Valentines Day was good for “the Edge”, Charlie Venegas as he took his 2nd win of the weekend in Springfield, MA as he once again took a maximum 16 points.

In Heat 1 Venegas showed a lot of determination from the un-fancied gate 3 as he won from “Demolition Man” James Mann & the “British Bulldog” Anthony Barlow. Young Brit Ben Hopwood was out of touch in Heat 2 as “Krazy” Kelly Kerrigan won from Paul Cooper, Hopwood and “Rookie” Deanna Holden making her first ever appearance on an
Ice Speedway track.

Heat 3 was subject to a number of re-starts as both Casey Donholt and Ben Warburton were penalized by Referee Reeve and put on the 15-yard handicap line for the 3rd re-start when Eddie Martinez was disqualified for causing Meldrum to crash for which the result was awarded.

In the first heat of the 2nd round of qualifying heats, Venegas followed up his heat 1 win with an easy win over Cooper and Meldrum to secure a place in the Main Final. In heat 5 Barlow was passed on the 3rd lap in fine style by the young Brit, Ben Hopwood while Martinez picked up a solitary point for a 3rd place finish. Finally Kelly Kerrigan took a win in the last qualifying Heat and as a result also booked his place in the Main Final alongside Venegas and Meldrum.

Barlow grabbed “pole” for the start of the Last Chance Final and held onto a 2nd place to Paul Cooper and with Mann finishing in 3rd place after coming through from the back row, the line-up for the Main Final was complete.

It was a night for re-run heats as the Main Final was also re-started twice and both Cooper and Barlow found themselves starting on the 30 yard handicap line. “The Edge” Venegas made the most of his start from the front row of the Grid as he beat Kerrigan away from the Tapes and stayed in front for the 6 laps to take another Main Final win.

Heat 2 saw the “British Bulldog” Barlow line up against another couple of Locals, Eric Poirier and Matt Sears who both looked the part the previous evening and fellow speedway division Rider, “Demolition Man” James Mann. The result was a win for Barlow, a 2nd for Poirier and a 3rd for Sears.

Eric Kreis, 2nd in Friday’s Main took an easy win in Heat 3 from Scotland’s David Meldrum and Charlie Moberg, with Johnny Kerr struggling to get to grip with the ice.

Wins in the second group of qualifying Heats for Siegel, Hall and Kreis sealed Main Final front row places for all 3 heat winners, although Hall only got his place after a ballot as he and Barlow who could only manage a 3rd place and 1 point in his second heat had tied on equal points. This meant a place on the front row in the Last Chance Final for Barlow.

Eric Poirier, Alan Gagne and Meldrum all got their second 2nd places of the night and after a ballot of all 3 Riders it was the locals Poirier and Gagne who joined Barlow on the front row in the Last Chance, while Meldrum had to settle for a back row position
alongside 2 other locals, Matt Sears and Charlie Moberg.

In the Last Chance it was the 3 front row Starters that made the cut for the Main as Alan Gagne took 1st place ahead of Barlow and Poirier.

The Main was stopped after 4 laps been completed due to an incident involving Alan Gagne, but because the race had run 66% and the ice was becoming thin, the Referee announced the result would stand with the demotion of Gagne to last place. This meant
a second win of the weekend for “Hippy” Siegel and another 2nd place for local Rider Eric Kreis who just wished he could have passed Siegel on one night at least in order to claim the SuperTrapp “Dash for Cash” money.