The most serious drivers about their craft at the Estevan Motor Speedway this season may have been the young racers in the slingshot division.
Before the heat races got started and during the intermission preceding the features, a group of local kids had been wowing the race night crowds with their skills on a small oval track in the middle of the speedway. The vehicle of choice for these kids is the slingshots, which are a child-sized version of a modified race car.
Dexter Saxon, a 10-year-old Grade 6 student at Lampman School, said this was his first season racing at the speedway and he has to thank his father’s friend Travis Hutt for getting him into the sport. He said Hutt bought him the #12 car, which he has raced seven times this season.
Keenan Glasser, a nine-year-old Grade 4 student at Pleasantdale Elementary School, has kept Dexter company on the track this summer matching up against his friend in each of the slingshot races. He said his grandfather Chris Scholpp bought him the #22 car, which he has been racing for the past two years.
Keenan said he got his start in the sport at the Jamestown Speedway and the Devil’s Lake Speedway in North Dakota last summer. He said over the course of the two seasons he has managed to earn about six first-place finishes.
“I think it’s fun,” said Keenan, noting the only time he gets nervous on the track is when Dexter or fellow Estevan Motor Speedway slingshot racers Avery Ellis and Jesse Gibson are pressuring him for the lead.
Both Keenan and Dexter said the slingshots are just the first step in their racing career. They said as they get older they’ll be using the knowledge they’ve gained on the track over these formative seasons to garner future wins in modifieds, sprint cars and late models divisions.
