For the second time this season at the Merritt Speedway, a Logan Lake driver has won the very first stock car race he has ever entered.
This past weekend, it was Terry Mockford who turned the trick, taking first place in the Bomber four-cylinder five-lap B trophy dash.
Mockford’s win was all the more impressive given that he had never been in a stock car before and had never even visited the Merritt Speedway in the past.
“I knew nothing,” the 49-year-old Mockford conceded with a big smile. “If it hadn’t been for Sean Dandy, my car would never have been built, and I wouldn’t even be here.”
Dandy is also from Logan Lake. He and Mockford work together as millwrights at Highland Valley. It was Dandy who also won his very first race at the Speedway back in the spring.
“Sean said to a few people at work that he’d be willing to help anybody build a car so that they could come out and race. I was the first guy to bite on it.”
Mockford purchased a 1998 Honda Civic that had been in an accident and deemed not-streetworthy.
“We found it on Kijiji,” he said. “Sean and I looked at it and figured it was repairable. The engine was sound.”
What ensued was a frantic week of reconstruction to get the car ready for this past weekend’s racing. A new door had to be attached and the insides had to be practically stripped down to bare metal. A rollbar, racing seat and five-point harness had to be installed, and a keyless ignition and continuous-fan switch put in place.
“I have to thank Sean (a licensed auto mechanic) and his father-in-law, Bill Kerr, for all their help in getting the car ready,” Mockford said. “And we sure couldn’t have done it without the blessing of our wives,” he added wisely.
Mockford said his first race on Saturday was a thrill, despite a slick, just-watered track and a mid-run yellow caution flag.
“It was slippery, and when the flag came out, I didn’t know what was going on.
“I was in first place and thought that we just slowed down, stayed in the same order and kind of waited for things to clear up,” Mockford said. “But that’s not the case with a five-lap race. You do the whole thing over again. So after starting third and passing everyone once, I had to do it all over again.”
Asked if a win in his first-ever race sealed the deal on a stock-car-racing future, Mockford said, “The moment I got in the car and on the track, I was hooked.”
Both Dandy and Mockford are so taken by the sport that the former has bought a car so that his wife can compete next year, while the latter would like nothing better than to see his 19-year-old son, Shawn, become involved.
The similarities in the paths taken by the two Logan Lakers is almost eerie. Following their respective wins in their first-ever races, both added a pair of fourth-place finishes in the 10-lap heat and 30-lap main events on the same day.
In the main on Saturday, Dandy and Mockford were actually running one-two for a good part of the race before Lytton’s Lloyd Morris broke to the front and won going away. With five laps to go, Tim Fowler from Pinantan Lake also squeezed by Mockford to knock him off the podium.
“I was just concentrating on not hitting anybody, not getting hit, or hitting the wall,” Mockford said with a laugh.
Completing a Logan Lake triad was veteran racer Lloyd Hill, formerly of Lloyd’s Towing. Back behind the wheel after several year’s away, Hill won two of three races in the Street class Saturday. Other two-time winners were Morris in the four-cylinder class and Merritt’s Brad Gillis in the six and eight-cylinder Bomber class.
Dale Calder from Kamloops, Merritt’s Jake Mills and Prince George’s Grant Powers divied up the hobby class honours.
Saturday night’s racing program included some exhibition laps by Merritt’s Al Goldie in his 2015 triple midget car, which he races in Washington State.
The next racing night at the Merritt Speedway is on Sept. 19.
