An unfavourable weather forecast was the enemy of the winged sprint car drivers in the World of Outlaws.
While there were a few drivers who showed up at the Estevan Motor Speedway (EMS), many were scared off by the forecast’s chance of rain – which did end up hitting the Estevan area both nights. Only one of the two scheduled nights were able to get any racing in, which was unfortunate for fans who wanted to see Estevan’s Kyle Fedyk race more than once this year.
“At the start of the week, we were looking like we were going to get 17, 18 cars and then the weather forecast over Tuesday-Wednesday I was getting phone calls from guys saying they weren’t coming because of the forecast,” said Fedyk, driver of the 91K car. “It is what it is. We’ve got to thank the track for letting us run. I know the car count wasn’t the best. The forecast really weeded guys out. We can’t make them come race.”
Only 11 cars made the journey to Estevan.
It’s been a rough season so far for Fedyk, but he enjoyed being out on the track in his hometown.
“You always look forward every year, or for the last three years, getting to come home in front of friends and family to race,” Fedyk said. “I’m used to racing hours away from home, two, three, five hours away. This track is a perfect sprint car track. The height of the banking and the size is an amazing sprint car track.”
The team at the EMS did a good job, he said, and that contributed to his 107 miles per hour average speed in the heat race.
“A 12-second lap on a 3/8 mile is pretty unheard of,” he said.
He was afraid the track was going to be greasy right after rain in the middle of the program halted proceedings for about an hour but he was able to get the car do work the way he wanted it.
Fedyk led for about 22 1/2 of the 25 laps in the feature race until Dusty Lawson from Minot, N.D. was able to find a low line and zip past Fedyk, who couldn’t recover.
“It’s disappointing because I set a torrid pace at the start of that feature,” Fedyk said. “I said I was going to slow down a bit and just go to a moderate pace to save my stuff and if anyone challenges me, I’ll go hammer down again. Dusty caught me and passed me so fast, it was what it was.
“I’m super excited for Dusty He’s a good friend of mine and it’s his first career feature win. It was a great race for the fans. A lot of them were wondering what just happened.”
Overall he said it was a great night with a great crowd, he said.
Fedyk’s season in the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series circuit in North Dakota hasn’t gone as planned.
“This weekend would have been my sixth scheduled weekend due to racing and I’ve missed three weekends due to work and then one weekend we did go racing and we had mechanical failure in the heat race and I couldn’t get it fixed for the feature,” Fedyk said. “And we had one rainout. (Friday) night was my first full night of racing for the season. It’s kind of baffling that it’s nearly the end of June and it’s my first full night of racing,”
Last year, Fedyk won the feature sprint car race at EMS, the first ever Saskatchewan winner to claim a sprint car race here. Still, finishing in second is good but not quite what drivers come to the track to accomplish.
“What happened there in the feature was just the driver doing what race car drivers shouldn’t do,” Fedyk said. “You slow down, you get passed.”
The circuit is off for a couple of weeks and then they’re back at it in a week at Devil’s Lake, N.D.
