In the final feature race of the night, the Pro Truck event, Brennan Kirton captured the classes first feature win, after leading the pack for roughly half of the race.
To celebrate he peeled up towards the fence in front of the stands, hopping atop his truck to wave to the sparse crowd at Wyant Group Raceway.
“It would be nice to have a big crowd,” Kirton said, “because every time there’s a big crowd you just get amped up more.”
Although the celebration may have been more fun for the pro truck driver, in front of the 3,000 plus that WGR normally hosts, he was just happy to get back on the racetrack.
“This summer has been the longest I’ve had off since I start racing, and it’s just good to get back, you know,” he said. “This is what I live to do right now.”
Kirton wasn’t the only driver excited to take a checkered flag in the first feature events of the year.
“It means a lot to me,” mini stock driver Lachlyn Anderson said. “I love coming out here showing what I can do, and just winning.”
Her younger stepsister was equally happy to be back. Like Lachlyn, Jaydon was also victorious Saturday, taking the checkered flag in the Bandelero race.
“I’m back in my second home,” Bandelero winner Jaydon Ewen said. “It just like, it feels awesome.”
The street stock winner, Bryan Johnson, has waited far longer than any of his fellow competitors to return behind the wheel. Saturday was Johnson’s first race in nearly a decade.
“After doing it for nearly three decades I was tired,” Johnson said. “But, I told everybody, I’m tired, not retired. It took me a long time to come back.”
The return to competitive racing during a pandemic was a truly unique experience for him, however, he did manage to find a silver lining to the mostly empty stands.
“It’s definitely different, with a spattering of spectators,” he said.
“But, as one of my crew guys pointed out to me, I got to win in front of a sold-out crowd,” he chuckled.