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 Year-In-Review: Sojourn Signs Bandolero Division By Tim Terry (January 2010) - Since the calendar has turned to 2010, it is finally time to close the chapter that was the 2009 racing season at Scotia Speedworld. We had many great races and close showdowns throughout the season that made '09 a memorable one. We will go through and recap each of the divisions as they went down starting with the Sojourn Signs Bandoleros. With the age bracket of the Bandolero drivers being 8-16 years old we knew that we would have some drivers moving up at the end of the season, making the '09 campaign special for some of the drivers. Lower Sackville's Brad Eddy already had a good start to the season by being crowned the '08 National Bandolero Champion for his age division in January. Eddy traveled to Charlotte, NC after the Scotia Speedworld Banquet last January to accept the award and to do some road course racing at the Lowe's Motor Speedway. Coming into this season though, Eddy was missing one thing – a Scotia Speedworld Track Championship in the Bandolero division. Since the divisions inception in 2006 there has been a different champion each season. Prospect Road's D.J. Casey took the inaugural title in '06 with Fall River's Shelby Baker wheeling his #01 Croyden Wood Fisheries Bandolero to the crown in '07. 2008 saw a tight point battle with six drivers within eighty-nine points of eventual champion Dylan Blenkhorn of Truro. All three of Scotia Speedworld's former champs returned to the grid at the start of 2009 in an attempt to become the first two-time Bandolero track champ! The season would start on Sunday, May 31st for the Bandoleros and it was the Sojourn Signs sponsored entry taking the win as Brad Eddy positioned his #1 car in the #1 spot following the fifteen lap feature. Eddy wasn't the only driver keeping his racing skill sharp down south during the winter as Ryan Mackintosh (Amherst) spent some of the colder months behind the wheel of his #24 Scotia Hyundai Bandolero. Mackintosh would finish second on the seasons opening day with “Miss Rawdon Rocket” Emily Meehan posting a third place finish. “The champs” finished 4th through 6th with Baker, Blenkhorn and Casey filling those spots. Eddy would have his hands full on June 19th as DJ Casey looked to double down on the first Friday night of '09 but the #1 would get the best of the #8 Never Greener Bandolero as he passed Casey with three-laps to go to take his second consecutive main feature victory. This battle would be the main storyline in the fight for the '09 championship as the title would come down to these two drivers on Finale Friday. Eddy and Casey would each pocket five main feature wins during the season with the #8 adding five heat wins to go along with the feature triumphs. Mackintosh put his #24 in Victory Lane at Scotia Speedworld in the other two main features to go along with victories down south at Waterford Speedbowl (CT) and Orange County Speedway (NC) in '09. Even though they recorded heat wins during the season, former champs Blenkhorn and Baker were left out of the feature win column in 2009 in one of the other big storylines. Going into the final race of the season, Eddy had a mere seven point advantage on Casey. With each finishing position in the heat races being separated by one point and feature positions being worth two points more than the next, any slip up by Eddy could prove fatal in the hunt for his first track championship. The Lower Sackville driver had said many times over the season that he was not thinking points, a strategy that not only saw him take seven checkered flags this season but had him atop the standings on Finale Friday. Even with DJ Casey ending the season with a heat and feature win, Eddy kept the #8 in his sights all night, finishing runner up in both races to lock down the 2009 Scotia Speedworld Track Championship by four points! Casey, who took home a season high ten wins (sharing the honor with Kyle Gammon of the Miller Tire Thunder division) finished second in the year end standings. Dylan Blenkhorn and Shelby Baker put on a great battle for the third position in the points with the #14 Blenkhorn Auto Recycler's Bandolero edging out the orange #01 by sixteen points. The fifth place point position was also a hotly contested one as Brad Bevan had a solid run to the end of the '09 season but had to settle for sixth in his #43 Tom's Family Restaurant Bandolero behind the #15 Meehan's Garage and Trucking Ltd. Bandolero driven by Emily Meehan. Three of our Bandolero drivers also took the opportunity to go Legends racing this season. Brad Eddy, DJ Casey and Shelby Baker got the opportunity to wheel the cars at different tracks throughout the Maritimes along with running the full Bandolero schedule at Scotia Speedworld which kept the youngsters busy last summer! What will next season have in store? Will we have our first two-time track champion or will we have a fifth consecutive different champion in the Bandolero class? Find out in May when the green silk flies once again at Scotia Speedworld! - Tim Terry, TimTerryOnline.com About Scotia Speedworld Scotia Speedworld is a 3/10-mile asphalt oval stock car racing track featuring the Lockhart Truck Center Weekly Racing Series for six divisions and several special events during the race season, which runs from May to September. Scotia Speedworld is located at Exit 6 on Highway 102, across from the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. For more information please click on ScotiaSpeedworld.ca or call our Event Hotline at (902) 873-2277 or our office at (902) 481-2514. SOJOURN SIGNS BANDOLERO STATISTICS - 2009
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