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Despite the threat of hurricane Kyle, management of Centre for Speed pushed on last Sunday, and were rewarded with some very exciting racing and the crowning of their 2008 points champions. The show went off without the AOW Tour, who cancelled their scheduled appearance due to weather concerns, but nevertheless, it was done.
This week is one of those "OFF" weeks in Maritime racing with no scheduled events at any of the main tracks, although the Lake Doucette bunch will be grinding it out down Yarmouth way. For us, it will be a rare opportunity to catch up on the NASCAR scene, via the tube. With both the Blues and Ramblers in action as well, we will probably take in a game or two of "shinny". Both local teams are off to fantastic starts and deserve all the fan support they can get.
The racing community is now taking dead aim at the Atlantic Championships, the 8th edition of this great event, with advance reports indicating that this could be the best one yet. Nearby Shediac's Centre for Speed is the location for this event and at last count, over 140 teams have registered for the high profile competition.
The event is staged over two days, with continuous action for around 6 hours expected each day. Full fields (the maximum number of cars that will start the feature) are already assured in Pro Stock, Sportsman and Street Stock divisions, making for some very interesting qualification battles as well. The other divisions are rapidly filling up as well, with cars coming from all the tracks in the Maritimes (there are 11 tracks in all) and it will be a rare opportunity to see them compete in head to head competition.
Local Pro Stock competitor, Sandy Livingston Jr, will be one of the teams making the trek to Shediac on October 11th. In conversation with Sandy Livingston Sr. earlier this week, he stated that the car is ready and hopes are high for a good finish in the "Pepsi 150". The crew has been hard at work putting the finishing touch on the car.
Another local competitor, Cory Collins, is registered to compete in the Sportsman class. For Cory, this will be a great opportunity to complete basically his rookie season on a high note. Collins competed last year as well but this has been the first year he has competed on a consistent basis and with Centre for Speed being his “home track”, hopes are high for him to do well too. Several other local competitors compete in other classes at the Speedway but entry lists are not available as of this column.
Moncton Pro Stock competitor, "Flyin'" Brian MacNaughton, fresh off capturing the "Rookie" competition and 4th place finish in points at Speedway 660, is also making the jaunt over to Centre for Speed for this one as well. MacNaughton, arguably one of the most popular drivers around when he was running Sportsman, has made a successful transition to the Pro Stock ranks. Actually, MacNaughton's innaugural race in a Pro Stock was at the Atlantic Championships last year. He grabbed a 6th place finish in that one but hopes for a much better performance this year.
PEI Pro Stock competitor, Chris Hughes, who had a slow start to the 2008 Pro Stock Tour season before gathering it up and finishing a very respectable 9th in the standings, will lead a large contingent of Island competitors over to Shediac for competition, including several Modied boys who have beefed up their cars to compete in the Pro Stock division.
Other names that are registered for Shediac include John Flemming, who split his time this year between the PASS Tour in the States and the big races in the Maritimes and Kent Vincent, who set the current Pro Stock record at Riverside Speedway earlier this year.
Many of the top names such as Glyn Nott, Brian Gillespie, Jerome Kehoe and James Graves are all expected to battle it out in Sportsman competition while Fred Broussard, recently voted by the fans as the "Racing Spectator's Driver of the Year" will be competing for Street Stock honours on Sunday.
Elsewhere, Don Steckley held on last weekend to win the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series championship. Don Thompson Jr, who made a late surge after winning the NCTS race down in Riverside, came up short in the end but the competition was "great".
That's it for this week, but stay tuned as we will be updating the entries for the Atlantic Championships as they become available.
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