Cody Aumen Wins Fourth Enduro

Submitted by Ken Keating

Langford, BC., February 27th, 2011

      After several inches of snow fell on Victoria the first part of the week, the track at Western Speedway was cleared, rain poured from the heavens, and another of the Steve Copp Construction sponsored Enduro winter series lined up for two hours or two-hundred laps of racing this afternoon. Heath Cooper led a field of seventeen hardy racers to the green flag and quickly went into the lead followed by Glenn Rand for the first four laps. Howie Mace drove to second on lap five with Darren Yates and Steve Copp following him through. Cody Aumen, winner of three races this winter, took over the fifth spot on lap eight. Nothing changed in the running order until the yellow came out for a stalled car on lap twenty-two.  Just after the field returned to green flag racing, Mace used the inside groove in the tight chicane and passed Cooper on lap twenty-four and took over the lead dropping Cooper back to run second. Two laps later Aumen passed Copp and took over the fourth spot only to lose it four laps later to Copp and Darrell Midgley who moved up to run fifth. Aumen waisted little time regaining positions as he quickly passed Copp and Midgley and moved up to run in fourth by lap thirty-six with Midgley running in fifth. Over the next few laps, Copp and Midgley changed positions running in fifth and sixth while the front runners still managed to hold their spots. On lap fifty-three, Aumen passed Yates to take over the third spot and set his sights on Cooper and Mace up front. After a short caution and on the restart, Aumen moved passed Cooper and took over the second spot on lap sixty. There was little change in the running order until lap seventy-three when Copp and Midgley both passed Darren Yates to take over fourth and fifth respectively. Yates reclaimed the fifth spot by lap eighty-one and just three laps later the yellow came out. The field actually came to a stop for realignment and a couple of driver changes while Copp used the opportunity to pull his car into the pits done for the day.

      Once the field returned to green it was still Mace in the lead followed by Aumen, Cooper, Yates, and Midgley rounding out the top five positions. On lap ninety-two Yates took over the third spot dropping Cooper back to fourth. Over the next ten laps this line up remained pretty well intact until Midgley again passed Yates for fourth. On lap one hundred twenty-eight Aumen got by Mace and took over the lead while the positions three through five remained the same. Just two laps later Yates moved into third while Midgley moved to fourth with Cooper dropping all the way back to sixth. Cooper did recover and got back into contention running fifth by lap one hundred thirty-eight. Over the next several laps the running order stayed intact again until Midgley dropped out on lap one hundred fifty-three turning over the fourth spot to Cooper with Jason Frost now running fifth.

      On lap one hundred sixty-nine time ran out as Cody Aumen claimed his fourth victory of the winter series followed by Howie Mace, Darren Yates, Heath Cooper, and Jason Frost rounding out the top five positions. The next race, in this series, is scheduled to take place on March 20th at 1 PM. and this event will mark the finale in the winter program. All of these drivers should be commended for their support considering the weather and time of year as car counts have remained reasonable. Staff such as starters, tow truck operators, ambulance crews, and lap recorders should also be congratulated as they too show up for various duties and support the series regardless of the weather. A special salute to Steve Copp as he continues to see the Hornets grow during the summer months, the success of the winter series, and continued support of racing of all types. Regular Saturday night racing is scheduled to start on April 3rd opening with the Demo Series for 2011 with new events scheduled over the course of the year. Next weekend marks the annual Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremony celebrating their 27^th Anniversary in 2011. The special ceremony will be held on Saturday afternoon, March 5^th, and will be held at the Station House Pub "basement" reception room, 737 Goldstream Avenue, Victoria, B. C.  Doors will open at 1:00 PM with the formal ceremonies commencing at 2:30 PM. Admission will only be $20.00. This will provide everyone with light refreshments being served following the ceremonies. Everyone will also be given a free souvenir programme and an $18.00 ticket to a special racing event which will occur at Western Speedway with the WILROC Sprint Lites, Stock Cars and the Old Timers (OTRA) who will be competing for the Haslam Memorial Hall of Fame race trophy. This year for the first time in their  27 years of existence, the names of the 2011 Inductees are now released in advance. The 3 will be honoured and join the 74 previously inducted persons in the Hall. In addition, there will be 3 Pioneer Award recipients introduced who will be added to the 64 previous selections in the Hall of Fame as well. The 2011 Inductees are: Ross Rockett; David Smith; and Bert Sweeting. The Pioneer recipients are Debbie Cooper; Skip Crawford; & Gus Stanfield. Mark this event on your calendar and come out and meet several drivers and people that are now in the Hall.