The CKPC Paris speedway event on Friday night was a cracker! On a hot summer's night, a large crowd witnessed some excellent racing.
Our header of 'Thrills - Chills - Spills' was provided in full glory by a large field of riders. Corinne Franic took control of the pits and directed the night's action and did a fabulous job! The night started with some close racing from our Division 1 riders, With a tape malfunction in heat 1 - Aaron Hesmer was presented with a face full of yellow tape! The restart was worth waiting for!
Joe Heye the crowd favorite battled hard with Jeff Orosz, Gary Hesmer and Aaron Hesmer, they opened the night with some close furious racing with Gary and Jeff clashing twice side by side! Sadly the night for Tom Brown ended short, as his bike gave up after just 2 heats, so he had to withdraw from the event.
Tim Murray moved up to Division 1 enabling Carol Havill and Duncan Luke to provide a balanced program. Tim did not let us down! Riding very well and at times keeping up strongly with the big guns! Great Job Tim! - Tim also was very generous in his lending of his bike throughout the night to Tom Marriott. Tom's bike was 'Sick' so Tim gladly helped out with his bike! Mark Engel and Bob Mosquera both joined in the fun from Michigan, great to see them back and congratulations to Bob, who had his first heat win since 2005! New Rider Brian - Sam and Jessie's Dad, came from street racing into speedway and did a fabulous job, he kept up with the action and was leading a race when the mechanical gremlins got him and he had to pull out on lap 3!
Every heat was action packed with close hard racing. Joe Heye was pushing so hard that he did a 360 degree turn on bend 3-4 at one point! Jeff Orosz was battling to get his bike set-up right. The track was catching a few riders out and causing some interesting slides! Jeff Orosz and Aaron Hesmer continued their battles every heat with Aaron pushing and pushing Jeff, one race was a classic battle with Jeff leading for 2 laps, Aaron went passed on lap 3 and Jeff chased hard to lose the race on the line by only a tire width! Brilliant racing - worth the entry fee to see this one!
Gary Hesmer continued on his road to finding success, he came out to give a show, and that he did. Leading one race in front of Jeff Orosz, Aaron Hesmer and Joe Heye he worked very hard to keep Aaron behind him and on lap 4, he uncharacteristically went wide and Aaron shot under him to take the win - What a great race! Our 'Junior Speedway' kids, Mike Fisher, Matt Sehl, Tyler Thompson, Braden Vallee and Dalton Gauthier were there also to join in the show. These kids have really come-in to their own and love to race at Paris.
With both P85's and P50's racing two trophies were awarded to the winners of each group. Newly produced 'Junior Speedway' trophies were presented to Matthew Sehl in the P85 class and Tyler Thompson received the P50 trophy. Every race is like a championship race for them and they all battle hard to win. Great kids doing a great job! The final speedway events produced some exciting racing. The Division 2 final took 3 time to complete. Terry Rideout wiped out in a first corner tussle, then John Bennett went down hard in a similar incident, and then during the final race, John and Mark Engel clashed and John did a 360 degree fall, but remounted to race on.
Terry Rideout came from the 10 yard penalty line to take the victory! The Division 1 final was a close affair, with Aaron Hesmer and Jeff Orosz once again going hard at each other. The start was a spectacular affair, with Joe Heye lifting and holding a wheelie into the first bend!!! Aaron proved his Canadian Champion status by holding back Jeff and taking the checkered flag ahead of the battling Gary Hesmer and Joe Heye. A superb night of racing and congratulations to everyone involved for doing a great job!
