DRUMHELLER, AB – Tears were flowing at Dinosaur Downs Speedway in Drumheller Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately they were not tears of joy. The Northern Provincial Pipelines Late Model Series had to cancel its ‘A’ and ‘B’ Dash plus the Feature event due to dangerous track conditions. “I feel pretty bad for the organizers,” says NPP Series announcer Gord Craig, “it’s their first race (in two years) since moving the entire oval operation south of town. They have worked so hard at bringing back racing to the Drumheller region. Unfortunately the racing surface just fell apart on them.”

The NPP Heat races were the only races that managed to be completed. “Drivers in heat race number one were the lucky ones,” adds Craig, “they managed to get in two laps where visibility was not a problem. Then, like a switch, the track conditions just deteriorated.”

With only six cars on the track each heat race, competitors were racing blind in the corners. Whitecourt, Alberta’s Paul Grundberg won his first heat race of the season under less than ideal circumstances. “I’ll take the win but that was sure bizarre. We were driving through dust that was kicked up from the previous laps.” Current NPP Series point leader Jason Beaulieu had a similar view in his race. “Couldn’t see a thing,” says the Campbell River BC driver, “you just hang on and hope for the best.” Beaulieu, who started at the back of the pack, managed to navigate through zero visibility and ended up winning his heat race.

Despite several attempts to bring the track back to reasonable shape for racing, (watering, packing and grading) NPP and Dinosaur Downs Speedway officials agreed that a proper and safe race event could not take place. The NPP Late Model Series is planning a return trip to Dinosaur Downs Speedway with a scheduled race date on Sunday, August 16th. Track officials in Drumheller have indicated they will immediately go to work on improving the track’s surface in preparation for this and future Oval events.

RACE NOTES
– this is only the second time in the nine year history of the NPP Series that a race event has had to be cancelled due to dangerous track conditions. A similar situation occurred at Central Alberta Raceways in Rimbey in July 2007. Cars were pulled off the track 9 laps into the Feature.
– Ken Clark had his race car stall out on the track in Heat race #1 due to a clogged up air filter.
– drivers will receive points from the completed heat races in Drumheller.
– Jason Beaulieu has won four of the last six NPP Series heat races dating back to last season.
– Paul Grundberg’s heat race win on Sunday was his first heat victory since September 2nd, 2007.