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Hats Off To Murray and Belesky

Guest · 2011-05-22T00:22:38Z

Beautiful night for racing made for a slick track throughout the heat races, as grip overall seemed hard to come by.. The irony of the night would see not one but two drivers complete hat tricks, as #02 Shawn Murray turned the trick in Pure Stocks with defending track champ #12 Jim "Polish Prince" Belesky equalling that feat in Thunders..First the 4 bangers, and to be honest this was a pretty messy race.. After a couple early cautions, pole sitter #14 Billy Melenhorst shot out to the lead by a couple car lengths, as Murray and last weeks winner #39 Travis Hallyburton would move around #23 Terry Tompkins for position as that trio raced into corner 3. Melenhorst continued to hold a narrow lead till the halfway point, when Murray would pass him to the low side just underneath the flagstand..By this point #13 Dave "Gipper" Glaze was beginning to make his mark, as he charged from 11th to now be challenging Hallyburton for third, a spot he would eventually take.. A couple laps later Glaze and Hallyburton would both work their way around a very game Melenhorst, when #99 Drew Stieler looped it on the frontstretch with 2 to go. On the ensuing restart 5 car pile up along the backstretch and the race is called official.. Murray wins, Glaze 2nd , Hallyburton 3rd, Melenhorst 4th, #400x Chris Cunnington 5th..Heats to Murray x2, and Hallyburton x2..Was nice to see a few more Thunders show as the numbers almost doubled from 2 weeks ago.. Pretty decent race all in all with the top 2 dogs Belesky and Walt starting 7th and 8th.. #21 Desi Walt continues to get better each week, notching the lead in this one for the first 4 laps, when she was passed to the outside by rookie contender #55 Shawn Goggins.. Fast on the move was the duo of Belesky and #14 Thayne Hallyburton, as the pair of division veterans would eventually pass Desi Walt for 2nd and 3rd respectively.. By lap 10, Belesky would run down Goggins, and pass him between 3&4 to the low side.. The rest of the caution free feature would see both Hallyburton and Walt have there trouble getting around the pesky Goggins, with the Prince opening up a near straightaway lead with laps in the 15.9 range.. Walt, would finally work his way past Goggins with two laps remaining for 3rd.. Give first to "The Prince", Hallyburton 2nd, Walt 3rd, Goggins 4th, and #80 Doug Shakell 5th..Belesky and Walt would both capture 2 heat wins in qualifying heat action..Unbelieveable night in the LLM as both 30 lap features went caution free... #8 Dave Lewis would take the first 30 from the outside pole position, with current point leader #57 Ron Quesnelle taking the 30 lap finale.. 3rd feature win on the young season already for the #57 team who is going to a new look Toyota Camry body for next week... As mentioned Lewis would take the first 30, after getting the jump on #54 Randy Bull from the drop of the green.. Bull would check into 2nd in the running order, but came under heavy fire from the trio of #2 Mike Brown, #10 Gord Shepherd, and #28 Robin Jongen.. On lap 13, Brown would make an inside move on Bull entering 3, with Shepherd and Jongen also sliping past the brilliantly prepared Bull #54 Camaro SS.. By this time Lewis was looking cool and collected at the front with laps in the 14.8 sec. range, holding a near half straightaway advantage over 2nd place Brown.. By lap 24, Brown was now under heavy pressure from Shepherd, with Gordie passing his fellow competitor to the outside between 1&2.. Lewis was too far out front by this point and he takes his 1st feature of 2011.. 2nd to Shepherd, with Brown, Jongen, and defending track champ #69 Al "Red Rocket" Inglis the top 5.. Cant ever think of a night both 30 lappers went caution free, might of happened once last year but not really sure?? Anyways in the 2nd feature it was #11 John Gaunt getting the early lead from the outside pole, after beating #55 Steve Quesnelle to the punch from the green flag.. Gaunt led until lap 3 , when Ron Quesnelle starting from 4th, would work his way inside the former NCATS driver between corner 1&2.. Gaunt's car suprisingly still doesnt seem to be working all that well, as two laps later he was passed at the exact same point of the speedway by the duo of Jongen and Shepherd..Quesnelle was running 14.9s up front, as Shepherd would really close in on Jongen for 2nd in behind.. All the while the best battle was occuring for 4th, as Gaunt and Inglis were locked in a dogfight for that position, with Inglis eventually executing a brilliant, clean inside pass of Gaunt entering 3.. As proven this year once out front Quesnelle is tough, if not impossible to catch and he paraded home to victory in relatively easy fashion..Great late race exchange with Jongen and Shepherd dueling door to door lap after lap for 2nd, with Robin just nipping the 10 at the line... Inglis would end up right on the heels of the afore mentioned duo at the checkered, taking home a 4th place finish...

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blkflagagain

May 23, 2011 10:26 pm

(@blkflagagain)

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First off thanks for the props ZERO and THAYNE.. Like many things in life I just try my best and have a little fun with it along the way..

And ZERO in the case of Goggins, well of course I'm referring to him as a rookie as I dont believe he competed in 5 Barrie points races last season and that is the criteria to determine rookie status the way I've always been told.. ;D And yes I would agree that, for a newer driver he's doing very well for himself..I think he still has a bit of a tendancy to overdrive the corners slightly and from the way I see it if he worked on a smoother entry and perhaps changed his braking points a little bit that might serve him well.. But if he's getting tips or advice from that teamate of his I can see why he goes barreling into the corners at mach 90. ;D

I did notice Shawn slide all kinds of crossways coming out of 4 two thirds of the way through that race, forcing the 10 of Walt to really hit the binders to avoid.. Nice touch of class by Rick who just could of kept running the line he was running for much of that race and that wouldnt of ended good for the 55 car, as he coulda been made part of the turn 4 inside retaining wall if Walt wasnt so gentlemanly and alert..

Beyond the obvious and 3 of 4 features going caution free I thought it was a thrilling night of racing, with many other great sportmanlike gestures along the way.. Included in this was Tompkins giving Romano a push start off pit road so she could compete in her 2nd heat race.. Also should mention Ben Melenhorst who gave up his car (and 2nd place in points) just so brother Billy could race and better his own standings..Me thinks Ben is just out for a bit of fun and to win races this year so that was a nice touch to keep his brother inside the top 10 in the standings..The night also worked out pretty nifty for Chris Cunnington, who after blowing his tranny in TC practice was able to step into the Jason Holmes owned #400x mini stock..Chris is only able to come home on the long weekends from out west, so was nice he at least got a bit of fun and seat time in this time around..

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blkflagagain

May 23, 2011 10:49 pm

(@blkflagagain)

Joined: 1 second ago

And Shawn, not really sure on the photos as of yet but I did have a chat with the photographer and he made mention to me of eventually putting together a website so they could be viewed, as well he hopes to produce some DVD's that will be available for I believe he said five bucks a pop. Now when this will be occuring I really don't know, but Luke seems like a really decent guy and has some nifty ideas planned.. He's pretty new at the racing game so give him a chance.. I'm sure if you spoke with him personally he'll be more than happy to accomodate any photo requests you have for your sponsors or such.. If you really want to contact him before the races this Sat just PM me and I'll shoot you his e mail addy..

Not that I'm about to kiss ass here, but I must commend Rick and Diane and family on the job there doing running the track thus far.. Most definitely a more friendly envoronment around this pits this season, as well they are trying some new ideas to make the racing expierience better and a bit different for fans..

Pretty cool deal they but together with the Perkinsfield Kitchens/Rock 95 best seats in the house.. What happens here is one ticket is drawn after the 1st PS heat and that person and one friend are whisked away to the Rock 95 canopy between 3&4 and given free pizza and drinks for the entire evening as well as being able to view the race from a nice set of cushy Muskoka chairs.. I guessing this will just be the first in a line of perks for the race fan, and its something different that was much needed.. Even me being a "die hard" get tired of the same show week after week, year after year in regards to race formats and such but that's a bit of a different animal.. My point is for the "casual race fan" ideas like the best seat in house contest and others are likely to get them to return if they have a good time and are treated to something a bit different from the norm..

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carsrus

May 25, 2011 12:02 am

(@carsrus)

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LOL Dave, thanks for the compliments. We're just having some FUN! As far as photos go, Luke will be our photographer this year. His disk from May 7th is in Andy's hands and should be posted on the web within a day or so. May 21st pics will be a day after that so everything should fall into place shortly. Keep an eye on the website.

The exisiting website has still not been handed over to us so it's a bit of a logistical nightmare at present. Hopefully this will all be solved by Thursday. In the mean time we are working away on a new site, which will be easier for Luke to upload to directly but you know these things take time to iron out bugs and many tell me it may take a couple of months to do what we have in mind.

By the way, I'd like to thank all of the staff at Barrie Speedway. You guys & gals ROCK! Thanks for pullng everything together every week. Great weather, great crew, great drivers, great racing ahead!

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Thayne

May 25, 2011 7:51 am

(@barrie97ps)

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Joined: 20 years ago

The feeling is coming back to the place when u go through the gates.....let's keep it going.

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Dusty

May 26, 2011 10:34 pm

(@Dusty)

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The feeling is coming back to the place when u go through the gates.....let's keep it going.

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