Stock car drivers honoured

The Borderland Racing Association wrapped up the season with its annual awards dinner held at the Devlin Hall on Saturday.
Cub president Sharon Trimble said the event was a fitting tribute to what was another successful racing season.
“We had a good season,” she remarked. “Car count was up. Fan count was up.
“We’re always doing improvements on the track and hopefully next year we can do better,” she added.
Racers, their families, and fans were on hand as the season’s top drivers were honoured with a myriad of awards in the street stock, Midwest modified, and modified classes.
Richard Visser took home the first major award of the evening courtesy of his finish atop the street stock points standings. Visser edged out friendly rival Ron Westover for the honour.
In addition to the street stock champions’ trophy, Westover presented Visser with a trophy he had made specially to mark the occasion.
Kendall Gamsby earned top honours in the Midwest modified division as the season’s points leader while Curtis Kamm was recognized as the top points-getter in the modified division.
Carlee Bosma was crowned the street stock division’s rookie-of-the-year for her impressive performance this past season. Travis Strachan was named the top rookie in the Midwest modified division while Keith Sether took home the honour in the modified division.
In the evening’s most light-hearted moment, Gamsby was awarded the trophy for the best roll-over of the season—much to the delight of all those in attendance.
Racing fans were given an opportunity to voice their opinions courtesy of the body beautiful award—given to the most attractive car in each division as voted by the fans—and the favourite driver award.
Dean and Terry Martin were deemed to have the best-looking car in the street stock division while Westover took home the honour in the Midwest modified division.
Glen Strachan won the award in the modified division.
This season’s fan favourite driver in the street stocks was Westover. Ken Anderson and Chuck Lambert shared the honour in the Midwest modified class, and Bill Witherspoon was deemed most popular in the modified division.
The drivers were polled to determine who should take home the hard luck driver of the year award.
Dean and Terry Martin took home the dubious honour in the street stock division while Lambert was honoured for his string of bad luck in the Midwest modified division.
In the modified division, Rob Anderson and Joey Galloway shared the unwanted distinction.
The sportsman of the year awards saw ties in two of the three divisions.
Chris Shine and Westover split the honour in the street stock class while Jason Anderson and Strachan shared the accolade in the modified division.
John Hettinga was rewarded for his gentlemanly conduct in the Midwest modified division.
The Keith McNally Memorial—awarded to the street stock driver who goes to the track consistently, works hard at racing, loves the sport, but unfortunately ends up towards the back—went to Dean and Terry Martin.
The final award of the evening saw Mel Jack inducted into the Borderland Racing Association’s Hall of Fame. Fellow Hall of Fame member George Oltsher presented his friend and competitor with the honour.
Oltsher listed a veritable laundry-list of Jack’s contributions to the Borderland Racing Association, including his years of service on the club’s executive, years spent maintaining the track, his sponsorship of numerous cars, and his donation of a well at the track—the latter proving instrumental in reducing the not-for-profit organization’s costs.
“Mel’s been a big figure in our racing community for many years as a driver and behind the scenes,” Oltsher said before inviting Jack up to accept the honour.
Jack—visibly moved by the honour—gave a brief acceptance speech in which he reminisced about the good times he had at the track.
“We had fun here years ago racing,” he said.
“This is quite an honour to get this and I’d like to thank you very much.”
Jack recounted a particularly fond memory in which he blew his engine during a race. He spent the week between events searching for an engine and was fortunate enough to find two replacements.
His new engine installed, Jack sped out of the pits for the hot laps on race night only to blow the engine for the second time in as many weeks.
Undeterred, he rushed home to the garage and with the help of a dedicated crew, managed to install the second replacement in time for the night’s feature race.
With his induction, Jack becomes just the fifth member of the Borderland Racing Association’s Hall of Fame.