Barrie Season Opener -- Ridge Road Racing Shines Through

Guest · 2012-05-06T00:39:10Z

A good night of racing was had by fans and drivers alike as BSW kicked off its 47th season. Decent size crowd on hand and improved car counts/increased competition were a pleasant sight, not to mention the weather which was stellar for early May although it did cool off around 9ish considerably..Gonna have to stick to pretty much results for now with full report to follow in the next day or so..As mentioned the story of the night was the early season performance of the Ridge Road Racing Crew, as #10 Gord Shepherd took the first LLM 35 lap feature, with stablemate #10 Rick Walt winning the 30 lap caution free Thunder Car main..Only one caution in the first LLM race, as Shepherd would take the lead from pole sitter #57 Ron Quesnelle with a well executed inside pass low in corner 2 on lap 19.. Quesnelle, would try to get back to Shepherd's bumper over the closing laps but was unable to sneak past despite a slight tap in corner 3 in an attempt to shake Shepherd loose.. At the checkered it was 1st Shepherd, 2nd Quesnelle, 3rd to the returning Keith McLeod, as #48 Dwayne Baker and #69 Al "Red Rocket" Inglis rounded out the top 5..The 2nd 35 lapper saw 2007 track champ Baker take his first feature win of the season, in his gorgeous new Centennial Chrysler Port City LLM.. Baker, worked his way past early race leader #28 Robin Jongen on the outside of turn 4, completing the pass just shy of the midway mark, in what was another caution free affair.. In short it was 1st Baker, 2nd Jongen, 3rd Quesnelle, 4th Shepherd, and 5th to McLeod..As mentioned the 30 lap Thunder feature also went caution free, and boy oh boy what a spanking Walt put on his fellow comrades.. Walt, did get a beneficial pole starting position, getting the jump on #44 Dave "The Deuce" Doucette the returning 2007 track champ from the drop of the green.. Quick to follow Walt through on the top side was #00 Darryl St.Onge, who quickly claimed 2nd a few laps in.. Fast forward to the middle portion of the race, with Walt now holding a half straightaway lead on the 00, after the two battled for the first 10 laps separated by no more than a single car length.. Walt, worked his way through lapped traffic with masterful percision over the late stages, eventually widening the gap to 2nd place St.Onge by a full straightaway.. Give 1st to Walt, 2nd to St. Onge, 3rd to #24 Leonard Johnston, with #12 Jim "Polish Prince" Belesky, and #77 Brian Murray comprising the remainder of the fast five..Four different heat winners came in the form of Walt, St.Onge, Belesky, and Doucette..Another headline grabber was the #9 Pure Stock of Charlie Smith, as the former Thunder car vet capped off his hat trick for the evening taking the 20 lap feature, after a pair of earlier heat wins.. The victory did not come easy for Smith however, as the driver survived a clean and ultra intense early race battle with #57 Ryan Toon, clearing him by lap 7, as Toon would have the best night of his young career with a tidy 2nd place showing at the checkered.. Toon, was really involved in a dogfight over the last 7-8 laps with former Varney LLM competitor #74 Brian Wilson of Rockwood for the runner up post, as the two were separated by mere inches at the finish.. Sophmore sensation #400 Justin Holmes would get his season kick started under solid footing, coming home 4th, with #11 Adam Misener rounding out the top 5.. Heats went to Smith with a pair, Toon, and Misener.. The wins for both the 57 and 11 were their first of any kind so congrats to those two..Due to time constraints that's all I got for now.. I do promise a bit more detailed report in the next day or two.. So for now signing off..... FROM THE CHEAP SEATS...It was great to see CRO founder Evan in attendance.. Hope you and your group had fun bud and hopefully you enjoyed what I think was your first visit to Barrie Speedway!!! Enjoy the rest of the weekend folks!!! :)

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MapleLeafs

May 09, 2012 11:56 pm

(@MapleLeafs)

Joined: 1 second ago

Great night of racing but does anyone know why the late models ran 38 laps the first race and 35 laps on the second race? The first race the scoreboard stuck on lap 3 for five laps and we then ran the 30 and the second race (caution-free) ran 35 laps on the board. I can see some technical difficulties on opening night so I'm just wondering what was up.

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