A GREAT EVENING OF RACING ON CHALLENGER MOTOR

FREIGHT NIGHT PRESENTED BY BX93!

John Houghton

Delaware Speedway PR

August 1, 2008

Chad Rijnen (#33) of London was able to turn his night around and win the Challenger Motor Freight Truck Challenge Friday evening at Delaware Speedway.  Although Friday's program contained a brief rain delay, those who waited it out were treated to some of the most exciting racing of the year!

The evening began with time trials for the Challenger Motor Freight Trucks.  Rijnen won the time trials and broke the previous track record with his lap time of 21.925.  Shawn Johns (#00) of St. Marys was the previous record holder at 22.230 seconds.

Tom Zagorodny (#77) of Dorchester won the first segment of the event.  Zagorodny led every lap of the first ten-lap segment.  Shawn Johns (#00) of St. Marys finished second and Devon Bloemendal (#01) of Delaware finished third.

The ARCA trucks then took to the track for their feature race, which was halted just before halfway because of rain falling at the speedway.  After a rain delay of just over an hour the track was dry and racing resumed.  The ARCA recap article can be found here.

The second segment of the Challenger Motor Freight Truck Challenge was a complete inversion of the lead lap trucks.  Justin DeMello (#82) of London started out front and led the first lap.  After that, the Paul Fothergill “The Black Knight” (#9) of London took the lead and won the segment.  Chad Rijnen (#33) of London was able to move to second position.  Darrell Porter (#8) of Dorchester finished in third after battling his way up from a twelfth place starting position.

The third and final segment had a dice inversion of eight and sent Paul Fothergill back to eighth position.  Early in the event Chad Rijnen (#33) of London, Randy Thompson (#1) of Dorchester, and Darrell Porter (#8) of Dorchester tangled in turn four.  The trio hit the safety tire at the end of the wall and brought out the caution.  All three would go to the back and have a long race ahead of them.  When the race resumed Jeff Showler (#56) of Mt. Elgin would take the lead of the event with Paul Fothergill “The Black Knight” (#9) of London giving chase in second.  Shortly after Fothergill would spin on lap five and the caution would fly once again.

Meanwhile Rijnen had been on a tear through the field and would quickly find himself in second place coming off the restart.  Showler continued to lead the race despite serious pressure from Rijnen.  On lap 18 Rijnen managed to take Showler for the lead at the line.  The pair went side by side coming to the final lap where both almost wrecked into the inside all after making contact.  The drivers hung on to their machines narrowly avoiding a bad ending to the evening.  Rijnen went on to win the event.  Showler settled for second, third was Tom Zagorodny (#77) of Dorchester.

“The outside was coming.  We tightened it up before the last feature.  That was a lot of fun racing with Jeff [Showler],” said Rijnen in victory lane.  “We were a little rough on each other, but it was going both ways it was awesome.  We gave each other the thumbs up when we were done.”

In the “All Truck” Throne Kings of the Hill the final round came down to a GMC Silverado against a flagman Rob Sharp’s yellow Dodge truck.  “Sharpie” was able to win the best two out of three final round, narrowly edging out the Silverado in the final turn to take the win.  In victory lane “Sharpie” generously donated the prize money back to the Make A Wish Charity.

Next weekend at Delaware Speedway features two great days of racing.  The first night is Friday, August 8, Highbury Ford Night featuring the APC Late Models, POWERADE Modifieds, Peterbilt of Ontario Super Stocks as well as a Throne Kings of the Hill and special Throne Queens of the Hill Spectator’s race.  Gates open at 6:00 PM, racing starts at 7:00 PM.

The on Saturday, August 9, the Transmission Direct Enduro Series takes to the track for their 250-lap race along with the Ultimate Sandblasting & Coating Chaos Cars and Four Cylinder Invitational.  Gates open at 6:00 PM, racing starts at 7:00 PM.