BSPRA 2007 Season Opener

by Carrie Benson 

            Big Sky Pro Racing Association (BSPRA) held their first race of the season, Saturday May 19 at Mission Valley Speedway. Eight Rocky Mountain Pro Stocks raced their way through two trophy dashes, a heat and main event. 2006 champion, #43 Jarred Burland, started the season right winning the main. Dan Krahn #33 ran hard the whole night and came out of the season opener with the points lead by one point over Jarred.

            Rocky Mountain Pro-stocks, as a traveling class, were the featured races of the night. Dash A started the action as #7 Tracy Burland took the lead on lap one and attempted to hold off his son Jarred, who started a row behind him. It looked like Tracy was going to get the win until the end of the last lap, when Jarred got the inside grove and was able to pass and take home the trophy. Josh Burland #6 kept up the family domination as he got the lead in Dash B and held off  Krahn for the win. Josh got a jump on the green to get around #40 Duane Olsen and kept his lead for the entire 6 lap race.

            All eight pro-stocks lined up for the heat race, with the faster cars starting in the back, and having to work their way through traffic in hopes of taking the checkered flag. Chuck Swope returned to racing, driving the #00 pro-stock, but encountered problems in the heat race when the car started smoking and he received a black flag for mechanical problems. Swope went into the pits and his pit crew attempted to fix an oil leak, but he was unable to return to the race. The next mechanical black flag came a couple laps later to #3 Brad Lee who was also starting to smoke. Upon inspection in the pits, Lee found a broken lifter, which would have caused more problems had he been allowed to continue racing. Olsen had been loosing places and had to go to the pits when his power steering hose started leaking. Wade Shepard #4, Krahn, Jarred and Josh Burland had been working their way up from starting in the back, and were left to fight for the lead. With 4 laps to go, T.Burland had to join the others that had gone to the pits when a rocker bolt broke. As Tracy left the track, Krahn was able to get around Shepard and lead the last four laps.

            During intermission, the mission valley crowd was entertained by Pokey the Clown, Rob Johnston of Hot Springs, and Susie his ATV with an attitude. After lots of activity in the pits during the other classes’ races, all eight cars were able to come back and start the main event. Lynn Olsen was announcing for BSPRA and was able to go down on the track and talk with the drivers before the main started. Shepard said that he felt like he was running well, but that a flat tire toward the end of the heat allowed Krahn to get around him. When asked about returning to racing, Swope stated that it was “A whole lot better than I remembered”.

            Some troubles returned at the start of the main, when Tracy Burland wasn’t keeping up with the field and left the track after a couple laps as he had another rocker bolt break. Olsen also ended up leaving after 4 laps with his power steering hose leaking again. Shepard spun on lap 4 causing a yellow flag. Shepard pulled into the pits to have his crew look at the car, but got back on the track as the race was restarted. Coming out of turn one into two, Shepard’s steering locked up and he was unable to make the turn and hit the dirt hard. The red flag was thrown so that Shepard could get towed to the pits and the track could be cleaned up.

            On the restart, Lee was in the lead followed closely by Jarred Burland and Dan Krahn. Lee then started smoking and leaking on the track and received a black flag to go into the pits. Swope went around a couple of extra times, as he had a couple of spins in coming out of the turns. Jarred was able to capture the lead on lap 8 and although Krahn was right on his bumper for a few laps, Burland kept the lead and took the last checkered flag of the night.

            BSPRA will next participate in and promote the first annual Limited Late Model Series race, which will be held at Mission Valley Speedway June 16^th. Entry deadline for the Series race is May 31^st.  Additional information on this and other of BSPRA’s races can be found at www.bigskyracing.net.