Night Two in Sarnia | Here’s What Happened on the 2nd Night of Racing

By Billy Rainford

Paul Kingsley started the day off with a riders meeting.

We were back in the tight confines of the Progressive Auto Sales Arena in Sarnia, Ontario, on Saturday. Like night one, although there weren’t a long list of riders, the riders who came to race were at the top of their game in Canada – it was a pretty deep field.

#16 Cole Thompson and #84 Tanner Ward found themselves on the podium in all 3 Mains on Friday. Would they be able to do the same on Night 2?

The crew made a few changes to the track that they hoped would produce some better racing actions. On Friday, the consensus was that the track became very one-lined with riders simply riding insides to protect themselves from the inevitable Arenacross-style block pass at every turn. The changes they made seemed to do the trick.

They extended the corners which let riders use the berms and bowls. They rolled the whoops to make them more available for skimming. They added some lip to the outside of the first jump of the rhythms section, tempting riders to rail the berm and go for the triple/triple. During the races, it turned out almost everyone stuck to the inside there and went double/triple.

The day/night wasn’t short of drama, either. Unfortunately, I missed it all while I was standing at the other side of the arena in turn 1. Chad Goodwin had some moments with Cole Thompson and his wife, and Tyler Gibbs and Westen Wrozyna had words and maybe even a hand or two after some contact on the track. Greg Poisson was front row for both, so we’ll see if we can’t drag the stories out of him.

#27 Guillaume St Cyr hurt his foot early but would continue racing.

During practice, #27 Guillaume St Cyr went for the triple/triple/single section but over-jumped the middle and bent his right foot behind and under his foot peg. He looked questionable for the rest of the day, but he lined up for qualifying and managed to gut it out the rest of the night’s racing.

Scary crash early for #146 Tanner Scott that would eventually end his day early.

#146 Tanner Scott took a pretty spectacular crash in the same rhythm section and limped himself back to the pits. They signed him up to race both classes but he wouldn’t be able to make it through qualifying with his sore leg.

Qualifying

250 Heat 1:

#32 Wyatt Kerr grabbed the holeshot with #229 Mitchell Harrison alongside him. Harrison would get to the lead right away while #22 Tyler Gibbs also found away around Kerr on lap 1.

#14 Quinn Amyotte made some early moves that got him into 3rd place ahead of a nice battle between #26 Westen Wrozyna, Kerr, and #33 Jeremy McKie.

The top 4 would go directly to the Main and the rest would head to the LCQ where the top 2 would make up the 10-rider gate.

#34 Wyatt Kerr got stuff passed in his own corner!

McKie would stuff Kerr in the corner before the finish line that we were calling “Kerr’s Corner” due to all the passes he’d made there the night before. It wouldn’t be enough to move on, however, and he found himself behind Harrison, Gibbs, Amyotte, and Wrozyna in 5th place at the flag.

250 Heat 2:

American #103 Nate Mason grabbed the holeshot with #16 Cole Thompson, #170 Devin Simonson, and #84 Tanner Ward giving chase.

Thompson would move to the front while Mason and Ward did battle behind him until Mason stalled his bike and dropped back.

It was Thompson, Ward, and Simonson at the start and the finish of 250 Heat 2.

At the flag it was Thompson, Ward and Simonson, and then St Cyr taking the final transfer spot in 4th. Mason messed up again on the final lap and was headed for the LCQ.

450 Heat 1:

There was some discussion from riders with just a 450 about how they could make the classes a little more favourable for them, but nothing came of it.

The holeshot went to St Cyr and Harrison in a close race. Harrison would move to the lead on the first lap with St Cyr, Gibbs, Amyotte, Mason, Kerr, and #13 Daniel Elmore, #43 Dario Zecca, and #751 Donald Turner in tow.

Kerr would suffer a broken chain and take a DNF and a ticket to the LCQ as they rushed back to the pits to get the issue sorted out.

Quinn Amyotte and Nate Mason come together.

Mason and Amyotte came together in the last turn with Mason getting the short end of the stick and going down. However, when Mason came back onto the track behind Amyotte, it was Quinn who made a costly error and fell, allowing Mason to take the position.

There was some carnage on that lap that allowed Elmore to sneak in for 4th place and move on behind Harrison, Gibbs, and St Cyr. Guillaume was happy to go straight through in both classes after struggling the night before.

450 Heat 2:

Holeshot to Ward, who grabbed great starts all weekend long. Behind him were Thompson and Simonson who is back on the bike after a long 6 months away as he recovered from injury.

Right off the start, #24 Tommy Dallaire went from the outside gate and was forced straight into a track marker and went down, picking himself up in last place, of course.

Tanner Ward makes an inside pass on Thompson to take the lead.

Ward would make a nice Arenacross pass on Thompson in the corner before the finish line to take over the lead position as Thompson’s momentum was messed up and he fell back to 3rd place just ahead of Blackmer.

It would allow Wrozyna to get by Blackmer to take 4th place ahead of Blackmer, McKie, #19 Ryan Derry, Dallaire, and #328 Talan Hansen.

At the flag it was very close between Ward, Simonson, and Thompson, ahead of Wrozyna who moved on in 4th. Blackmer was headed for the LCQ.

250 LCQ:

Only 2 riders from each LCQ would move on to make the Mains.

Holeshot to McKie with Blackmer, Mason, and Kerr behind him.

McKie would hold on for the win with Blackmer giving chase right behind him. Mason would come up just short in this one and not make the 250 Main.

450 LCQ:

Blackmer would grab this holeshot followed by Dallaire, Amyotte, McKie, Derry, and Mason.

The top 4 riders were very close and each knew they needed to be either first or second to avoid being sent home.

McKie tries one last time to steal 2nd place from Amyotte but comes up short.

At the flag, it was Blackmer and Amyotte who moved on as McKie tried a last corner, inside move on Amyotte but went down trying.

250 Main:

Harrison was lined up on the inside gate while it was St Cyr on the outside of the 8-person starting gate.

Gibbs would grab the holeshot with Ward, Harrison, Thompson, and Simonson close.

Thompson would fall and end up at the back of the pack at the end of the first lap, But that’s when luck was on his side.

Harrison and Gibbs down hard causing a red flag restart.

As Harrison was going to a lead pass on Gibbs through the whoops, he would lose control and the two would connect and go down in spectacular fashion. Gibbs got up right away, but Harrison later said he had the wind knocked out of him and it took him some time to get moving again.

The race was red-flagged and everyone went back to the gate.

Gibbs and Harrison weren’t sent back to the pits to miss this one. They were forced to restart from the second row as a penalty.

Thompson grabs the 250 Main restart holeshot.

This time it was Thompson grabbing the holeshot. He wouldn’t look back in this one and led it wire-to-wire for the win.

Behind him early it was Ward, Simonson, Harrison, Amyotte, St Cyr, Gibbs, Blackmer, Wrozyna, and McKie.

At the halfway mark, the top 3 were the same, but Harrison had managed to get himself up into 4th place after starting from row 2.

#53 Blackmer was down again hard at the end of the straightway before the finish line. Once again, he needed to be carried off the track by his team and a couple others. He had hit a block that had been knocked out onto the track and went down hard.