RPW Exclusive: The Excitement Of Saturday’s Bob Wildoner Memorial At Thunder Was Evident
Column By: JOSEPH PHILLIPS / RPW – CENTER LISLE, NY – Warm temperatures and no rain finally greeted fans of the Thunder Mountain Speedway for the Bob Wildoner Memorial race, held in honor of long-time track worker.
A full program of Open Modifieds, 358 Modified, DIRTcar Sportsman, 600 cc Modifieds, and factory stock was on deck for the evening. A special program with CRSA Sprint cars was also held Saturday.
Sadly, the night started on a somber tone. Owego driver Conner Sellars lost his life while setting up his car. Sellars was under the car and one of the jacks slipped, slowly suffocating him. Conner Sellars was along time Buzzie Reutimann fan, so his friend and fellow driver Jimmy Zacharias changed his 358 modified number from 71 to the classic “00” in remembrance of his friend.
A moment of silence was held for Conner and during the intermission, several drivers held a collection for the Sellars family.
The program itself started late due to the extra moisture in the track. It took an all hands effort from the drivers to run the track in. The track did shape up nice table as it was fast all night. All heat races were run off in quick fashion and then a quick intermission was held/
Suddenly, the Racing Gods frowned on the track.
On a side note, Canadian wildfire smoke haze is back in the northeast. The haze gave the moon an odd color, reminiscent of an old horror movie. The funny part was that the moon wasn’t full because what followed could have been blamed on that.
Roughly four red flag periods affected the features on this night. On lap one of the CRSA sprint feature, three cars tangled in third turn with one car ending up rolling over.
After clean up, the feature ran off fairly quick.
A good field of 31 sprint cars were on hand with Johnny Smith in his beautiful purple #4s taking home the win. This was Smith’s first feature win with the CRSA.
The Open modified feature ran off pretty seamlessly as well. Eric Leet in his #11x Comfort Expert-sponsored machine was the race winner. He was followed across the line by Brain Malcolm and Brandon Loucks.
The 600 cc Modifieds were up next with Logan Ladue talking lead at the green. This race also ran well with the exception of one red flag period.
Next race up was the Factory Stocks. That’s when the fun really began. The division had 16 cars take the green with seven finishing the caution-filled feature. There was a ration of cautions to green flag laps for the first half of the race.
Announcer Ric Ryder took time to explain the laws of attrition to the race fans while wrecks were cleared. Finally after another caution on lap 16, the yellow and checkers were displayed for Gene Sharpsteen who took the victory in his #87x car.
As the Sportsman cars were pulled onto the track, the red was displayed again. This time, however, it for an injured fan. This led to a lengthy period while the person was attended to. Hopefully everything is okay for them.
Once the race started, things were going smoothly. That was, however, until Matt Brewer got caught up with others cars on the frontstretch. Brewer was able to pull away from the wrecked cars but was hit hard by the #10 of Trevor Houghton, who ended up rolling over due to the impact.
After another lengthy caution, the #79 of Eric Windsor was able to fend off all challengers and find his way to victory lane.
For the nightcap on the night, the DIRTcar 358-Modifieds, the #119 of Doug Smith was the winner followed by Jimmy Zacharias in his #00 tribute car and Darren Smith in his #12.
Sadly, during a couple of the features, some rough riding was present and tempers boiled over quickly. Whether this was a symptom of the lousy weather that has been plaguing New York state or people’s natural personalities coming out is anyone’s guess.
The program lasted until 1:30am with many fans hanging in to the end. That shows the dedication of the Thunder faithful. Many cars were badly damaged and hopefully, the drivers can regroup and make it back to the races soon.
The Bob Wildoner Memorial will certainly live on in the fans memories.
