Eve of Destruction Lives up to its Name at Brighton Speedway
For Immediate Release
By Angela Rinaldi
September 30, 2012
A quiet Sunday afternoon in the town of Brighton turned into a day of carnage and mayhem at Brighton Speedway’s 3rd annual Lange and Fetter Ford Eve of Destruction presented by Hotch’s Auto Parts and Brighton Recycling. A packed crowd filled the stands and a record amount of cars took part in most of the day’s events for thrills and spills in every division that kept fans on the edge of their seats!
The first event of the day was the Junior’s Enduro, this event allows youths the age of 14 – 18 who have never raced a stock car before the chance to get behind the wheel with less cars and less laps to get comfortable with the cars and the track. Fourteen juniors started the race and it was really a three car battle between the #22c Colin Gregory, #83 Zac Ferguson and #85 Britney Golden. Gregory led most of the race until lap 18 when he got tangled up with a lapped car and gave up the lead to Ferguson. Gregory would however recover for the lead and take home the first checkered flag of the day. Golden would finish second followed by Ferguson.
Next up was the Ladies Enduro. Thirteen cars took the green for the thirty lap race but it was really a race between two of the ladies. Cindy Mosco in the 22c car that Colin Gregory had just finished winning with took the same car to victory lane two make it two in a row. Mosco was chased the whole race by former Comp 4 driver #01 Wendy Dadson while #13 Jane Sopaz finished third.
The Hotch’s Auto Parts 100 lap Monster Enduro would see 67 cars hit the track for big race. The race ran smooth with only one red flag for a hard hit on the front straight by #17 Chris Flieler, who was OK and just checked over by on site medical attendants. The rest of the race was filled with thrills and spills of cars going in every direction trying to keep it on the slick track. At the end of it #288 Dale Stewart was the first man to complete 100 laps and win his first ever endurance race. Second was the man who won the June father’s day Endurance race #24 Dave Small and third would go to #91 Steve McNevin.
The wild and wacky trailer race was next on the agenda and with a variety of different entries the fans were entertained by the creativeness of the drivers. #95 Steve Parks won the “Best Appearing/Most Creative Trailer” trailer award with his Trailer “Parks” Boys entry. The #68 minivan of Mike Bury and Andrew Wildenbeest came a close second with their Man Cave Laundry mat. When it came to the racing Parks Trailer “Parks” Boys trailer exploded in to pieces on the first lap making a large obstacle in the track but the frame of Parks trailer would remain on and intact! Throughout the rest of the race drivers were doing their best to knock each other’s trailers off and it came down to just Parks with his trailer left. The remaining cars knew if they wanted a shot at winning they would have to get that trailer off! They all teamed up on Parks and beat on his trailer and his car but to no avail. Parks’ trailer would stay on and he would come out with the win!
The Flag Pole race took center stage next with a record 12 cars looking for the win in the 8 lap race. #1 Kevin Gregory started in third but took the lead on the first circuit around the flag pole as him and #3 Paul Reid made contact popping Reid’s tire. A massive traffic jam would take place as all twelve cars tried to maneuver around the flag pole with some entering the tight circle while others exited. However by half way they started to spread out a bit and Gregory maneuvered the flag pole better than anyone else leading the whole race for the win. The surprise of the race was the #29 Fowl Mood Racing Van of Stu Archer and Dave Gallaway who started the race in tenth and worked their way through traffic and around the flag pole for a second place finish while the #03 of Justin Ramsay came home in third.
The long awaited Gauntlet would hit the track with veteran Gauntlet driver Bernie Rehbergen behind the wheel. In the previous two attempts the chase cars have always been able to stop Rehbergen from completing his mission. This year he was equipped with a 35 foot Lincoln Limousine from Brighton Recycling. Rhebergen was chased around the track by five cars whose only mission was to stop him from completing five laps. After a number of hard contact hits, the chase cars appeared to have Rhebergen pinned in the Limo on the inside of turns three and four however Rhebergen would miraculously escape and make it around the final lap to beat the chase cars for the first time.
The long Jump contest was next with 8 cars taking part. The contest however really came down to two competitors. The #17 of Chris Flieler and #7 Jon Driscoll seemed to be the bravest of the field. Flieler set the bar pretty high with a jump of 38 feet on his first attempt. However Driscoll would then come and put that jump to shame with a jump of 52 feet! After the first round both Flieler and Driscoll requested to get a longer run and more speed to try and improve on their first jumps. This time around Fleiler beat out Driscolls jump with a jump of 56 feet but Driscoll would not be out done and put the pedal to the medal showing no fear and jumped his #7 Honda more than 60 feet to take home the win.
The Brighton Recycling Demo Derby was next and a record number 13 cars participated. Officials were actually caught off guard by the amount of cars and had to make the ring bigger at the last minute. The carnage started at the drop of the green flag and a few cars dropped out quickly. The last two cars standing were #17 Chris Flieler and #76LJ of Brad Collard. The two would take a number of runs at each other until finally Collard’s Saturn would not take any more pounding making Flieler the winner in his Hyundai.
For the finale of the day Brett Minaker made a brave attempt to Jump the 35 foot Limo over two cars! While on approach to the ramp the Limo got a right front flat making it hard to drive and slowing its speed but Minaker drove on. His attempt was so close to being successful as he clear ¾ of the limo over the cars that the crowd was still loud and cheering his attempt. Track Promoter Mark Rinaldi then attempted to hit the jump with half the bus and get the bus up on two wheels. After a number of attempts on the right hand side for the ramp with no success he attempted the steeper left hand side. Still after gaining as much speed was possible and turning into the roll the ground was just two wet and soft to make it happen. But not wanting to disappoint the fans Rinaldi then turned the bus to the right and hit the gas with an attempt to drive right through the middle of the stretched limo off to the side giving the crowd something to cheer for and living up to their promise that they were going to wreck a lot of stuff on the “Eve of Destruction”.
Full results for the Enduro and other events will be posted shortly on
www.brightonspeedway.com Brighton Speedway Staff and Management would like to thank all the fans, drivers, crews and sponsors that supported us all season long and we look forward to seeing you all again next season. Stay tuned to brightonspeedway.com for latest offseason news including the rules meeting, the banquet and winter races.
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