Rain a major hurdle for race schedule
We’re now a full month into the racing season at Saskatchewan International Raceway, and the track staff, racers and fans have had to deal with Mother Nature not playing nice several times.
It’s a trend that’s all too common the last few years. In fact, rain has played a factor in all three points races so far this season.
The season opener in late May experienced a late morning shower which shut the track down for an hour and reduced time trials to two runs rather than three. Fortunately, that was all the rain that would hit the area, and the race was completed later that afternoon.
Rain also fell on both days of racing June 7 and 8, making things complicated for race organizers. After rain fell on the afternoon of the Saturday event, forcing a cancellation of the rest of the activities, those at the track were hoping to finish off Saturday’s eliminations plus run the entire Sunday event in one shot. Again, rain ruined those plans.
After morning showers had finished, participants were only able to finish Saturday’s racing and officials had to cancel Sunday’s planned events. So, in essence, after three planned points races so far, the track has two in the books and hopes to finish two more this weekend.
The fourth street legal event of the season is on tap for tonight and, as always, it’s still just $25 to race your car/truck/motorcycle, provided it passes a safety inspection prior to racing. The racer gate opens at 5:30 p.m. for tech inspections, and racing gets underway at 6 p.m.
Drivers can run as often or as few times as they want, and racing will commence at sundown. Given that today is going to be the second longest day of the year in terms of daylight, racers should be happy to know they’re in for a long night of racing.
Entry for spectators is $5 and passengers are allowed to race down the track, provided the vehicle runs an elapsed time of 13.99 seconds or less.
Saturday and Sunday’s action will be points races No. 4 and 5 on the season. Both days will see the racer gate open at 8 a.m., with time trials starting at 9 a.m. The spectator gate opens at 10 a.m., and racing eliminations are slated to start both days at around 1:30 p.m.
This will be the last quarter-mile racing at the track for a couple of weeks. The Pinnacle Motorsports truck and tractor pulls will take over the track on back-toback nights July 4 and 5, featuring a wide variety of machines producing insane amounts of horsepower and torque with the goal of hauling the weighted trailer the entire distance of the dirt track.
The raceway resumes action the weekend of July 11 with another three-day weekend consisting of a Friday night street legal event followed by points races on Saturday and Sunday.
Log on to www.racesir.com for more details on upcoming action.