OK folks, we're gonna do this one in installments. Trucks and Super Stocks, then Late Models tomorrow night.

Also, just because there's a couple folks that link directly to these reports, I'm reposting the link to JWO's June 26 photo page HERE

And the unofficial complete results page  HERE

Demar Aggregates Trucks

Heat 1
99-Koricna takes a great stab at the lead but ends up falling back. 2 main battles in this one. The battle for 1st comes down to 97-McDonald and 16-Hosang, and the battle for 3rd comes down to Koricna and 7-Clark. Hosang mounts an impressive assault on the outside of McDonald and looks like she might do it, but ultmately gets a little too high and ends up out of line. 1st to McDonald, 2nd to 7-Clark, 3rd to 99-Koricna

Heat 2
Win to 00-Johns, 2nd to 56-Showler, 3rd to 01-Bloemendal

Feature

Right off the hop, Hosang jumps into the lead, while first lap disaster strikes for Showler when he blows a front tire on the backstretch. He goes high to get out of the way and ends up stranded in the top groove, unable to pull it in and being forced to go around an extra lap on the rim. Finally gets it pulled into the pits just as the rubber comes off and rolls alone across the gravel, leaving them changing the tire right in the middle of the SS/Truck end of the pits.

Up front, Koricna catches up with Hosang, and the two ladies begin to put some space between themselves and the rest of the field...much to the delight of the crowd. After a few laps however, it becomes apparent that there are some fast trucks bearing down on the top 2. By the 10th lap, 82-Demelo is right on Koricna's bumper, making it a 3 car lead pack, and now Bloemendal is closing in too to make it a foursome.

Koricna holds well, but Demelo manages to get by. Soon Demelo and Hosang are drag racing for top spot, while Koricna gets passed by Bloemandal and 88-Fothergill. Hosang holds tight on the outside, but Demelo is just a little faster and takes 1st. Now the order is Demelo, Hosang, Bloemandal and Fothergill.

Now some minor rough stuff happens bringing out caution. In one instance, 75-Dupuis does a 360 down the backstretch, probably with help. In another instance, 00-Johns blatantly and obviously spins 11-Kirchner out for some reason. (Why a top runner needs to spin one of the back markers I have no idea) Johns get the black flag for his trouble, and the ensuing caution sets up the final dash to the finish.

At the restart, Hosang is furiously trying to hold on to second, but Bloemendal's all over her. A couple laps from the end, Bloemandal finally shoots past, taking Fothergill along with him. There's not enough time however for Bloemendal to mount a serious challenge for 1st.

Checkers for Demelo, 2nd to Bloemendal, 3rd to Fothergill, 4th for Hosang and 5th for 77-Zagarodny.

Excellent race that got he crowd nice and warmed up. Other than the Johns thing, the race was physical, as truck races usually are, but mostly pretty clean from what I can tell. Not sure what happened with the 33 truck but he didn't factor in this one. (Id stepped away and missed what happened) LOTS of people rooting for the 16 truck tonight. Hosang's always had a bit of a following, but it seems to me that she's coming to her own as a bona-fide fan favorite this year.

   
Super Stocks

Heat 1
Starts 66-Peters with 1-Dadson alongside, but its 04-Humphreys that grabs the lead. 99-Nagy mounts a charge for the top spot but Humphreys manages to hang on. Win to Humphreys, 2nd for Nagy, and 3rd for Peters

Heat 2
67-Hewitt takes 1st spot early. The real race, and what a race it was - was a three way dance for 2nd involving 98-Morneau, 84-Smith, and 51-Jeremiah "Just Married" Rabidaeu. (I was really hoping to see some tin cans trailing along behind the car, along with some toilet paper pom-poms - but I was denied.   ;)) Anyway, Morneau comes out ahead in thet battle, but Rabideau and Smith are really getting into it with each other. Up front Mornea takes the lead, and at the finsh its checkers for Morneau, 2nd to Hewitt, and 3rd to Rabideau.

Feature
60-"Juice Box" Ott sits on the pole and quickly takes the lead, followed very closely by the black 5 of Mairs. After thos two, the order is 76-Reid, 77-Lake, 11-Lidster and 99-Nagy. But all eyes are up front. Now Ott is pretty new here, and Mairs has been around for a loooong time, so you can imagine that we were simply rooting for Jake to keep his cool under pressure. Well, he did way better than that. Mairs did not cut the kid any slack, even giving him the rub couple times. After ott took a couple cage-rattles and still didn't miss any marks, we realized that there was something going on here. (imagine Howard Cosell: "Well folks this is un-believable. Who'd have thought? The kid has been knocked back on the ropes multiple times and STILL he's on his feet..I tell you ladies and gentlemen, this kid has got heart!")

Ok so maybe I'm being a little dramatic...but not by much. There's one restart for 7-Sheilds who goes around in turn 1, but after the restart Ott is still in front. Unfortunately, Ott lasts till the crossed flags when Mairs finally wins the drag race. At that point 48-McColl and Dadson go around in 1-2 to bring out another caution, and Ott finds himself in front again (reverting to the last lap order, as per the rules) After the restart however, Mairs finally gets the better of Ott in a drag race, and now Reid, Lake and Nagy scoot past as well.

Now Reid and Mairs go to war for the top spot, Nagy's in 3rd, and Lake and Ott are drag racing for 4th.

Then Mairs goes around in 3-4. Bam - Lake bounces off Mairs. Flat tire for Lake. Caution flag, then a black flag for Reid, leaving Nagy in 1st, and its over. The race has gone over limit and the checker/caution flies. At the checker, its Nagy in 1st, Ott in 2nd, Hewitt in 3rd, 52-Clark in 4th and  3-Perkins in 5th....

or at least, that's the way they came across the line.

But wait...thats not completely correct. Because the scoreboard says different. Apparently reverting to the last lap puts the order as Nagy 1st, Lake in 2nd, Ott to 3rd, Hewitt to 4th, Clark to 5th and Perkins to 6th.

Now, there has been a bit of controversy regarding this, and I've no desire to get into it. Its been rehashed already and that's the way they called it.

Only thing I'd like to add. It might matter to some, and it might not.

When a race is over, I write them down as they come across the line, but I double check them on the scoreboard. Always. Every race. That's why I only ever list the top 5 feature finishers. (in case anyone ever wondered.) When the checkers flew, the scoreboard had the 77 in 2nd. Guaranteed and saw with my own two eyes and backed up by the people around me as we tried to figure it out. To quote Ernie, I don't have a horse in this race, and the only reason I say this is to alleviate concerns that the officials pulled this decision out of their hats later on after the race. For better or worse, it was right there on the scoreboard at the moment the checkers flew.

Aside from that, wow...what a show these guys put on. We could have left right then and known that between the Trucks and the SuperStocks that we'd had a good nights racing. Kudos to Ott in keeping the car straight and keeping it in line under some real pressure from a very crafty veteran. My Mom came to the track tonight for the first time since...well...since those jersey barriers were pristine and brand new, and the backstretch was still guardrail. Juice Box got her seal of approval when she began to sit on the edge of her seat and do some serious rooting...like only an old-school racer's wife can.

But kudos also to Mairs. He could have really greased him but he didn't.

A Don Cherry double thumbs up to the Super Stock crowd. Great race!

Partsource 142

Your contestants are, for the most part, the usual Late Model crowd. There were a couple of fresh faces, and a couple of notable absences making the feild about the same size as usual...which is awesome enough in itself. 28 cars were in attendance.

Visiting drivers consisted of 31-McWhirter running out of Barrie Speedway, 81-Greisel out of Sauble Beach, as well as Flamboro regulars 4x-Zurbrigg, 41-Adams and 72x-Tim Ellis. Big howdy to all of them and a tip of the hat in thanks from the fans at Delaware for making the trip!  ;D  ;D  ;D

Notable absences were 49-Clarke, 89-Spicer, and 18-Weirsma. Spicer and Weirsma had been involved an a pretty tough crash the last time the APC Late Models hit the track, but I was still surprised to not see them there.

Time trial action saw the Blue 02 of Mark Watson take the fast time at 18.791, and rounding out the top 5 for timed laps was 4-Urlin, 52-Sheridan, 15-Matthews and 77-Verhoeven.

The top 10 cars inverted for the start leaving 22-Ramsay on the pole with 38-Hooker alongside, then 28-Robblee and 14-Emery. After an enthusiastic wave from the crowd on the pace laps, it was time to go racing. Under the green and going into the first turn, Hooker jumps out in front followed by Ramsay and Robblee. On the second lap the craziness starts when 9-Elliott goes piling hard into the inside front wall down at the turn 1 end to bring out the first of many, many, cautions.

Takes a while to get Gary's car cleaned up, then on the first restart Zurbrigg, Matthews, 5-Delisle and McWhirter all go around in turn 1 and 2.

Second restart and Emery and 72-Thompson are around, Emery with some bad damage. Verhoeven now gets the black flag for some ind of involvement in that one.

Third times the charm (for a little while), and now the fans offer up a rousing cheer...just because everyone made it through the first turn without mishap. Hooker's still out front but Ramsay doesn't want to wait. He begins pushing Hooker hard for the lead, but it backfires. Ramsay goes high, a little too high and Robblee scoots right undeneath him to take 2nd. Now Sheridan's up into the fray for 3rd, and before too long, both Robblee and Sheridan are past Hooker.

On the 23rd lap the order is Robblee, Sheridan, Hooker, Lindsay, Kennedy, Watson, Urlin and Ramsay.

Then its a heartbreaker for Kirk and his fans as he dramatically loses power going down the backchute. This causes a minor double rearender as Lindsay runs into him, and then Kennedy piles into Lindsay. Everyone keeps it pointed the right way except Ramsay who loops it in turn 2 to bring out another caution. Hooker goes in, never to be heard from again on this night.  At this point Sheridan ducks in for a tire.

Now on this restart, we see one of the more bizarre accidents in recent history. There's cars everywhere in turn 4, and when the dust clears, Delisle is up against the frontstrech wall down near turn 4 with 44-McLuskey sideways on top of him - sort of. (I stood there down near the accident scene later, scratching my head and trying to figure out how the hell I was going to explain this in the report) So, McLuskeys car is now resting sideways on the lip of the frontstretch wall, nose still pointed the right way, with all 4 tires and the bottom of the car pointing squarely at the fans. The whole weight of the car is on about 2 inches of the left framerrail...which is the is the only thing actually resting on the top of the wall. The car is just sitting there precariously. The only thing that's keeping the whole car from either toppling roof down on the speedway, or tires first into the fence, is Delisle's car.  (Photo HERE courtesy of JWOracing. I believe at this point the 44 car had come down a bit, as I recall it sitting a little higher on the wall.)

Needless to say, it took them a while to get it figured out, and 45 minutes later it was time to go racing again. I don't believe McLuskey made it back out, but Delisle came down pit road and back into the fray while missing most of the left side of his car.

Now we get down to lap 50 and the caution/checkers to end the first segment. The order is Robblee, Kennedy, Watson, Urlin and Matthews.

At the restart, Kennedy falls off a bit and Watson gets past. Not sure what was up with Kennedy but it looked like he was having trouble on the restarts from here on in. At one point there is another restart (I'd given up on keeping a blow by blow record of the accident cars by this point) On this one, Matthews tries a banzai move up the middle, making contact with both Kennedy and Watson and nearly causing another wreck. Matthews get the black flag for his efforts, and it takes him about 5 laps to acknowledge and go in for a stop and go.

Now on lap 80 they wave the 2nd caution/checker, and it becomes apparent that this race is going to be shortened. (And at this point, there's not a lot of complaining about it on the fan side of it either...we're closing in on 11pm and a lot of the folks with little kids are attempting to beat the rush out of the speedway.) They go iin for the 5 minute competition yellow and the finishing order for segment 2 is Robblee, Watson, Kennedy, Urlin, and 3-Rijnen.

We watch the scoreboard tick off a bunch of laps while the field is on pit road, and when we go back to green we're sitting at 100 laps.

Now the top 2 begin to put some distance in now, Watson gluing himself to Robblees bumper. Sheridan has gotten back into contention and is now on the move, knocking on Kennedy's door for 3rd. For a few laps, the top 2 continue to run away, and the 2nd two are together about 10 lengths back. By lap 115, Sheridan is by Kennedy and now reeling in Robblee and Watson, and by lap 120, the top 3 are running nose/tail.

Now, I don't know if Robblee had been holding back by this point or what, but at lap 135, he apparently decides that the time for screwing around is over and takes off like a rocket. He never quite loses Watson and Sheridan, but its becoming apparent that no ones going to be able to touch Robblee enough to get past him tonight. The real race at this point is between Ramsay and Urlin, who are duking it out side by side for 5th.

At the final checker the win goes to Robblee, 2nd to Watson, 3rd to Sheridan, 4th to Kennedy, and 5th sees Ramsay besting Urlin.

In Closing

So, there was some good and some bad in this race. I for one was disappointed that Hooker's night ended so early, and likewise my heart sank for Gary Elliott too. But...I was certainly heartened to see Watson hanging right with Robblee too. Watson's got to win one sometime this year. So up front the race was actually pretty good.

As far as the wreckfest...well, thats the way it goes sometimes. I'm sure the format didn't help, as the guys that are pushing for NASCAR points had no real choice but to get to the front as soon as possible. On the other hand, NASCAR points notwithstanding, this isn't exactly the first big LM race that went this way either. I'll chalk it up to the "stuff happens" rule.

What I do know is that between the Trucks, LMs and the Super Stocks, I definitely felt that we got our money's worth tonight. As we were walking back to the car, my Mom grinned and said, "so when's the next one?"

That told me right there that it had been pretty good.

That's it for me! We'll see you next week at the Wreckfest...this time on purpose!

Shadow out.