head to head in an all Smith battle. Garrett came away with the win in a no holds barred event. Megan McCollum lead from the drop of the green flag in the "D" Heat for Rookies but lost the drag race to the chequered flag by mere inches to Marty Anctil.
Stephen Crowe and Darci Denis shared the front row for the start of the Rookie Feature event with Crowe taking the early lead followed by Tyler Broughton and Denis. On lap four Broughton took over the lead as Glenn Rand began his charge to the front taking the third spot behind Denis. On lap eight, Rand passed Broughton and took over the lead while Kevin Smith moved up to run third. Cole Schuurman was on a charge forward and on lap eleven Smith dove to the inside while Schuurman went to the outside squeezing Broughton in the middle and all three looking to either hold or gain some positions. On lap thirteen, Schuurman had the second spot clear while Smith took the third spot clear dropping Broughton back to fourth. On lap sixteen Taylor Orr moved into contention taking over the fourth spot. By this time Rand had built a pretty good lead until lap nineteen and lapped traffic then played a part as Schuurman closed in on the leader and got the better line and went through into the lead. Over the remaining laps, Schuurman stayed out of trouble and took the chequered flag followed by Rand, Smith, Jay Young and Brenda Leslie rounding out the top five positions in a twenty-five lap Feature event. For the fourth time this season Leslie came home as the top Bumblebee driver. Last week Laura-Ashley Grant blew an engine and may be done for the season.
Richard Shuck and Blair Davis led a field of seventeen cars to the green flag and thirty laps of competition in the Expert Feature event. Going into the first turn, on the green flag, Matt Schultz took a wild ride as he got his car up on two wheels and heading off the turn and toward the big oval. Somehow he managed to bring the car back down on all fours and continued back on the circuit but dropped all the way to the back of the field. Davis got the early lead followed by Shuck until Rhett Smith passed for second on lap four and then the lead on lap six. Daryl Cahill got into contention on lap eight moving up to run second followed by Ryan Smith and Garrett Smith. On lap thirteen, Cam Stanfield came up through the pack and he and the two Smiths traded positions every few laps. On lap twenty, Garrett Smith passed Cahill for the second spot and one lap later so did Ryan Smith dropping Cahill back to fourth and in a battle with Stanfield. When the dust settled Rhett Smith got the win followed by Garrett Smith, Daryl Cahill, Stanfield, and Paris Williams. Ryan Smith actually crossed the line in third but got a DQ after failing to recognize a mechanical black flag for a muffler that was hanging from his car. Rockell Kroppmans was on hand to give trophies to all the winners at victory square.
The next Steve Copp Construction sponsored Hornet Series returns on August 17th with only three races left for 2011 and the points chase heating up. The next event is on Friday, August 12th and Saturday, August 13th with the Weekend Of Mayhem that will feature the Demo Cars, Demo Trucks, Figure 8s, and an Island Bomber Championship that will pit Bombers from Saratoga against the Bombers from Western Speedway going head to head for the Trophy. Also on this card is a school bus race Friday and a boat race on Saturday as well as Colin Heacock the "Crazy Canuck" car jump on both nights. Come early as seats will go very quick for this event.
