By Ed Evans
The final race of the 2011 drag racing season was run on Aug 27.
The race was billed as “Bike Wars," and the bikes and sleds were the feature race as well as a “Quick 8” class for cars that was not run at the “Hot August Nites” race, due to a track oil down.
Also last weekend was the final round of all classes for the yearlong points series at the Terrace Regional airport.
With rain again threatening the race, the plan was to run off all of the class races Saturday in case it rained on Sunday. This would mean at least the points series was finished and there would be no need to use the “Rainout Weekend”. As Saturday was supposed to be the nicer of the two days, we were all disappointed to wake up to overcast skies. Overcast actually was the wrong name for it as we were in a cloud until 11:00. However, patience was the saving grace as race organizers held off and the racing got underway at 1pm.
Sunny skies broke put and the racing was fast and furious as all of the classes were run off including the two “Quick 8” Bike/sled and Car classes.
In “Bike and Sled” Al McFarlane in his bike outran Shawn Enmark and his sled in the final.
Enmark did take home enough points to retain his lead in the point’s series, for the second year, in “Bike/Sled”
In “Junior Dragster” Maddy Amado outran Chris Cook to take home first place. Lou Ribeiro brought home third place and took home the Points series for 2011.
Dana Amado took home first place in “Sportsman” by outrunning Doug Ribero. Dana was the 2011 Points Series winner.
In “Pro” class Shane Calkins took home first winning the final race against Laurence Wilkins who came all the way from Queen Charlotte city. Mike Wienhardt from Vanderhoof took home the 2011 points series.
In “Super Pro” Bruce Daum took first place in a close race with Paul Amado. Harley Bell claimed first place in the Points series.
The two “Quick 8” races were exciting with top qualifiers in each class making it to the finals. In “Quick 8 Bikes” Shawn Enmark, went down to John Symes and his bike.
In “Quick 8 Cars” Paul Soares could not run down Kris Barnett in his Altered. Points Series winner was Harley Bell.
That wraps up the 2011 season, as rain cancelled the Sunday “King of the YXT”.
There will be no rainout day as all of the classes were run on Sunday.
A big thank you goes out to all of the race organizers and volunteers who made all of this happen.