Crowd of 1,000 enjoys championship night at fairgrounds
A crowd estimated at approximately 1,000 people enjoyed a night of championship Figure 8 racing in Aurora Saturday, celebrating the return of an event that started here more than 30 years ago.
The NeFigure8n Racing Association invited its field of championship qualifiers to the Hamilton County Fairgrounds, where 41 entries competed. By the end of the evening, checkered flags flew in three different categories — Open Class, Stock and Compacts — though Jamie Bergmark said he felt like the Hamilton County fairgrounds were filled with winners on Saturday night.
“We did this for all you guys,” Bergmark said during brief remarks to the crowd just before the feature finals began. “Thank you everybody for coming out. You brought Aurora back, so give yourselves a round of applause. We talked to the Ag Society and said we’ll bring the people and we’ll bring the show. You guys didn’t disappoint and we really appreciate that.”
Bergmark, who serves as vice president of the NeFiture8n Racing Association, shared earlier this month that the Figure 8 style of racing has roots in Hamilton County dating back 32 years, thus he and others pushed to have this year’s championship night back in Aurora.
“I just want to thank everybody that came and participated in all the races, and also the Hamilton County Ag Society for helping us, as well as all our sponsors,” he said. “We couldn’t do this without everybody showing up and everybody putting in volunteer work, prepping the track and all those things. From the sounds of it, we’ll be back next year.”
Winners in the three classes were as follows:
Open Class — Chris Schweitzer (65) first; Brandon Bussman (8B) second; Talan Schaefer (TC3) third;
Stock Class — Levi Zimmer (28z) first; Lane Zimmer (27z) second; Matthew Shockey (18s) third;
Compact Class — Michael Hays (78H) first; Nick Roberts (102) second; Logan Peterson (17P) third.