Oh what a night!!!

On a hot and very humid Saturday evening, a racing night was to be presented for the first time by 'Speedy Race Promotions' and what a job they did!A huge rider turnout and a whopper of a crowd, provided a perfect blend for a night of lots of great looking thrills and spills. In the first race of the day, 14 year old Michael Small came out to show that he means business! Flying from last place after a bad start, he worked his skill to gain 1st place and win well, great start to the night! Second heat saw the infamous #13 Bart Moskala come out and dominate a great race to win well, Bart looks very smooth and controlled in his Division 2 upward move.In heat 3 another 14 year old came on the track, a lovely girl rider from the USA, her name, Katlin Davis. Looking confident at the gate, she had a great start from the inside line, Mark Priebe, Doug Beaumont and Tim Murray all took off together and then disaster!!!! Katlin clips Priebe's back wheel on turn 2 and loses complete control of her bike, her front wheel violently lifted causing her to go careering through the boards and she somersaulted over the safety fence and landed only feet from a spectators vehicle. We all held our breath and waited to see what the outcome would be, memories of Paul Martin's crash earlier in the season at the same spot leaving him with broken ribs was in our minds, but miraculously, she was not only able to walk unaided back to the pits, but she rode another 5 heats throughout the night, but she did go down again a few times, once being hit by Joanne Edwards who also hit the boards hard! This girl is made of rubber, she just kept getting up and rode on! AMAZING!Mark Priebe and Doug Beaumont fought and battled again, carrying on from Friday's tussles and showing the great improvement they both have gained over the past year, great to see!Heat 10 saw "Tiger" Tom come out and join in one of the 'Veteran' class races. Tom on the outside gate decided to do an impression of his buddy Graham Wale and looped up at the start. Shaken but not stirred, "Tiger" grabbed another bike and rode again. He did however discover that he had hurt his knee and did have to pull up in one later heats due to the pain!The Veteran races were exciting to watch, qualification was to be over 40 years old for this event, and John Perry and Greg Comstock spent the night battling it out, The final race was a cracker, John Perry pulled his usual excellent start and pulled ahead, but Greg tussled and came under John on bend 4 and took the lead. This he kept to the end, proving that his head was clear and focused after his Friday night clash with Phil Small. Nice to see this racing at an event like this!We had our 'Weslake' Challenge matches also last night. Many riders tried these beautiful machines and some good racing was has by all. The final win was taken by Phil Small aboard his beauty (picture left). The old girl pulled hard enabling Phil to be a winner over Nick Fafard!In one heat both Father Small and Son Small were out on 2 Weslakes, Michael took a flying start, but sadly had mechanical failure on the back straight!Hard Division 1 racing with Steve Glasgow and Jeff Orosz saw a cracker of a heat, Steve Glasgow was on fire this night and with Jeff Orosz holding a tight line alongside Steve for 3 laps, we saw Jeff pull slightly ahead which left Steve no option but to drive hard at Jeff. Steve went down hard and smashed into the fence hurting his left wrist. Sadly his night was over, but what a great race to watch! Steve also had some great tussles with Joe Heye which left the crowd gasping with some unbelievable moves by both riders!The final races of the night came down to some crackers! In Division 3 with two hot riders both out for victory. Sean Trendelle and Michael Small both wanted this win. From the start Michael drew first blood, pulling away on turn one he parked it mid-turn on 2 and sean went down, they restarted and Michael once again pulled away to win very comfortably!Division 2 was a very interesting race! Corrine Franic was victim to two accidents in this race. She went down in turn one and twisted her wrist and scraped her lower arm, she restarted the race and from 15 yards back she came through in 2 laps to again fall on turn one, scraping her arm, leg and tummy through her leathers, Mark Priebe caught her as she twisted on the track and laid his bike down very well to avoid any further problems. The race was comfortably being led by Bart Moskala when it was stopped. In the 2nd re-run, Doug Beaumont saw and grabbed his opportunity to win and won by a good margin!The Division 1 Consi Final was Run without incident with Joe Heye coming out the winner.Division 1 - The final highlight of the night was a cracker. An injured Nick Fafard, once again showed why he is so focused on his speedway future. Nick Fafard, Aaron Hesmer, Jeff Orosz and Brian Hollenbeck lined up to provide the end to a 41 heat race program! Each guy was fast and furious on the night, alot was riding in prize money and self pride! They lined up and from the tapes Jeff Orosz took a lead into the first turn, Nick swooped underneath causing Aaron Hemser to hook up and drop back to 4th. Nick powered by Jeff on the back straight and took the lead, Aaron was pushing hard and passed Hollenbeck on lap 2, Nick was leading pursued by Jeff, who in turn was being hunted by Aaron. Aaron took a few goes at Jeff and on the final bend nearly wiped out trying so hard, but was unable to get Jeff. So Nick Fafard was the official champion of the night. A superb job by him, a superb job by John Perry and Shawn Morrison of Speedy Race Promotions, and a brilliant job by all the volunteers and riders for putting on a show that will go down in Canadian speedway history as one of the best!God bless Dean Bencsics, we owe him this night in celebration of his life with us, and we hope that we did him proud!
D.B.M 2005 winner Nick Fafard