Cantley, PQ – Saturday October 20, 2007 - It was a really good season at Edelweiss Speedway despite a rough start and the loss of somebody who was really important for the organization. There was a lot of action on the track and the crowd appreciated it.
In the modified category, Laurent Ladouceur was the dominant force with his 7 wins during the season. He was the only multiple feature winner in the class. Even thought, he won that amount of races, Laurent never got away from his son Lee in the championship point's race with only an 18 points difference between them. Laurent won the crown with a total of 844 points followed by Lee with 826. The veteran Dave Heaslip finished third with 760 points. Eric Gauvreau and Denis Larocque completed the top 5 with 756 & 700 points respectively.
A world of difference in the pro-stock class, there was a few multiple winners during the season. Dave Bissonnette with a total of 5 wins, was the best, Joey Ladouceur with 4 followed him closely. Denis Gauvreau was the only other driver to win more than one race with 2 wins. Those three chauffeurs finished respectively 1, 2 & 3 in the point's title. Bissonnette with 872 points had a very good season, Ladouceur finished the year with 856, Gauvreau with 832 points completed the podium. Nicolas Vaillant in fourth with 644 points and Stéphane Lebrun who completed the top 5 with 614 points.
With an average of 18 cars per night, the semi-pro category was probably the most exciting class to watch during the season. Many drivers had a shot of winning the feature on every given Friday night and Bruno Boivin was the one that won the most with 4. The championship was decided on the final night of racing with Boivin getting the title over Marc Lalonde with a small margin of only 8 points (708 vs 700). Richard Brady got 630 points good for the third spot. Mark Trudeau was fourth with 601 points and Sébastien Bigras was fifth with 590 points.
The 4 cylinders class was also very close during the year and just like the semi-pros, many drivers were contenders each night to get the win. Five different drivers won more than one event; Martin Bernard and Gabriel Mercier with 3 wins each were among those contenders. Martin Lagacé got the point's title by a good margin of 66 points (794 vs 728) over Gabriel Mercier who finished second. Yannick Raymond finished third with 726 points. His brother Marco finished behind him in fourth with 636 points. Martin Bigras completes the top 5 with 624 points.
Many important events were done throughout the season. The Empire Super Sprints visited the speedway twice and the stands were jammed packed on both nights to see the winged warriors give an incredible show. The Canadian DIRT Series was also one of the premier events of the season with 38 modifieds filling the pits and with Laurent Ladouceur winning the 100 lap feature race to start his quest towards the Canadian DIRT Series title. The DIRTcar tour for 358 modified and pro-stock also stopped at the 3/8 mile oval on September 7. Many of the best drivers were here for those races with Danny O'Brien winning in the 358 and DIRTcar pro-stock champ, Pete Stefanski getting the triumph.
There are changes that will occur for the 2008 season in many departments. A lot of new ideas are on the table to improve the show and decisions will be taken during winter time. We will keep you informed of all the news and details for the upcoming season in which will be the most interesting one.
By Martin Bélanger
