Shayne Neigum of Kindersley launches off of the starting line in his Good to Go Racing super modified called Second Chance on day two of the Kindersley Dirt Drags & Truck and Tractor Pulls on July 20-21 at the East 40 Motorplex. Neigum put down a time of 2.29 seconds in his third run of the weekend, and he finished in third place after the Canadian Mud Racing Organization portion of the event. The weekend also included several pullers from the Alberta Tractor Pullers Association as part of the action.

Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion

Hundreds of fans packed the stands last weekend for two days of sand drags and truck and tractor pulls at the East 40 Motorplex. The competition was fierce.

Competitors from across western Canada and parts of the United States came to the area for the Kindersley Dirt Drags & Truck and Tractor Pulls on July 20-21. Dozens of pullers and mud racers went head to head at the racing facility located five miles east of Kindersley.

Most of the racers are members of the Canadian Mud Racing Association (CMRO) and the pullers are part of the Alberta Tractor Pullers Association (ATPA). The two organizations put on a heck of a show for the fans in attendance.

The two-day event also included a pair of cabarets featuring Mitch Larock and the 4:54 Band on Friday and Dusty Mule on Saturday. People could get rides on a Saskatchewan Rush monster truck and meet a pair of Saskatchewan Rush cheerleaders at the event.

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A Humboldt Broncos tribute modified mini built by Larry Hilworth pulls a sled 256.5 feet on Friday.

Darla Dorsett, an organizer and representative of sponsor Good to Go Trucking, spoke to the fans each day before the action got underway. She thanked fans for their support on behalf of the Neigum family including Shayne Neigum, a CMRO competitor.

She noted that the goal of event organizers is “to give the fans a fantastic show” and it took a large team of people to make it all happen. Dorsett thanked the organizers, volunteers, competitors and sponsors for helping to make it all happen. She noted that a portion of the event proceeds would be donated to STARS Air Ambulance.

The action on the track was exciting on both days of the competition. The ATPA competitors made one pull each day and the CMRO competitors ran three passes on the weekend. Competitors with the CMRO are used to making four trips down the track.

Normally, the slowest pass of four passes is thrown out and three scores are added together. With only three passes, each pass had to count and anyone who was disqualified for various reasons was out of the competition.

Super Modified competitors make up the fastest and most powerful CMRO class. There is an annual shootout for the Super Modified class and the winner takes home $7,500. Racers qualified for the shootout on Friday night, and the side-by-side high-speed action took place on Saturday.

Jim Lamb, a mud racer from Minnesota, brought two sand rails to the competition and he raced both machines over the weekend. Lamb made the trip to Kindersley for one reason, and it was to win the $7,500 shootout. He did not compete in the CMRO points event.

Lamb’s two rails are The Reckoning and Full Throttle. The Minnesota racer won the shootout with Full Throttle defeating the defending champion Brad Astbury of British Columbia in a car called Dirty Thirties. Astbury got the holeshot and led most of the race, but Lamb’s Full Throttle powered past Astbury at the end.

The Good to Go Racing Team also had a decent weekend. Mark Savage in Perfect Storm and Neigum in Second Chance both made it to the semi-finals in the shootout, but neither of them made it to the final. Savage placed first in the CMRO portion of the event while Neigum finished in third.

Neigum had faster times than Savage, but he had to pedal the throttle in his first run and Savage had a better average after all three runs. Don Westcott drove the third Super Modified in the Good to Go Racing stable.

Dusty Clarkson drove a car named Dust Storm in the Pro Modified class. Clarkson had the two fastest runs of the weekend in the class, but he was disqualified in his first pass after he left the starting line before the light on the Christmas tree had turned green.

Clarkson qualified for the shootout, but he was quickly dispatched by the much more powerful Full Throttle super modified. Neigum and Lamb both ran passes in the low two-second range, and it is quite a feat over 200 feet of dirt. The CMRO and ATPA featured several classes and the action kept fans entertained.

Wayne Benson, who has been announcing race action for 33 years, said it was a great weekend of racing. He said there a lot of pullers and although the number of entrants was down just slightly from previous years, the quality was excellent.

The race of the weekend was in round one of the shootout when Neigum defeated Lamb in The Reckoning by two-thousandths of a second. Benson said when you get two cars separated by only two-thousandths in barely more than two seconds of side-by-side action over 200 feet, “that is quality racing.”

Lamb, who has been racing for 22 years, said he was ecstatic to win the shootout, especially with it being the first race weekend on a brand new chassis for Full Throttle. Lamb said he “couldn’t be happier” with the result.

He noted that The Reckoning makes a lot of power and it is harder to control, but he nearly took out the hometown favourite in Neigum on the first pass that it went straight during the weekend. Lamb, who was impressed by the northern hospitality and the safety of the track, said it was nice to put on a show for fans.

“That was a show for the fans,” he said of the race with Neigum, adding that they went wheel to wheel for all 200 feet of the track. “We couldn’t have put on a better show. That was a good time. We were on the wrong end of it, but it was still fun.”

Joe Hoffart, a puller and spokesperson for the ATPA, said the pullers have enjoyed being in Kindersley the past two years, and the best part about the event is combining two different motorsports in mud racing and tractor pulling.

He noted that the two forms of racing go hand in hand because they both happen on the dirt, but there is a lot of horsepower being laid down. Hoffart said the action went smoothly and the pullers look forward to returning in 2019. He said he believes the CMRO and ATPA achieved their goal.

“It’s lots of horsepower and the fans love it,” he said, recognizing that the racing action takes place right in front of the fans. “We just hope we put on a good show ever year and I think we hit year two out of the park again.”

Neigum, the head organizer, said seeing the stands full of fans at peak times during the event is fulfilling for organizers and competitors. He noted that a full set of bleachers gets competitors fired up to perform.

He said he believes the weekend went well and the plan is to be back at the East 40 Motorplex again in 2019. Other than a bit of darkness on Friday night, things went well, the racing was safe and everyone had a good time. Neigum said the positive comments form friends and fans put a smile on his face all weekend.

The head organizer, who thanked his mother Darla, cousin Brittany Newmeyer and Bob Organ for going the extra mile to help, said he wanted to thank the spectators for coming out, along with everyone who helped out in some way.

Neigum said it was amazing to have such an epic showdown with Lamb in his first round match up in the shootout. He added that although he did not win, he is happy to see fellow racers win after coming such a long way, and going 2.2 seconds on 200 feet of dirt is “hauling the mail.”

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