Local racer cruises to victory

Reid finished second in the final race to Graham Tweedie of Gander, but finish first in the points total to win the series.

Even with two other titles to his name, this one because 2010 has been a long road for him on the track and he knew how close he was to a top finish.

 “This one means more because it was a difficult year,” said Reid. “It wasn’t an easy year. I was counting the points. I knew where I had to finish and where other people had to finish and it all worked it out.”

It also worked out for Thunder Valley Speedway owner Bob Hutchings, who made upgrades to the track which included additional lights and adding more pavement, on route to their best year to date.

“It’s been a great year. Fan participation is way up, car count up competition is up. It’s up all the way around - it was just a great year overall,” he said. “Tonight the competition showed. It was unbelievable. There were one to three points in between classes to score right to the end you didn’t know until the last leap who was going to win it, but it worked out fine in the end.”  

“This one means more because it was a difficult year.” - Corey Reid

It is Hutchings’ fourth year in business with the track that has been a labour of love – literally. Bob and his wife worked daily throughout the off season extending the track, paving by hand. But for Hutchings, it has been worth it.

“It grew in leaps and bounds the last two years. We’ve been up and down and it takes four or five years (to develop) like any business - especially a business like this that is a spectator sport,” he said. “We started off four years ago with five cars and I think it was five cars in the four cylinder class and right now we are 16 sports cars on this circuit and there are 23 four-cylinder cars.”

Hutchings said this year has topped the rest and said that Thunder Valley - the only paved race track in the province – is a true success story.