Driven On Dreams Racing

Photo: Lorraine Hjalte, Calgary Herald / Greg Vangoll (77) passes Dan Foraie in the qualifying round at the Mac's/FedEx Kinko's Border Challenge 150 at Race City Saturday

"Largest field in history lines grid; Western Canadian oval-track race records obliterated"

Driven on Dreams was there and it was something to be part it. It is rare that your efforts can be recorded as part of an historical event. I am proud of the team and of our efforts that day.

 Our car was pictured in the Calgary Herald after the historical event.

Read the full Calgary Herald article here. 

Article By Todd Kimberley. (c) Calgary Herald. Calgary, Alta.: Jul 16, 2007. pg. D.6

Craig Ball concluded his Saturday night hanging upside down.

Appropriate enough, since his Newalta Late Model Challenge Series also managed to turn Western Canadian stock car history on its ear.

Ball smacked the backstretch wall at Race City Speedway, his No. 54 Mac's Convenience Stores Pontiac Grand Prix coming to rest on its roof on lap No. 108 of the the Mac's/FedEx Kinko's Border Challenge 150.

"I've ended up with cars on top of me, but I've never (been) upside down before on the race track," said Ball on Sunday afternoon with a laugh.

"The guys in the pits were teasing me, saying I was trying to grab the headlines -- as if the show itself wasn't enough."

As if.

Saturday's show attracted 43 cars from Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan -- the largest field in history for a Western Canadian oval-track race.

By contrast, the NASCAR Canadian Tire series made one of its two Western Canadian stops at Vernon, B.C., over the weekend, with a field of 24.

"I didn't know 43 was even possible," said Ball, the second-year president of the NLMCS, which was known for eight years as the Western Racing League, a hard-charging regional rival of the now- defunct CASCAR Western Series.

"It was a big day. I was leaning on my car early in the evening, and I looked down pit lane, and we had totally consumed it, on both sides.

"There were twenty-some cars already gridded, with a whole lot more in the pits -- and that's when it really sunk in to me, how big the show was."

Craig Skelton, in a new No. 6 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, took the lead from fellow Calgarian Gary Lister on the second lap and held off all comers the rest of the way.

Leduc's Trevor Emond was fast qualifier Saturday. But a heat- race penalty forced the driver of the No. 17 Glentel Grand Prix to start at the back of the 'B' main, which graduated seven teams to the 31-car 'A' main.

Emond, who'd won the last NLMCS event at Sun Valley Speedway in Vernon, made his way up to second place without any front body work, thanks to that heat-race wreck, but blew up two laps from the end.

Locals Gary Lister, in the No. 55 Big Daddy Bobcat Chevrolet Monte Carlo, and Barry Bischoff, in the No. 69 A1 Auto Body Grand Prix, had strong runs, but were both forced to pit and finished laps down.

Saskatoon's Trent Seidel finished second. Former WRL president Bill Royce, of Sherwood Park, was third.

As for Ball's brethren, well, the popularity of the NLMCS has caught fire with such astonishing speed that it's taken his breath away.

"It's a little bit overwhelming, actually, how much and how fast it's grown," he said. "I figured we'd be able to make it successful, but I've surpassed even the most ambitious goals I set. The time frame it's taken . . . just staggering.

"We started last year with 11 cars, and ended with 26. We've had no less than 34 at any of our races this year, and the first Calgary race turns up 43.

"When you work that hard to build it, when you can see the fruit of your efforts, it really makes it worth while. To know that many guys are behind what you're doing -- pretty cool."

The NLMCS returns to Race City on Sept. 15 for the seventh of eight rounds on the 2007 calendar.

For more information on the series, visit www.justturnleft.ca

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