Ryan Floer, driving in his first year with the WilRoc Sprint Car Series, won his first Main Event of the season Saturday night capturing the Billy Foster Memorial Trophy. Bad weather again threatened to scuttle the race program as a huge rain cloud covered the Langford oval while all the surrounding area basked in sunshine and clear skies. By late afternoon, the skies cleared and efforts by push trucks, crew members, photographers, and anyone else who could drive were successful in drying the track even though it did cause a delay with the start time.
Western Speedway’s race program included the Island Dwarf Car Series, Hornets, and the WilRoc Sprint Cars. Long time track photographer, Barrie Goodwin, received a dedication award from the WilRoc Series for his outstanding contributions to the organization at the same time Trophies were presented to the Trophy Dash winners.
Seventeen cars qualified, a great turn out considering the luck a few teams have had at Vernon and Saratoga. Scott Aumen turned in a blistering 14.03 lap around the oval to set fast time of the night as his luck still holds. Rob Scott’s car was rebuilt in five days, Randy Price was driving Randy Vincent's car with his motor out of the nineteen car after he crashed in Vernon. Duane Zeinstra had a Chris Schmelzle wing to replace the one damaged at Saratoga last Saturday. Cam Mclean returned to the WilRoc series for the first time this year winning the B-Dash and placing second in his Heat race. Ray Campbell from Vernon and the 3N McCleish car from Olympia, Washington were the other additions to the lineup. Matt Mansell won the A-Dash.
                 Duane Zeinstra went flag to flag winning the B-Heat followed by Cam McLean and Darren Yates. Yates passed Rob Scott on the fourth lap but could not catch either McLean or Zeinstra to try and improve his position. Gord Smith duplicated running flag to flag in the A-Heat followed by Ryan Floer and Joe Dardengo.
                Ryan Floer and Mark Fisher led a field of sixteen cars to the green flag for a forty lap Feature for the WilRoc Sprint Car Series. Floer grabbed the lead followed by Fisher and Jeff Bird for the first four laps when Matt Mansell took the third spot from Bird. Points leader Scott Aumen and Guy Barrett had a battle of their own for the fourth and fifth spot until Barrett got by on the ninth lap. By lap sixteen, Floer got a big lead while Mansell battled Fisher for second taking that spot on lap seventeen. Mansell began reeling in the leader on every lap until a yellow came out on lap twenty-seven for a spinning Rob Scott. On the restart, Floer ran away again until another yellow came out. This time for Yates and Dardengo as they got tangled going through turn three and four. Aumen got a huge jump on the restart and passed both Fisher and Barrett taking the third spot by lap twenty-eight and then passed Mansell on lap twenty-nine for second. Over the remaining laps Floer held off any challenge and cruised to the win in the Billy Foster Memorial race. He was followed by Aumen and Guy Barrett in second and third respectively. Floer captured his first Main event victory this season after setting a track record at Vernon just a couple of weeks ago and has been close so many times with a very fast car. If you are a fan of Sprint Cars the best news is the series will race for the Championship on October sixth as they try and make up races lost to Mother Nature in 2007. Going into last night’s event, Aumen had a slim thirty-three point lead over Yates in the run for the overall Championship. 

PHOTOS BY DON LAIDLAW WILDLIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY