Four-time former World Champion Blaine Stephenson opened the USSA ProStar Cup Tour season on top, claiming the top stop in the Pro Champ final on a high-speed flat oval in Beausejour, Manitoba on Saturday, December 14.
Meanwhile, Stephenson’s teammate, Tom Olson, narrowly claimed victory in the Formula III division on Saturday after holding off a late challenge from Joey Burch, in the first of a two-day season opening weekend of oval racing. We’ll cover Saturday’s action below – look for a separate story on Sunday’s exciting action here.
Oval Racing Season Opener
With near perfect ice making conditions leading up to the opening ice oval race of the season in Beausejour, Manitoba, more than 118 drivers registered for the contest. With 55 races slated for each day, and each race averaging 6-plus entrants, fans were treated to an outstanding two days of ice oval racing.
In the 440 Pro Champ class, 22 drivers entered Saturday morning with renewed expectations and very high hopes. The World Championship F-III class saw 14 drivers registered; eight of those doubled up in the 440 Pro Champ class. Twenty one drivers entered the popular F-500 class, no doubt fueled by the newly announced Richard and Audrey Decker Triple Crown series.
With the CPTC venue offering the Pro-Lite class, much attention was gathered around the three entrants for the Pro-Lite race: No. 30 Jazalyn Rathke, No. 53 Alyssa Gusta and No. 113 Kendra Westlund. With two women already entered in the 440 Pro Champ class (No. 79 Sabrina Blanchet and No. 92 Haven Bouveret te) this race brings the total number of competitive women driving the Pro Champ style sleds to an unprecedented level.
After three hours of practice on Friday and 90 minutes of practice on Saturday morning, the first heat of the race weekend hit the starting line shortly after 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Oval Racing ProStar Cup Tour
Round one of the 2024-25 USSA ProStar Cup Tour kicked off with three heats in three rounds of qualifying; each round with its own drama. Individual on-track incidents with Brett Kielbeck and Calvin Cook saw the track workers rebuilding sections of hay bales. Although done for the Saturday race events, both drivers were seen out-and-about by the time the racing program ended.
In addition, a post race disqualification for Matt Goede for being under the minimum weight for the class and a DQ for Justin Peterson due to a damaged snow flap continually jumbled the heat race results.
With all of the heat race carnage, the Pro Champ last chance qualifier (LCQ) was loaded with favorites, including Matt Goede, Justin Peterson and Tom Olson, all who moved on to the final.
After a long day of racing, the season’s first 15-lap ProStar Cup Tour final hit the broad CPTC track, but not without its own share of drama. Local favorite and No. 2 seed Travis MacDonald withdrew due to illness. Shortly after, reigning World Champion and fan favorite Matt Goede withdrew due to a mechanical issue. This moved the No. 39 of Tom Olson to the front row and added No. 31 Will Garceau to the back row for the final.
With what race control defined as a perfect start to the final, the No. 6 of Gavin Peterson took the early lead, leaving favorites like Gunnar Sterne and Blaine Stephenson uncharacteristically in the pack.
Within the opening five laps, the traditional favorites began moving forward and mechanical gremlins began appearing in the field. Early leader Gavin Peterson, favorite Justin Peterson, Fred Manke and local driver Tyler Obie all fell by the wayside.
Once Blaine Stephenson cleared a bit of traffic, he and his No. 102 Wahl Brother Polaris paced the field to his first victory of the season. Stephenson was followed by the Ski-Doo-powered mods of Sterne, Calvin Peterson and Danick Lambert, then Stephenson’s teammate Olson. Will Garceau, and Felipe Roy-Lalonde rounded out the field as the only remaining sleds running in the 15-lap non stop final.
Olson Aces Formula III Oval Final
The F-III final on Saturday saw a mix of sprint drivers and enduro drivers taking their best shot at the big half mile. Like the Pro Champ class, the heat races contained the fair share of mechanical and driving incidents. Tom Olson on the No. 39 Wahl Brothers Polaris picked up where he left off last season, running consistent heats and winning the final.
Blaine Stephenson got out to an early lead in the final but took the No. 102 Polaris hard into hay bales that lined the outside of turn four. He was able to restart at the back of the field but never contended for the win.
That said, the Formula III final turned into one of the closest races of the day, as the No. 29 of Michigan’s Joey Burch pushed Olson until the very end. The balance of the field was a mix of drivers from both disciplines. Following Olson and Burch to the finish line were Dustin Schwandt, Gunnar Sterne, Dakota Harris, Blaine Stephenson, Tavish Perry and Gavin Peterson. Reed Klinger was a DNF and Matt Goede was DNS.
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Will ovals fantasy racing begin for 2025É Sure hope so!
Sadly, the outside app we used for the fantasy snocross and oval games is unsupported/was more-or-less abandoned by its founder a couple of years ago, and it has since become targets by spam and viruses, so our IT department no longer deems it same. So no, no games this year.
I watched almost the whole weekend’s racing action on their streaming. I can’t believe how many hours I spent doing that. My wife might have questioned my sanity. But it was worth it.
I am a big oval racing fan but never have made it to Beausejour. That should change someday. Seemed to me they really run a great program. The racing action is excellent with a great track, and it seems like good lighting. The track maintenance crew was excellent clearing out mishaps very quickly. Down time was limited. Seems like they are drawing an excellent group of racers. I sure enjoyed it.