EDMONTON, AB – Wade Fleming finished 8th Saturday night at the 2018 Jim Albert Memorial Gold Cup race.  This was Fleming’s first appearance at Canada’s oldest open wheel race since 2009.  The Ardrossan, Alberta driver stepped away from the world of Sprint Car racing for close to a decade to spend more time with family.  The eight-time track champion has had some time to ponder his top-10 performance at Castrol Raceway on the weekend.  “I really can’t complain about where I finished,” admits Fleming, “making the Feature event was a huge goal and I made both of them.”  The 2018 Gold Cup is a two-day show.  Preliminary heats and the Feature were scheduled to be run Friday night.  Points accumulated from Night 1 are used to set driver lineups for Night 2.  Rain unfortunately wiped out the Friday night Feature forcing event organizers to run two Sprint Car Features on Saturday.  Fleming finished 10th in the first Feature of the night.  “I wasn’t too tired after the first Feature,” admits the 1997 Gold Cup champion, “my wife (Tracy) hinted that I needed to pick up my pace and she was right.  I was on the pole for the first Heat race of the night (Saturday).  I was surrounded by fast cars.  I drove as hard as I could but still got passed.”  Fleming finished fourth in his Saturday night Heat race.  “I was absolutely exhausted when I came back into the pits.  I think I know where the plateau is when it comes to racing these younger drivers.”

FLEMING FINISHED 8TH AT 2018 GOLD CUP IN EDMONTON

The 49 year old Fleming would start the 2018 Gold Cup race on row 6. “I made my way up to 7th place (from 12th) but started getting tired. I had three cars go by me.” Fleming says endurance is huge in a Sprint Car race. “There is so much effort to run one of these cars. Your whole upper body is moving constantly. If your body gets week, your mind gets week.” With less than 10 laps remaining in the Gold Cup Feature, Fleming was about to give up more track positions when the Red flag came out for a single car crash. “Sitting in the car (during the race stoppage) I said to myself that I have a good seven laps left in me. Let’s do it!” Fleming listened to his self motivational speech and got by two cars in the dying laps of the Gold Cup race to finish 8th. At his last Gold Cup appearance back in 2009, Fleming finished 6th. “The car really ran strong. We did Ok.” Geoff Ensign won the 2018 Gold Cup race Saturday night. Ensign is the first driver from California to win Canada’s oldest open wheel race which was first run in Edmonton back in 1954.

2018 JIM ALBERT MEMORIAL GOLD CUP
Castrol Raceway – Edmonton, Alberta

FEATURE (Top 10)
1. #63 Geoff Ensign – Sebastopol, California
2.# 2 Kelly Miller – Coaldale, Alberta
3. # 8 Buddy Kofoid – Penngrove, California
4. #14 Rob Orgar – Bowden, Alberta
5.#59 Eric Fisher – Mount Vernon, Washington
6.#16 David Miller – Leduc, Alberta
7.#97 Matthew Dusseault – Sherwood Park, Alberta
8. # 7 Wade Fleming – Ardrossan, Alberta
9. # 3 Jordan Milne – Edmonton, Alberta
10.#38 Trevor Turnbull – Camrose, Alberta