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| Kevin Dyck repeated as Family Pizza 100 pro truck race champion. |
The 21-year-old pro truck class driver has learned that
patience is a virtue when you running in a 100-lap race. On Tuesday at the Auto
Clearing Motor Speedway, Dyck calmly worked his way to the front of the field
to take the lead in the Family Pizza 100 pro truck feature race shortly after
the race’s halfway point. He proceeded to put the pedal to the medal to claim
the class’s annual marathon race for a second straight year.
“It feels pretty great,” said Dyck. “It is a long race. It
hits you physically.
“Mentally, you are ready for it, but it sort of hits you
hard. I was ready for it. I like these longer races, because that is easily
what I do good at.”
Dyck’s race win was part of two-day program at the Saskatoon
based oval track that is part of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series’s Bayer
CropScience Velocity Prairie Thunder 250. Tuesday’s action contained three big
feature races for some of the track’s local classes including the Family Pizza
100, the Bryce Mann Memorial 75 super late model race and the Wes Skakun
Memorial 50 street stock race. The Velocity Prairie Thunder 250 is slated for
Wednesday at 6 p.m.
In the Family Pizza 100, Prince Albert product Shantel Firth
held the lead for much of the early going in her 2013 Dodge Ram. On the race’s
38 lap, Andrew Hardy snuck underneath Firth to assume top spot in his 2015
Dodge Ram.
Hardy’s time in front lasted for about 15 laps before Dyck
assumed control of the race in his Chevy. At the finish, Dyck held a
comfortable lead over second place finisher Ben Pogoda, while Hardy came in
third.
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| Brennen Forseille holds off the street stock field. |
“I was going pretty easy,” said Dyck. “I wasn’t really pushing
the truck real hard. I was just rolling it in.
“I could tell when the other guys were getting on the gas
and getting sideways. I was hesitating to get on the gas, and I was coming off
the corner straighter than everyone else. That gave me the advantage.”
Brennen Forseille took the Wes Skakun Memorial 50 in his
1979 Chevrolet Camaro thanks to his ability to stay clear of trouble. Thanks to
some mishaps on the track, only four of the eight cars in the field crossed the
finish line.
Scott Barrand, who was taking part in his first race of the
season, took second place, while Curtis Houben placed third.
“It is always nice to get a trophy and win memorial races,”
said Forseille. “It was a tough race for sure.”
The 25-year-old admitted the win was bittersweet due to the
accidents that took place.
“It is just always bad to see other cars going down and
wreaking,” said Forseille. “We all work hard on our cars, and it is just too
bad to see torn up race cars.”
In the Bryce Mann Memorial 75, veteran Jim Gaunt showed why
he is one of the all-time greats to race in the Saskatoon Stock Car Racing
Association. The 60-year-old smoothly worked his way to the front of the 11-car
field by the race’s 23rd lap.
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| Jim Gaunt makes another victory lap at the Auto Clearing Motor Speedway. |
Wednesday’s NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Bayer CropScience Velocity
Prairie Thunder 250 contains a field of about 34 cars including standout
drivers Jason Hathaway, Scott Steckly and Alex Tagliani. Edmonton product Erica
Thiering is also trying to turn heads during her first full season the NASCAR
Canadian Tire Series circuit. Louis-Philippe Dumoulin claimed last year’s
series NASCAR Canadian Tire Series title and won the stop in Saskatoon.
The Bayer CropScience Velocity Prairie Thunder 250 closes a
stretch where the Canadian Tire Series hosts three races in 11 days.
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comments about this blog post, feel free to email them to
stankssports@gmail.com.
