"Watson no stranger to year end scraps" London Free Press aug. 10, 2012

Guest · 2012-08-10T08:27:01Z

There's not too much daylight in the FT Garage late model championship points race at Delaware Speedway these days.Mark Watson knows how that feels."I've been down this road before," said the St. Thomas native, who has just four points of breathing room over David Elliott and nine on defending champ Andrew Gresel heading into Friday night's race card.Before joining the late model class in 2009, Watson won back-to-back open wheel modified titles, including a suffocating end-of-year duel with Barry Newman and Jamie Cox."Barry and I were deadlocked in points going into the last race of the season," Watson recalled, "and that night, I finished in first and he was right behind me in second."So this is nothing new."It would be special, though, for the 13-year driver to finish on top in yet another class."I want to get that championship," he said. "This is why we came back to race."He has the tools to do it."The car's been running great," Watson said. "I go back to the APC Summer Showdown (last month) and we had the best car there all day. We've got no complaints."He ran into some challenges during that collision-filled feature but managed to move his No. 3 Ron O'Brien Re/Max-backed ride -- the same sponsor as NASCAR Canadian Tire series leader D.J. Kennington when he drives at Delaware -- all the way up to a solid fifth place.Since then, Watson has been humming.He's coming off a recent win on a relatively rare road trip to Sauble Beach and is the first at Delaware to dip under the 19-second lap this season."There were times where I came out just to go after the checkered flag and win that night," said Watson. "You always want to win, but when you're chasing the points, it's a little bit different. I think of the time I was running third and was black-flagged for getting into the second car and that hurt me. I ended up finishing back in the pack, fifteenth or so."If Watson goes the distance and wins this thing, he wants it to be on a full slate of Friday nights.The track schedule was compressed from 18 races to 12 this season and there's already been a couple of rainouts."I'm a racer -- I want to be out racing," said Watson, whose wife Heather, a nurse, competes in a Micro Sprint car while eight-year-old son Dylan is no stranger to the track in Tillsonburg. "I know the speedway's been talking already about making up some of the missed dates in September and I hope that's the case."That's something we all want, no matter where we are (in the standings)."Delaware discipline Brothers Marc and Jaxson Jacobs have been suspended by the speedway for a post-race altercation last Friday night. Their No. 1 and 8 late model teams "entered the pit of the No. 99 (Barry Newman-owned car)" and several track policies were violated, including: "the driver assumes responsibility for his or her own actions, crew's actions and family's actions; drivers are responsible for the sportsmanlike conduct of anyone in their crew; any driver, car owner, or mechanic who takes part in any demonstration or fights on any speedway grounds before, during or after a race shall be subject to suspension" or could be expelled from the track. The speedway is continuing its investigation into the altercation.

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shifty333

Aug 10, 2012 12:52 pm

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Canceled

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ernie

Aug 10, 2012 3:54 pm

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That call was a bit premature it looks like. Oh well hindsight is 20/20 I guess.

I guess I don't know squat. 5:00 pm Web cam shows it pouring there while sun shine in east London.

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Shadowracer

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Aug 10, 2012 5:30 pm

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The photo I'm looking at shows a time of 16:32:08 (4:32pm) and the pit looks flooded. However the photos don't seem to be updating. (Its 530 as I write this) I thought it was a once a minute refresh.

Anyway, looking out my window it looks like its getting darker again. And I just heard more thunder.

I've noticed these guys are right more often than they're wrong when it comes to making the call.

CHECK OUT THE "SHADOW REPORT" GROUP ON FACEBOOK FOR LIVE RACE PICS AND UPDATES

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