Casey Richardson
The Penticton Speedway had crowds pilled into the stands for their return of some smashing events on Saturday, with the Eve of Destruction and Hit-2-Pass show.
“Our night of destruction, what a great show those guys put on. I mean, we got trailers and garbage laying all over the racetrack. The fans are going nuts. It was awesome,” Speedway co-owner Trevor Seibert said.
“The kids, you could just see them up against the fence cheering the whole time screaming their little heads off. So it’s fantastic. That’s what we want. And it’s good family entertainment.”
Thanks to Penticton Kia, I got to take to the track and try out my racing chops in King of the Hill, which opens up the racetrack to give everyone a chance to race.
“That’s for people that come out to the grandstand that have always wanted to be a race car driver or just think they have a hotter car than their buddy. Come on here and put a lap in and see if you can beat him,” Seiber added.
In the 2008 Ford Escape I was equipped with, I was able to take the lead and win my first race against a Volkswagen Beetle. That changed when I faced off against a Corvette.
Seibert said the key to competing in King of the Hill is to have a positive attitude and have fun.
“We had a Corvette win tonight, we had people out there with a Chevy Chevette from the 80s, we have everything and anything under the sun….There’s a good chance you might not win because you don’t have the same car the other person has, but you can put on a great show.”
Future plans for the open races are to continue building them, hopefully growing to 35 or 40 competitors.
“Don’t be shy to be part of it and bring whatever you go. ‘Run what you brung’ we call it. Enter the thing and see how you do,” Seibert added.
The contest includes a cash prize, which the winning driver this weekend generously split with all the other drivers as a sign of sportsmanship.
Seibert said the action-packed weekend overall was the sign of a great return to racing.
“Last year, we, of course, had to deal with restrictions still. We were down to 50 people in the grandstand and it was just ridiculous, pretty hard to survive like that. A lot of business out there in the same boat, we just managed to make our way through it and kept the races going. Had to keep everybody enthused, you know, the drivers and the teams.”
The new owners also used the time to work on the track, which has been around since 1969.
“We’re trying to show ourselves to the community that we want to create new fans, we want to show the older fans that maybe haven’t been in a while there’s something new here for them to come on out to. We’re getting a lot of great compliments.
“We’re just having a lot of fun taking it over from the Aantjes family and they’ve helped us a lot, given us a lot of advice on what to do.”
Next weekend the track will be hosting the Avion RS1 Superseal Cup Featuring Avion RS1’s and Avion Sprints.
Rising stars in racing will be taking on seasoned veterans, looking to gain points and put themselves in a position to ultimately win the Avion Motorsports RS1 Challenge Cup Championship. Seibert himself will be back on the track for the event.
“We’ve got a big, deep field of very talented drivers showing up for that.”
For more information or to grab tickets, click here.
