Old-timer is still hungry for a win at the speedway
THERE'S a $500 bounty on Lou Kennedy's head in tonight's fourth annual NAPA Mid-Canada Sprint Car Challenge out at Red River Co-Op Speedway, but history shows the odds are he'll win it himself.
From left, veteran driver Lou Kennedy with sons Louie, Sean and Thomas. Sean and Thomas are up-and-coming racers in their own right and will face off against their father on the track tonight, but Lou says he’ll give no breaks to the boys.
"It's the track I started racing at, it's our home track, so we spend a lot of extra time and effort preparing ourselves for it," said Kennedy, 45, who has won the event each of the three years it's been run.
"When you get a little more pumped up for something -- I've been doing this for 27 years -- hopefully I'll be able to win a fourth in a row."
And even if he doesn't win it, chances aren't bad that another Kennedy might. His oldest son, Thomas, 18, has been on the outlaw sprint circuit for a full year and Sean Kennedy, 15, will be in his first sprint car race tonight.
Kennedy calls himself the oldest guy on the tour and says that experience on the track -- and prepping his cars well every week -- is what makes a winner in a sport that features high-powered cars going 130 m.p.h.
"It's an old clich © but in racing, you've first got to finish to try and finish first. And I've been doing this long enough to know you don't have to be fast at the beginning, you've just got to be fast at the end and have a little bit more patience."
Jared Funk
The two siblings have been racing each other for 10 years in go-carts. But if push comes to shove tonight, and the sons are threatening him in close quarters, Kennedy won't pull over to let either pass.
"If it came down to it, the old man still wants to win. Plain and simple, I'm coming to the end of my career so there aren't a whole lot of victories left because I'm not going to drive for more than another couple of years and they're just starting.
"But if one of the boys wins, I'll be more proud of them than I would be if I won it."
Track promoter Derek Pollock says 24 drivers from the U.S. Midwest and the Prairies are expected for the speedway's biggest event of the year, worth $3,650 in cash and prizes to the winner.
Wheelchair rugby's Team Canada expects Beijing gold
JARED FUNK and Team Canada's wheelchair rugby team finished third at the recent Canada Cup in Burnaby, B.C., but the Niverville native says bronze isn't what he expects to win at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing."We're going to win (gold)," he told the Free Press. "Our team is amazing. The strongest team in the world since 1995 is the United States, and we're the only team in the world to beat them."
Josh Voth
Canada defeated the U.S. 32-31 to win the North American Cup two weeks ago in Birmingham, Ala., and in the semifinals in the last Paralympics in Athens, where Canada won silver.
Canada lost 41-35 to the U.S. in Burnaby and 29-28 to New Zealand but defeated Japan 36-35, China 63-28 and Great Britain 32-30. The Paralympics will follow Beijing's Olympic Games and run Sept. 6-16.
Funk says the game, which is played on a basketball court, has no tackling. But "there's full-chair contact as hard as you want. That means you hit the ground a lot, sometimes hard and sometimes soft. It's just like rugby but add metal.
"It's a game which was invented in Winnipeg in 1977 and is now one of the fastest-growing wheelchair sports in the world. It became an official Paralympic sport in 2000."
-- Al Besson
Girls golden, boys silver in Prairie hoops showdown
TWO Manitoba girls' teams won finals and a pair of Manitoba boys' squads had to settle for second place as the province's six age-group teams finished 19-9 overall at the University of Saskatchewan's Prairie Dog Basketball Classic.
The under-17 juvenile girls lost their first game but won their next four, defeating Edmonton 57-46 in the final while the U-17 midget girls' squad went through the tournament 5-0, beating Saskatchewan's under-15 team 71-59 in the final.
On the boys' side, the U-17 juvenile boys lost 100-77 to the U of S while Manitoba's U-15 midget boys lost 68-65 to host Saskatchewan.
All six provincial teams will now attend the ESPN Jimmy V Classic in Wisconsin Dells, Wisc., July 18-20 to prepare for the national championships in Kamloops Aug. 5-9 (U-15s) and Prince Edward Island Aug. 19-23 (U-17s).
It's summer curling time for star-studded rink
MANITOBA curling's Big Three -- Jeff Stoughton, Kerry Burtnyk and Vic Peters -- will be together on the same team for one game as part of the inaugural Monsanto Sliding in Summer Bonspiel in Warren, Aug. 19-24.
Organizers say it's the first time all three have curled together. Burtnyk is the defending Manitoba title-holder and 1995 world champion; Stoughton won the worlds in 1996 and Peters won the 1992 Brier.
The trio will play a "demonstration challenge game" Aug. 21 against Manitoba wheelchair champion Chris Sobkowicz and his team, which won a bronze medal at the 2008 Canadian Wheelchair Championship. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Warren Arena.
Burtnyk, Stoughton and Peters will curl behind a celebrity skip or skips whose identities are being withheld until later. Part of the proceeds raised from the game will go to help support development of wheelchair curling in Manitoba.
The bonspiel will feature both a competitive and a recreational division. For more information, visit the bonspiel website at www.warrencurlingclub.ca.
Football squads fall out of contention at Canada Cup
BOTH of Manitoba's teams at the Football Canada Cup find themselves out of contention for the Under-17 and Under-19 national championships after big losses at the event in Sherbrooke, Que.
The U-17 team was crushed 40-7 Tuesday night in a semifinal game, with only Matthew Mondor's 15-yard touchdown pass reception from quarterback Nicolas Demski to show on the scoreboard.
Players of the game for Manitoba were receiver Kurt Goodrich on offence and defensive back Matthew Schwartz on the other side of the ball. The squad plays its final game Friday against Western Ontario.
The U-19 team was blitzed by Saskatchewan in its first game and is also out of contention for the final.
Altona standout Voth sweeps MJBL awards
JOSH VOTH had himself quite a week with the Altona Bisons of the Manitoba Junior Baseball League.
So much so, the Wayne State College southpaw has won the Home Run Sports pitcher of the week and player of the week honours.
Voth pitched a perfect game against the Interlake Blue Jays, facing the minimum 15 batters while striking out eight in the five-inning game.
And Altona maintained its half-game lead atop the standings over Elmwood, thanks largely to the timely hitting of Voth. In the Bisons' three games, Voth scored five runs, drove in seven runs and was six for 10 at the plate.
Group of 'Tobans heading to major U.S. track meet
ELEVEN Manitobans will represent the province at the 2008 Hershey North American Track and Field Championships in Hershey, Pa., July 31-Aug. 3.
They include Kevin Takatch of Winnipeg in the 11-12-year boys' 400 metres along with Larissa Cerasani, Montana Kinzel, Kennedy Woitas and Janine Zajack, all of Winnipeg, in the 11-12 girls' 4x100 relay.
Sasanie Wanigasekara, Amy Gracefoo and Courtney Zajac, all of Winnipeg, join Amy Andrushko of Dugald in the 13-14 girls' 4x100 relay.
Also competing in Hershey are Megan Naduzak of Morden in the 9-10 girls' 50 metres and Kyia Pingue-Giles of Winnipeg in the 9-10 girls' 100 metres.
chris.cariou@freepress.mb.ca
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