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2001 EVENTS REVIEW

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2001 EVENTS REVIEW

May 12, 2001 Race Review

This was the first race of the season and there were two new faces joining our class. Welcome to Tyler Kruger, and Penny Finley. Also lined up to race was Ken Hodgins (Hodges/Hodgins team), Kerry Hopkins, Jimmy Shilson, Jeff Hodgins, Bill Hollicks car, Gary Finley and Darren Warren. The racing was fairly mild as everyone settled into their first race of the season. Ken Hodgins took the 1st place trophy and Kerry Hopkins the 2nd followed by Darren Warren in 3rd.

Here's a shot of Car #14 (Hodgins/Hodges)

June 16, 2001 Race Review

This particular race we were haunted by rain storms. The rain held off for most of the events but the figure eight cars that had left their wipers on had an advantage as the track was wet and dirty water was flying off everyones tires making visiblity poor. Tyler Kruger one of our new drivers, who incidentaly is 16 years old held the lead for the first 13 laps but when he saw Ken Hodgins in his bright red and white checkered car on his tail he got the heck outta the way to avoid an inevitable spin, unfortunately for Tyler, Kerry Hopkins was right on Kens tail and slid past as well putting Tyler into third place. With Ken finishing on top and Kerry behind it was starting to set the pace for the points race.

July 1, 2001 Race Review

Figure Eight Racing commenced at 1pm on a very hot Canada Day in Calgary. This day we were joined by a 250 lap Enduro race so figure eight racers completeded their first heat with Kerry Hopkins taking 1st. Then we had a 2 hour break until the Enduro was over and the Figure Eight Main Event started. Bill Hollick's car took the lead off the 2nd lap and held it for 6 laps before Lisa Hodges waited for that one skid where she could spin him and put her into first position. Close exciting racing followed for the next 12 laps as Lisa Hodges held on to the first place position with Kerry Hopkins close behind, bumping in every corner and following him was Jimmy Shilson holding his 3rd place securely. A brief thumbs up to pit crew Ken on the last quarter of lap 20 was all Kerry needed to give Lisa a hit from behind and send her into a huge skid. Kerry slid by with by a foot lead until Lisa got her car back under control and stole away the 1st place trophy leaving Lisa Hodges in 2nd and Jimmy Shilson in 3rd. A great time was had by all and you can be sure Lisa's gonna try to get that 1st place trophy at one of the races!

July 11, 2001 Race Review

The July 11th race proved to be quite interesting by the time it was all said and done. In the first heat Jimmy Shilson came out victorious and in the second heat Lisa Hodges took the checkered flag. Pandemonium and mayhem ran havoc in the main event with lots of hitting and spinning occuring to entertain the outrageously huge crowd. After a nasty smash in the criss cross and the smoke cleared the final results were Jimmy Shilson in 1st, Jeff Hodgins in 2nd, Kerry Hopkins in 3rd, Gary Finley in 4th and Lisa Hodges in 5th. No other competitors crossed the finish line that evening. We also had Monster trucks, the Claimer Class and a Jet Car was on hand burning up cars and making lotsa noise to add to the excitement. Monster Truck freestyle was awesome with local racer Marvin Anderson flopping WildThing on its roof. Check out some of the pictures below courtesy of Theresa Huarte.

A group shot

Another good shot of the racers

Here's Haywire/Way to Cool and Sheer Insanity showing us their stuff

Here's Marvin Anderson showing us how he does the Wild Thing!

Here's the Jet car lighting it up!
Amoungst the flames and smoke is a mini van
Wouldn't it be great if we could torch all our old wrecks like that?

July 21, 2001 Race Review

Rained out. Very disapointing. To date we have not heard that the race has been rescheduled so it was probably just cancelled leaving us with only 6 races this season.

September 1, 2001 Race Review

10 drivers registered to race, we had 12 cars show up but sadly two cars failed the tech inspection. Welcome to all the racers and their cars. Car 98, which is an enormous Cadillac Eldorado is being driven by Lisa Hodges, who spent the heat trying to keep the big block 501 under control and learn how to take a tight corner with all that horsepower pushing her into the toolies. Car 55, driven by Marty MacDonald, who drove it like he stole it (it was lent to him by long time friend Terry McDonald - no relation). This was a peppy Camaro and Marty showed us he's not afraid to get agressive and play hard. And last but definetly not least Mark Hopkins drug Car 77 out of the weeds to join us for the few remaining races. Mark's been figure eight racing for many years but decided to kick back and do a little camping this year instead. The bug got him though as he's back on the track!

The cars were split into two heats that we randomly drew numbers for. The heats gave the new drivers an opportunity to bond with their cars and remember the good ol' figure eight track. Then came the main event, all ten drivers picked numbers and settled into their positions. 20 laps of sheer mayhem errupted as drivers and cars, spun, crashed and twisted metal. When it was all over and done with and the dust had settled and the spare parts were swept up, Ken Hodgins took the 1st place trophy keeping him first in the points dash, Kerry Hopkins took 2nd holding him securely in the second place points standings and Lisa Hodges took 3rd in her new car. Congratulations to all the drivers that put on one heck of a good show for the fans.

September 30, 2001 Race Review

11 cars lined up for the main event - 6 finished. Say what? That's right, this was the most extreme Figure 8 race of the year, it was sheer pandemonium on the track with smokin' tires and crashes everywhere. Lisa Hodges returned in Car 98, Marty MacDonald driving Car 55 wasn't chased away, and our old familiar face Mark Hopkins who dragged his car out of the weeds to come play for the September 1st race in car 77 also joined our last race but had an axle snapping experience. Tyler Kruger and Bill Hollock's car didn't join us this time around again - c'mon fellas we miss ya!

After the race was done we bid a farewell to Penny's car as it was sliced open by Jimmy. Jimmy's car was pretty much ripped in half too. There were so many parts and pieces of rubber on the track it was like racing on rubble strips. The only cars that had all four tires after the race was Lisa and Gary, but as Gary was celebrating his victory his front tire spit out all its air too. A good time was had by all. Thanks to all the racers that came out for the race and for the season, we hope to see you all back next year. Although, I'm not sure how many racers will be able to bring back their existing cars