Horseshoe Park Summer Short Track Series
Round 3: June 1st, 2013
Horseshoe Park Equestrian Center, Queen Creek, AZ
Short Track Saturday Night
By Tim Thomas
Elton John famously sang “Saturday night’s all right for fightin” but
he was wrong! Saturday night is short track night! Especially in
Arizona in the spring in the beautiful covered Queen Creek Equestrian
Center. Huge fans above the spectators keep the air moving and keep
them cool while the staff with Joe Cude’s supervision create a
fantastic cushion racing surface for the riders. This was the final
“warm up” night prior to the points paying races for the season
rewards, which start on June 15.
The youth mini bikes started out the night with Carson Millikan taking
the heat and main on his Honda 50 followed by Wyatt Smith and Julian
Brant. It’s nice to see the interest in this class to get some young
blood into this great sport.
Race two was the Mad Dog 150 class with the big guys on the little
bikes, always a fun race to watch. The promoter, Pat Neilson took the
holeshot and lead early but could not hold off the hard charging young
Harry Canan on Frank Baker’s quick Honda. Pat held onto second despite
strong challenges from Crank Works’ Phil Schaefor and Jerry Gates.
In the Vintage classes, Josh Adams was the man tonight on the 250s with
his Honday XL winning the heat and main over Bill Cook on a beautiful
Trackmaster Yamaha. In the 600 class, the always fast Joe Cude held off
the hard charging Jerry Gates to take the victory.
Phil Schaefor was not to be denied in the action packed Open Am DTX
class on his Yamaha 450 holding off Jeff Shambre and Kevin Neilson.
Phil added a second victory on the night riding his Suzuki 450 to the
win in the Open MX Knobby class over Nathan Smith and Ryan Morrison.
This class is great for getting some new blood to hone their skills at
short track racing without having to have a flat track specific bike. A
number of the riders who rode this class initially have since become
hooked and built their own flat trackers.
There were enough Quads to have two heats and an A Main and B Main. Rob
Golden took the honors in the A Main while Chris Cole took the trophy
in the B Main. Courtney Lahr made the ladies in the stands proud by
taking second in the B Main. The quads put on a great show with lots of
power slides on the great cushion surface.
In the Run Whatcha Brung Open Pro class, it was Joe Cude taking the
winner’s share of the cash. Brandon Inderbitzin kept Joe honest in the
heat but ended up getting a little too antsy in the main and was sent
to the penalty line. He worked his way back to second by the end of the
main but you can’t give Joe a head start and expect to catch him. Dan
Mullins rode Byron Boaz beautiful TriBSA to third.
Promoter Pat Neilson leads the pack in the Mad Dog 150 class. Photo by Cam Davis
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