Well night one is in the books, and what a night it was. An amazing crowd was on hand tonight to kick off the APC Great Canadian Race Weekend.
The lineup was to be a regular card of Super Stocks and Powerade Modifieds, which would decide championships in both. Then a Transmission Direct Enduro challenge, and to cap off the evening, a King of the Hill event with 1000 bucks going to the winner. Due to time constraints I was unable to stay for the King of the Hill, so someone else will have to come in here with some results.
Transmission Direct Enduro Challenge
The night started off with 2 heats for the Enduros. Heat 1 saw Paul Fothergill take an early lead, just to have it stolen on the last circuit by 11-Coward. Heat 2 started off with a violent fronstretch crash that saw 41-Orr ride hard into and up the outer wall. The race had to be stopped when the car came to a rest billowing smoke and flame from under the hood. The driver got out safely but was some upset. 1st place to 182-Demelo, 2nd to 82-Brunelle, and 3rd to the 45 car, driver unknown. There was a last chance qualifier, and the win there went to 64-Book.
The feature was actually run last in the program, and by that time I was down in the pits so didn't get to see much of it, but it sounded like quite a race. Win to Fothergill, 2nd to Coward, 3rd to 15-Goertz, 4th to Book and 5th to 37-Arrand
Super Stock
Heat 1 - Veteran from years gone by Steve McCaw was piloting the 2 car for tonight, and handily threaded the needle between 28-Lawrence and 7-Sheilds to take the lead and the victory. Win to McCaw, 2nd to 5-Norm Roy (subbing for Mairs) and 3rd to 04-Humphreys.
Heat 2 - Is a win for 9-Dejesus, and 2nd for 52-Clark and 3rd to 77-Lake. 11-Lidster came in 5th, which meant that his points lead over Lake had gone from +25 to +22
Feature
The race starts with Sheilds on the pole with Lawrence alongside. Lawrence takes the early lead while Roy and Sheilds battle side by side for 2nd. Lake, trying desperately to make up some points is mired in the middle of the field with Lidster behind him. It takes quite some time for them both to pass a determined Steve Smith.
Up front, Lawrence is on the run from the field but he's got McCaw hot on his heels. The two of them begin to open up a lead, and by lap 10 or so, McCaw ducks low to get around Lawrence to take first. At the halfway mark its McCaw, Lawrence, Roy, Sheilds and 67-Hewitt. Back in the pack, there's the bobble that Lake has been looking for as Dejesus gets wiggly and bunches everyone up, allowing Lake to squirt past and up into 7th. The bad news for him is that Lidster is still right with him.
Up front, McCaw and Lawrence are still on the run, and Lake has a little bit of room to start picking off spots one at a time. First is Hewitt, then just as Lake has Sheilds lined up, the caution comes out when some contact sends 60-Ott around in turn 2, which causes 51-Rabideau and 84 Smith to contact one another. All cars are basically OK, and when the race resumes. Lake gets past Roy, then Sheilds to take 3rd spot. But Lake just can't lose Lidster. In the waning laps, he manages to get past Lawrence, but has nothing for McCaw.
1st to McCaw, 2nd to Lake, 3rd to Lawrence, 4th to Lidster and 5th to Sheilds.
It certainly was McCaw's night, as that 2 car was a rocket, but the bulk of the congrats has to go to the 11 team of Jason Lidster, our 2009 Delaware Street Stock Champion.
Powerade Modifieds
It came down to the rookie vs the crafty veteran tonight in Powerade Mod action. the rookie won the battle, but the war was won by the vet.
Tyler Hendricks got out front and stayed there, fending off challenges by 39-McCullough, 70-Saunders, and at the end, Jamie Cox.
For the bulk of the race, the top 3 were Hendricks, Saunders and McCullough, and the three of thm managed to open up a lead while the points leaders battled furiously to get up front. Newman and Cox waged a great battle mid-field, with more contact between the two than we're used to seeing.
Notable incidents were when 57-Brooks got a tag on the backstretch by 72-Thompson that left the 57 mod skiddiing sideways past the pit entrance and hitting a glancing blow dead on into the outer wall. Gary was OK but a little sore, and it looked like the damage wasn't too bad. Brooks unloaded tonight with pink numbering on the car, and admittedly, it might have been the nicest the car has looked yet. (Rumor has it that Brooks may be running the 97 truck full time next year and has the 57 mod put up for sale)
Later in the race there was another incident where, back in the pack, 54 Limon looped in turn 2, and all magnaged to avoid except for 88-Shippy who went into him pretty hard, leaving the 88 Mod dead on the speedway and going back on the hook. One final incident came in the waning laps in the turn 3-4 end - Cox was pushing hard to get to the leaders and he and 39-McCullough made contact, and McCullough ended his night in the fence.
Cox tried a last lap pass, pulling alogngside and leaving the two flying down the backstretch neck and neck, but Hendricks wasn't having any of it, keeping it straight and true, but not giving Cox an inch.
Final - 1st to Hendricks, 2nd to Cox, 3rd to Saunders, 4th to Newman and 5th to 19-Scott.
It was a great night for rookie Hendricks, and a fitting end for the rookie. he's gone winless in feature action, but has proven time and time again that he's steady behind the wheel and a good contender. look for him to be in the fray for the points battle next year.
Congrats to the Cox team on another Championship.
See you all tomorrow night for some Demar Aggregates Truck racing, as well as a special Lucas Oil Sportsman series twin 50 lap event + Chaos cars.
See you at the races.
Another Night of Old and New
The Modified feature was the race of the night Friday at Delaware Speedway. At the end of the night, Tyler Hendricks was able to pull off the rookie stripe after the final event of the season from the cozy confines of victory lane. For the Chatham driver, it was a fitting end to a promising freshman campaign.
Hendricks started on the pole, and paced a group including himself, David McCullough, and John Saunders away from the pack. McCullough was able to hang with Hendricks until late in the event when problems knocked him out of a good finish. By that point, seven-time champion Jamie Cox, fresh off a tremendous battle with Barry Newman was on the rookie’s bumper.
Hendricks wasn’t pleased about the caution. “I didn’t want to see that yellow. I was nervous with about five to go and that made it worse.”
Cox has his chance with a late race move to the outside, but Hendricks was able hold serve on the green-white-checkered finish with Cox along his outside. “I gave him ½ a lane on the outside and wasn’t going to give up the inside. One of our goals this year was to win a feature, and it took until the last night of the year, but we did it, and it’s pretty awesome.” The teenager was also quick to thank two people for all the support in victory lane, as he said, “I have to thank my mom and dad!”
Cox, the seven-time champ entered the night with a 13 point lead on two-time champ Newman, but felt early in the night he had his best car of the season and wasn’t going to be content to point lead. “I knew that I had to finish within five positions of Barry,” explained Jamie. “I knew he would be aggressive, but I was still going for the win as well.”
It showed as Cox fought from his starting spot at the back of the pack to gain fourth by the second yellow of the night, and then went to work on John Saunders while Newman was racing to his outside lap after lap. He would then finally get Saunders, and sat second on the final restart. As for the championship, “It still hasn’t really sunk in yet. I think we’ll be back to race for number nine next year.”
Since hanging up his helmet in the late 90’s Steve McCaw has crewed a bit, watched a bit, even took a few spins in the King of the Hill. Friday night McCaw returned to victory Lane for the first time since 1992 when he was a three-time winner in the Street Stock division. McCaw would continue in the division until 1995 before moving up to a Modified until 1998, and making all of about 25 starts between 1995 and Friday.
In the 25-lap feature he got his first taste of glory in 17 years as he hopped behind the wheel of the Chad Rijnen owned #2. Kris Lawrence would jump out to an early lead, but McCaw ran him down, and then used his experience to pass the youngster.
The move for the lead occurred on lap eight as the wily veteran explained, “I saw Kris pushing while he was coming off of turn two, and it was getting worse, so I just waited until he really pushed and I was able to get him.”
McCaw didn’t even expect to be behind the wheel for the night, “I was supposed to drive last week and Chad was going to drive this week, but last week got rained out. I’ve spotted for him, and worked on the cars for him for a while, and I just think it was really cool of him to let me drive his car tonight, and I think it’s really cool to be involved with Ron O’Brien and have to thank him for all he does for our team.”
Jason Lidster was able to slice through the field from 14th to a strong fourth-place finish, locking up the championship over Darrell Lake. Lake did almost everything he could to win his first championship, and while he was able to muster a second-place finish in the feature, he had to hope for Lister to have issues to have a shot. For Lake it was his third consecutive second-place finish in the points, while for Lidster it was his first career Super Stock title.
Photos of all the nights action available at www.maudsleymotorsports.com
Took a few shots during the heats, and a ton in the features.
Additional Pit Notes
- D.J. Kennington was behind the wheel of a red #3 with Ron O'Brien on the side of the car.
- Jason Hathaway will be piloting a brand new Late Model Sportsman car for the first time on Sunday. He was also practicing on Friday night.
- Jay Doerr is expected to be out for the Lucas Oil Sportsman race on Saturday night in Scott Lindsay's old CASCAR style machine.
- Steve Robblee will be in action for both events, but Matt Robblee will only be racing Saturday night, as his Late Model Sportsman is still on the shelf.
- Mark Watson will be sporting a brand new motor under the hood of his #02 on Sunday after having one expire on him last time out.
- Paul Fothergil's former right hand man, crew chief Donnie Richards was back to the track Friday night. The Delaware truck guru, who propelled Fothergil, and Steve Lovie to a number of truck wins, and also helped improve Kathleen Hosang moved to Alberta last winter, and was making a return trip to the speedway this weekend.
- Ron Sheridan will be racing in the LOSC event in a second Mid-America Motorsports entry.
- Randy Thompson is expected to make his return to the truck series in his son's #4 entry, which is in fact his old race machine. He should have a good starting position in the feature, but the truck was hevily damaged when the skies opened up on the trucks a couple of weeks ago.
- Jay Doerr is expected to be out for the Lucas Oil Sportsman race on Saturday night in Scott Lindsay's old CASCAR style machine.
Aw man...ya gave it up. 😉
BTW, check your PMs
St. Thomas man steered to oval
Sat, September 5, 2009
A trip to Daytona Beach, turns a car-proud cruiser into an oval-track fanatic
By JIM CRESSMAN
DELAWARE -- It was always about having the nicest looking car for Jason Lidster.
Nobody in St. Thomas had anything as sweet as his bright yellow IROC. He also had a prized '69 GTO he raced at St. Thomas Dragway.
Then seven years ago, Lidster, his father Ron and father-in-law Frank Sworik headed for Daytona Beach, Fla., to see a NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
"I was hooked. I just had to do this," Lidster said of his new love -- oval-track racing.
It's taken him only five years and last night he was captured his first track championship in the Delaware Speedway super stock division.
"I've always played with cars," said the 34-year-old. "My father-in-law taught me how to work on them. In high school I knew guys who raced, but that wasn't my cup of tea. Football was always a big thing in St. Thomas and that's what I wanted to play.
"I always loved fast cars, but it was just more having a nice looking car on the street."
But the fire was lit when he saw that NASCAR race, which was the first live oval-track race he'd seen.
"I don't know why I had never come out here. I am just so hooked on short-track racing now."
Lidster was in the truck division his first year.
"I bought the truck just to get some experience on an oval. I didn't really want to get into it if I was going to be a lousy driver. So, after a year, we thought we could do all right, so we bought a car and got the team together and we steadily improved every year."
Lidster sold the truck for parts -- "It's probably now fenders and pop cans" -- but there are no plans to part with the super stock and move up.
"We'll stay here (in that division). My guys really like this style of racing, they're all good guys to race against. We're competitive friends, for the most part. Most of the drivers out here understand not over-driving the cars and keeping their head on their shoulders.
"The price of these cars has gotten a little outrageous, so guys have had to smarten up or they wouldn't be racing for very long. A car like mine, you'd sell the thing for $12,000 dollars and you've got more than that in it."
Lidster said the competition has grown rapidly during his four years.
"It's a lot tighter now. You've got six or seven cars grouped together speed-wise and the other guys are not very far off."
While Lidster was celebrating his first title, Jamie Cox of Dorchester won his track-record eighth modified crown.
And the bad news for others in that division is, the 42-year-old has no thoughts of retiring. He'll race at least another three years, when his son Jay will be 15 and ready to drive a modified.
"I'd like to go do what Steve Robblee (the late model veteran, also from Dorchester) has done in racing his son (Matt).
"I'd love to do that. Jay is racing microsprints up in Grand Bend.
"Steve says the coolest thing you can do is race against your kid. Not too many people can do that. It would be just neat to be able to experience