Our Summer Salute! – Wade’s Weekly #4
This Saturday evening there will be a friendly invasion happening at Speedway 660! It’s our Military Appreciation Night and we are honoured to Salute our Troops. This is a great opportunity for our fans, sponsors, race teams and staff to pay tribute to members of the Canadian and American Forces.
Speedway 660 is literally in the back yard of CFB Gagetown, Canada’s largest military base. Each week hundreds of military personnel come to the track to enjoy the races. A few of them drive stock cars, several are members of race teams but most are fans who love our brand of racing.
CFB Gagetown
Canadian Forces Base Gagetown was opened in 1958 and today has four thousand military personnel and 700 civilian workers. Its Combat Training Centre is the centre of excellence for army training in Canada. It houses the Infantry, Artillery, Armour and Tactics schools as well as the Canadian Forces School of Military Engineering.
On Saturday evening all members of the Armed Forces will be admitted to Speedway 660 free-of-charge with Military ID. It’s a small way for us to show our appreciation for their efforts to protect Canada and defend our sovereignty; work with our closest ally, the United States, to defend North America and; contribute to international peace and security through operations around the world.
A Special Tribute
Richard Atkinson and Glyn Nott are two veteran Sportsman drivers at our track who are proud members of the Canadian Forces. Mike Francis, from Saint John, is not a member of the military but he always does something special with his street stock car to show support for the troops. This year Mike’s car is painted black and does not have his name or any of his sponsors names displayed. On the rear trunk lid, Mike has a list of our Canadian Forces members who have paid the ultimate price for freedom in Afghanistan. Unfortunately that list has grown to almost 150 names.
Richard Atkinson, a proud member of the Canadian Forces, won the Martin’s Home Heating Sportsman feature last Saturday night.
What a Show!
The racing at Speedway 660 has been incredible in the early part of the 2010 season. The Pro All-Star Series put on some show last Saturday night. PASS regulars, including Cassius Clark, Johnny Clark, Ben Rowe and Trevor Sanborn were amazing. Our own Lonnie Sommerville wasn’t too shabby either, coming home third.
A rain delay, early in the evening didn’t dampen the spirits of the large crowd who came to the PASS event. After a few cautions in the opening laps, there were several long green flag runs and the yellow didn’t fly at all during the last hundred laps. Johnny Clark had a great battle with Cassius Clark for the lead and once Johnny, a former SpeedWeekend 250 winner, took the lead he set a torrid pace to win the race.
Johnny Clark, is our latest Saturday Night Hero. He displayed some amazing driving skills in taking the lead and especially the way he sliced and diced his way through lapped traffic all the way to the checkers. Clark loves it here and in on-track interviews, both before and after the race, paid tribute to our fans and Speedway 660.
Support our Troops
We encourage everyone to come out on Saturday evening to show your support to the men and women of the Canadian Forces as they continue to support freedom, democracy, the rule of law and human rights around the world.
And why not bring along your friends and introduce them to the great racing you can only find at Speedway 660.