BUDDIES BLOGS
Border Patrol – A weekly Look At Racing from both sides of the 1000 Islands
Craig Revelle – August 23, 2009
As
the summer draws one week closer to its end, all of the top racers in all
classes at the local tracks are very aware of the point battles as the regular
track points end on Labor Day Weekend. Both
tracks continue to have exuberant points battles in some of their top classes.
The Sportsman class alone at both Can-Am and Brockville has tight points
races, with the top two competitors separated by just a few points.
Friday night at Can Am, the
popular Big Block Modified Super DIRTcar Series highlighted the evening’s
schedule, and was topped off nicely with a SUNY Canton Series event for both the
Sportsman and Street Stocks. The
new Crate Late Model class also complemented the evening’s program.
The track was in fantastic shape once again as the Can Am track is
quickly regaining its luster that it once had.
After qualifying in all
classes, the features began, with the SUNY Canton Street Stocks up first.
Fulton, New York racer Russ Marsden made a late race pass on Ron Wadforth
to pick up the big SUNY Canton series win, and $1000 pay day.
Wadforth finished second, Kenny Hamm, Mike Schultz and Tiger Chapman
rounded out the top 5.
The Modified feature was a
fantastic race, with the exception of a first lap red flag, and a last lap
caution, 75 green flag laps were ran with only one other caution slowing the
field. The DIRTcar Super DIRTcar
series hosts some of the best drivers in the northeast and they showed it on
Friday night. The race started off
with a major crash on the initial green flag of the event, sending several cars
back to the pits on the tow truck, and ending their evening before it even
began. Brett Hearn, and Billy
Decker, both former DIRTcar Series champions were involved, and both were able
to continue, others were not so lucky, including Can Am regular Scott Webb, who
ended upside down on the front straightaway.
When the racing resumed it was ‘Super’ Matt Sheppard taking the win,
his 3rd tour event win in the last 4 attempts.
Dale Planck, driving a brand new car with numbers duct taped to the side
finished second, almost pulling off the win in lap traffic in the middle stages
of the race. Gary Tompkins was
third, Willy Decker was fourth and Steve Paine captured the fifth position.
The SUNY Canton Sportsman were
up next and Dean Patterson and Rod McDonald led the field to the green flag in
the 25 lap event. Chris Raabe, who
started in the third position made his move on Patterson early, and never looked
back as he took the win, and impressive 14th victory overall this
season. Matt Hulsizer finished in
the runner up position. Josh Van
Brocklin, Matt Billings and Luke Whitteker finished third through fifth
respectively. The SUNY Canton race
did not affect the regular track championship points, which will resume this
coming Friday night.
Dale Caswell was the Crate Late
Model winner, as only five cars took to the track for the feature event.
While the car counts remain low for this season, anticipation is building
for next season when car counts are expected to double.
Saturday night at the
Brockville Ontario Speedway, a full field of Modifieds, Sportsman, Street Stocks
and 4cylinder “Rookies” were joined by the ASCS Patriot Sprint Car Group for
their second visit of the season. When
the Sprint cars come to Brockville, all eyes are on the Wilson Racing team, from
Joyceville, Ontario. Rick, Kyle and
April Wilson have been a big part of racing at Brockville for many years, and
Rick is a former Modified Champion at the BOS, winning the title in 1996.
The Street Stock feature was
the first event lined up after the qualifying events were completed.
Alex Gagnon backed up his impressive heat race win with a checkered flag
in the feature as well. This was
only the third start at the BOS for Gagnon.
Steve Billings finished 5th, and continues to have a
commanding lead in the Street Stock Championship battle. Dominic Gauvreau, Derek
Cryderman, Guy Regimbald and Danny Mocibob were the top 5 finishers.
The ASCS Patriots were up next,
and all eyes were on the Wilson family. Unfortunately,
a night that started with high hopes, ended in disappointed as Rick was caught
up in a mid race wreck, and April and Kyle were unable to finish as well. At the
checkered flag, it was Saint-Pie-De-Bagot, Quebec racer Alain Bergeron picking
up the win. Bryan Howland was
second, Shawn Donath was third, followed by Jared Zimbardi and Chris Jones.
Tommy Wickham, Paul Pekkonen and Jared Zimbardi captured the heat race
victories, while Chuck Hebing won the Dash for Cash.
The Sportsman division was up
next, and they have set a trend for the season, by being the most exciting
feature of the night, and Saturday was no exception.
Dylan Evoy led early, and was briefly passed in lapped traffic, but Evoy
made a last lap pass for the win over Shane Pecore.
Matt Billings regained the coveted point lead with a strong third place
run, while Adam Turner and Mike Mainse rounded out the top five.
The Modifieds took to the BOS
next for their 30-lap event. Danny
O’Brien has been the guy to beat all season long, and after the first 12
races, Danny had collected 9 feature wins.
It wasn’t to be for O’Brien this time, as it was Bill Gill picking up
his first win of the season. Gage
Morin finished second, while O’Brien could only muster a third place finish.
Tim O’Brien and Kyle Dingwall rounded out the top 5.
Gill, Morin, and Steve Bilow were the heat race winners.
The final event of the night
was the 4 cylinder “Rookie” class. It
was Lansdowne driver Steve Barber picking up his third win of the season.
Barber, and Mallorytown driver Josh Kane, making only his second race of
the season piloted Barber’s back up car as the two friends put on a great
battle for the win. Barber entered
the evening trailing the championship standings by 32 points, regained most of
them back, as current point leader Chris Bakker took a nasty rollover in turn
two, and did not finish. JP
Leberge, Dwight Feltham and Chris Lloyd finished behind the Steve Barber team
cars. Frank Mitchell returned to
the track for the first time in several weeks and finished 13th.
Barber, Leberge and Feltham picked up the heat race wins.
Elsewhere around the racing
circuit, on Saturday night, the Can Am Motor Sports Park hosted the second round
of their weekend doubleheader. Justin
Haers picked up the win, with Willie Decker, Brett Hearn, Frankie Caprara and
Scott Parliament rounding out the top five.
Chris Raabe was looking for his
15th win of the season, but came up just short as matt Hulsizer
picked up the SUNY Canton series victory. Raabe
finished second. Brandon Sweet,
Sammy Reakes IV and Mike Mandigo finished third through fifth respectively.
Ryan Scott was the IMCA
Modified winner, Steven Gilmore won the Pure Stock feature, Matt Rainville won
the Mod Lite feature, Dave Mannise won the Street Stock main event, and Zak
Petrie took home the win in the Thunder Cars.
At Cornwall Motor Speedway on
Sunday, the Big Block Modifieds returned for the Super DIRTcar Series event that
was postponed from July 12th. Danny
Johnson and Brett Hearn made up the front row for the 100-lap event.
Hearn led through halfway, but a right rear flat sent the veteran to the
pits. Jimmy Phelps picked up the
win, Pierre Dagenais was second, and Danny Johnson finished third.
Brett Hearn made an impressive recover to finish fourth, and Gary
Tomkins, last years event winner finished fifth.
Next week, the Can Am
Motorsports Park will be back in action for a regular show of Big Block/Small
Block Modifieds, Sportsman, IMCA Modifieds, Street Stocks, Late Models, Pure
Stocks and Thunder Cars, and then Saturday night, the BOS will host a regular
show of Modifieds, Sportsman, Street Stocks, Rookies, and the McNamee Vintage
Modifieds. For an added attraction,
the Modifieds will be having “topless night”, as they will run without the
roof on the car.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading. All Comments and Suggestions can be sent to crevelle@ripnet.com
Photo Attachment - Dylan Evoy in Victory Lane at Brockville Ontario Speedway - Rick Young Photo
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