Just got home from the races and what a great night of on track action.
LLM 50 lap finale went the first 48 laps without a caution, setting up a green, white, checkered fight to the finish featuring grizzled veteran #69 Al Inglis and young gun #9 Brandon Watson.
Racing into two on the lap 48 restart, the two drivers made light contact with Inglis on the inside Brandon running the high line. This would cause Watson to check up ever so slightly and give Inglis the momentum he needed to claim the Mid Season championship by half a car length at the line. (His 2nd feature win in as many weeks)... Watson held on for 2nd, with #48 Dwayne Baker, #19 Keith McLeod and #28 Robin Jongen the top 5. This was probably the best Limited Late Model feature I have ever seen personally (excitement wise), and featured lots of clean passing throughout the field..
First LM 25 lapper won by #17 Garry" The Gambler" Reynolds, with #10 Gord Shepherd, Inglis, McLeod, and #57 Ron Quesnelle the fast five. Shepherd started pole and led the entire race until a lap 18 caution. At this point Gordie got a little hard on the gas and spun the tires, getting crossways approaching the flagstand, allowing the ever alert Reynolds to shoot past on the outside to claim the win (and that makes well over 100 feature wins at Barrie for the veteran driver, who has been racing since 1973).
Heats went to Shepherd and Reynolds, thus those two making up the front row for the afore mentioned 25 lapper..LOL
Thunder feature won by #00 Darryl St.Onge, who took the lead with an inside pass of fellow front runner #44 Dave Doucette racing out of 2 just shy of lap 20. Speaking of lap 20, St.Onge got all kinds of crossways after a restart and in a true show of class by Doucette, (who was outside of him on the front row) he backed off and lost two positions along the way as to not turn or drive through Darryl.. Was so nice to see the two competitive veterans drive in this manner, showing the utmost respect for one another on track. Doucette was passed by both #22 Jason Elliott and #24 Leonard Johnston during this restart.
Speaking of Elliott, he continued his stellar season with another runner up finish, while Doucette battled back to pass Johnston down the backstretch on the last lap to retake 3rd position. Johnston held on for 4th, (after missing a week to right some mechanical woes) with impressive sophmore driver #3 Ken Denhollander keeping a clean car under him all night long to round out the top 5.
Thunder Car heats to St. Onge with 2, to complete the evening "hat trick". Doucette and Johnston took the other heat wins.
Pure Stock Mid Season feature won by CRO's own CHARGER #90 Jim MacDonald who claimed his first ever feature win after racing for 6 or 7 years (if I'm not mistaken) so that was super nice to see.. Great drive JIMBO!!! 2nd went to point leader Melenhorst, with #98 Brent Stieler, #37 Robbie Sikes, and #16 Bryan Penny the fast five.
Tough break for Penny who had a great run and took the lead just shy of midway, but something went a miss on his new Honda Prelude on the last lap but the talented wheel man was able to ride it out for a 5th place finish.
The make up feature from last week went to #99 Drew Stieler from the outside pole, after a tough early battle with the 22 of Bob Mercer. MacDonald had the best race night of his life finishing 2nd in this one, to go with the feature win. #91 Kyle Lethbridge, #33 Crystal Doucette, and Sikes made up the rest of the top 5.
Pure Stock heats went to Melenhorst, Brent Stieler, Sikes, and #35 Nick French.
Once again sorry for the shotty report, as I''m heading out the door for work soon.. I'll add a bit more later (on Sunday), but needless to say if you are any kinda race fan in Simcoe County and missed this night of racing you'll be sorry, cause it was truly a dandy!!! Nice crowd on hand again, and car counts were 17 LLM, 18 Thunders, and 25-26 Pure Stocks.. Notably absent was the #20 LLM of Ed Bowlby, as he was at the track but didnt get the chance to ask him why the car wasnt..
Once again....... FROM THE CHEAP SEATS..... You know the insignia!!!LOL
Sounds like Saturday nite was a great night to be a race fan, no matter what track you were at.
LLMs usually put on a good show, and it looks like no exception here. I seriously have to get back up there soon.
It was a very good nite of racing. Congrat's Charger, You earned that win. I'm looking foward to your next one. I'll bet that you are too.
Ok I said I'd add a bit more to this rundown today and being the religious man I am ( cough cough) I figured I'd obey the 1st commandment;;; "Thou shall not dissapoint the CRO faithful" LOL
I'm choosing to delve into the LLM division first, and what I'm most interested in is to see how tight the points battle has become over this past weekend. Heading into last night Baker held a slender 4 point lead over Shepherd, with McLeod just 8 points behind the leader. Now Baker got a black flag in the first 25 lapper after a tangle up with the 88 of Mathews (Happy Birthday Dwayne...lol) and Shepherd suffered mechanical woes in the 50 lap finale, and was forced to retire at the midway point.. McLeod had two solid 4th place runs in the features, and a 2nd in his heat (behind Shepherd). So needless to say I think this already competitive chase just got a whole lot tighter.. Baker had a 4th in his heat so he lost 3 points to Gordie and 2 to Keith there..Should be interesting to see just how close the points have become when there posted early this week.. wouldnt be a total schock if Keith moved 3rd to 1st to take over the lead, but time will tell. Just wish I knew the exact breakdown of that 2nd feature points, and I could tabulate it for myself!!!
Nice to see the #2 of Mike Brown back at the track and running the last 2 weeks after spending the early part of the year at Varney. Another strong runner added to this great field is NEVER a bad thing!! Mike hasnt been setting the world on fire just yet, but has had a couple solid mid pack finishes all the while coming from the back of the pack in the 2 nights he's raced.
After suffering with a moderately low car count in Thunders for a few weeks, it was great to see a few new cars in that division as well..The 72 of Marty Monette returned to the track after he too tried out Varney for a few weeks.. Marty is a class act and one of my favorite people to speak with at the track. Now hes not running for points, in fact he had to take all last place finishes last night, due to the car having now conformed to the Varney SSS rules which allow aluminum intakes and headers which I think were the two major differences he told me the Barrie TC arent allowed.. Marty just wanted to come back cause he loves the track, has lots of fun and the guys are great to race with as he told me.. Now thats a sportsman!!! Welcome back MARTY!!!
Also new to the Thunder class the last two weeks is the brillianly perpared #400/ HWY 400 Transmission Chevy Impala (or at least I think that's what body style it is..lol) driven by Wayne MacGregor.. This car will also be piloted for this year by both Shawn Cunnington and Jason Holmes apparently, as the three long time division veterans share the ride for the remainder of the year.. These guys know how to make a Thunder Car get around BSW as proven in the past, and I would suspect in a few weeks we might see this immaculate car at the front..Again nice to see all 3 back at the track.
The 18 Thunders in attendance last night was a season high, so nice to see were gaining cars instead of losing them due to wrecks and financial woes. Also heard one of the Thunders that left and went to the track to the south will be returning next week, so that too will be good to see if it comes to fruition..
Pure Stocks also put on a great show last night, especially in that 2nd feature, there was a ton of passing late.. I think the 2 of Melenhorst made a bit of a slip up in dodging to the inside line with 3 to go, as thats where the lapped cars were at the time..This cost Ben being shuffled from 2nd back to 5th, but once he cleared the lapped cars again, Ben battled back to pass a few cars in the last 3 laps to wind up with a runner up finish once again.. This is not to take away from the great race the 90 of MacDonald drove, as he and his Prelude were surely "on it" last night... Congrats once again Jimmy, its nice to see new faces win features and especially a guy like you who has been bustin his balls for the last several years trying to get one..
What a great efficient show last night as well, 2 PS 20 lappers, 40 lap Thunder feature, and a LLM 25 and 50 lapper and done by 10:15 with a 7pm start time and that included intermission. Great job by all drivers for sure, and the on track officials did a great job too in line ups/clean ups and such.. Now that's the way a show should go so KUDOS to all!!! There is a few more Sun morn musings as BLKFLAGAGAIN saw things
Was a great result for me last night. Bent an axle in practice, and dad almost pulled the car because of it it was so bad, but being a low car count and mid-season championship, we raced and the car wasn't bad, was shaking obviously but was still derivable, went from 13th to 5 in 11 laps, was then spun and when Monnette hit me, he bent my LR rim, so now both back wheels were bent, then it got real fun, trying to come from the back with the car basically hopping. Managed to scrape a 7th outta it...
So it was a good night...good salvage.
