Thunder Mountain Speedway ended its racing season with a bang this weekend with their famous Day of Destruction as the finale.
With their 2018 Grand Finale Points Championship on the line prior, racers of all ages and experiences took to the track to compete for the season championships.
Bone stock racer Tristan Waslen, No. 37 car, came out for the race to have fun with the end of his third year of racing. Waslen first got involved with the speedway after watching a hit to pass race with his father a few years ago.
“We started out when my dad built a crash-to-pass car and it seemed only too easy to not to start racing,” Waslen said.
Waslen said that he thought the event had been great, despite him losing his car in a head on collision during the race. His car’s tire caught, causing him to lose control and spin out into a fellow racer.
“It’s lots of fun, and it’s great to have a good crowd out,” Waslen said. “The speedway gets people to come together and just have some fun and hang out.”
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The winner of the Memorial Cup, postponed due to rain, was rookie bone stock driver Damien Fisher, a first for the speedway. Fisher has only been racing since the beginning of this season and was as surprised as anyone that he won.
“I was kind of driving slower all day and somehow I just kind of got in front after the pack leader lost control,” Fisher remarked modestly.
Mary Brown, the mother of Thunder Mountain’s pit boss Laurie Brown, has been volunteering off and on with speedway for 40 years. Brown describes the championships this year as awesome, with the drivers keeping their cars running at peak performance to the end and keeping the crazy stuff for the hit to pass event.
“They all made it to the end, we’re all quite happy about that, and they showed great sportsmanship throughout the day,” Brown said.
The crowd, she said, had loved the event, from the father, son racing duos competing in the main event to the chaotic hilarity of the hit to pass. Many members of the crowd have been coming to the speedway for years, said Brown, and treat the event as a family affair.
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“If they’re not here in the pit, they’re over there in the spectators stand helping out or out there cheering for their family,” Brown said. “For them, I can’t really see anything else replacing this racetrack.”
The results on the day from the grand finale are as follows. Season point championships will be announced at the speedway’s year-end banquet, awards and annual general meeting next month.
WL Forestry/NAPA Street Stocks Main Event
First: Arnie Kunka
Second: Garnet Grimard
Third: Tim Westwick
Bone Stock Main
First: Damien Fisher
Hit to Pass Feature Event
First: Brian Bettles
Fast Times Winners
Bone Stock: Tristan Waslen
Pro Mini: Brian Bettles
Street Stock: Rob Zimmer
Hit to Pass Heat
First: Gordon Bettles
patrick.davies@wltribune.com
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