Sportsman 125 Centre Stage This Saturday at Speedway 660

GEARY, NB – If you are a fan of Late Model Sportsman action, Speedway 660 in Geary, New Brunswick is the place to be this weekend. The 1/3-mile oval will serve as the battleground for the Martin’s Home Heating 125, the first major extended distance Sportsman race in Atlantic Canada for the 2018 season. Championship point racing will also be contested in the RE/MAX East Coast Elite Realty Pro Stock, DMR Auto Sales and Service Street Stock and Fredericton Gun Shop Sharp Shooters. The green flag goes in the air for qualifying at 6:30 pm.

With three times the laps on the table compared to a regular distance 40-lap Martin’s Home Heating Sportsman feature and $2,000 on the line to the winner, the Martin’s Home Heating 125 is sure to attract a number of visitors to the Geary woods for the first time in 2018. They will have to come to Speedway 660 locked and loaded though. With four races in the books, four different drivers have found their way to Riverview Ford Lincoln Victory Lane so far in 2018.

Drew Greenlaw (Eastport, ME) opened the 2018 season with a win in the Riverview Ford Lincoln Race for Hunger and is deadlocked at the top of the point standings with Kids Day feature winner Curtis Collins (Saint John). The last two rounds have belonged to the O’Blenis sisters with older sister Alexandra winning during Fredericton Gun Shop Night and Courtney taking the checkered flag first last Saturday night. While no championship points based off finishing order are on the line for the Martin’s Home Heating Sportsman division, expect these early title contenders to leave it all out on the track on Saturday night.

While his daughters have lit the lamp the last two weeks in the Martin’s Home Heating Sportsman division, word on the street is that Dave O’Blenis (Boundary Creek) will look to even the Sportsman score on Saturday night. O’Blenis, who drove to victory lane to the tune of $5,000 last year during SpeedWeekend, will look to add another big Sportsman win to his already impressive resume.

O’Blenis will not be alone though when it comes to big names looking to come in and swoop up a win. Laurie Cormier (Riverview) is one of the biggest names when it comes to Sportsman racing in New Brunswick and the blue and white No. 53 is one of the most familiar combinations in the region. Cormier will be looking to add an extended distance win at Speedway 660 to his long list of accomplishments on Saturday.

Brady Creamer (Miramichi), who, along with Cormier, already has one Sportsman win in the province to his credit in 2018, and Matt Rogers (Smithtown) are all coming to Speedway 600 with one goal in mind – to pad their pockets with $2,000 and collect a checkered flag after 125-laps.

Strategy will come into play on Saturday night with the event being run 125-laps without a designated break for teams to fuel and work on their race cars. The Martin’s Home Heating 125 will feature live pit stops which will let teams choose when they come down pit road in a race that is sure to be ever changing and evolving with any caution periods in the event. The format is similar to those in extended distance Pro Stock division races, like the McLaughlin Roof Trusses 250 on SpeedWeekend.

With nearly 20 Sportsman teams expected to compete in the Martin’s Home Heating 125 on Saturday, fans are in for some of the most exciting Late Model action they’ll see in the province in the month of June.

Ryan Messer’s (Harvey) first feature win of the RE/MAX East Coast Elite Pro Stock season has created a tighter picture at the top of the standings. Dave O’Blenis will enter with a two point lead on the driver of “Big Orange,” who is preparing this week to graduate high school. The vice continues to tighten with Greg Fahey (St. Stephen), Ashton Tucker (Lyttleton) and reigning champion Brent Roy (Hanwell) all within the title chat with four races under their belt.

Justin Cole (Harvey) has laid it to his competition during the opening four rounds of the DMR Auto Sales and Service Street Stock division. Cole has won three of the first four races in the division, including last Saturday’s 30-lap feature by two thousandths of a second! Goodwin was able to gain one point last weekend based on his heat finish compared to Cole, which will leave the pair tied atop of the standings after four races. Like the Pro Stock division, the Street Stocks are seeing championship contenders being established as Roger Slocum (Chipman) and Shawn Hyslop (St. Stephen) begin to build a margin back to fifth place in the division while keeping touch with Goodwin and Cole.

Scott “Bat Hubby” Kennie’s (Fredericton) first career Fredericton Gun Shop Sharp Shooter feature victory kept him up top in the four cylinder standings. Kennie, Brody Levesque (Fredericton) and Bryan Suttie (Keswick) have been back and forth early in the season in the win column and Saturday will write a fifth chapter into the 2018 season.

Returning for 2018, children aged 15 and under will be admitted to the grandstands for free to every stock car event at Speedway 660. The admission structure makes it easier for families to attend race events at the track and received positive feedback from fans when implemented mid-season in 2017.

Adult grandstand admission price for Saturday evening’s Martin’s Home Heating 125 is $20 (aged 16 and up). Pit admission is $25 and is restricted to those 16 years of age and older. Tickets are available at the gate on race day. Pit gates for competitors will open at 1pm, grandstand gates open for spectators at 5pm with racing getting underway at 6:30pm. A complete race day format will be available via Speedway660.com later in the week.

For more information about Speedway 660, visit Speedway660.com, like @Speedway660 on Facebook or call the Speedway 660 Raceline at (506) 454-7223.

About Martin’s Home Heating:
Martin’s Home Heating specializes in heating, cooling and ventilation sales and service. The company, based out of the Fredericton area, provides sales, installation, emergency service, routine maintenance and expert repair of equipment for customers in the Capital region as well as southern New Brunswick. Martin’s Home Heating has been in business for over thirty years and has a stellar reputation for exceptional customer service. When Quality and Comfort Matter Most, call Martin’s Home Heating at 506-363-5297.

About Speedway 660:
Speedway 660 is one of Canada’s premier stock car racing facilities. Located in New Brunswick’s Fredericton region, it attracts race teams and fans from the Maritimes, New England and Quebec. The Speedway 660 racing season runs from mid May until Labour Day Weekend. SpeedWeekend, one of the most prestigious short track events in eastern North America, wraps up Speedway 660’s racing season.

source – track communications