Gray and Locals Shine at Grand Bend Speedway

Rained Out Truck Feature

The first feature of the day was a rainout make up for the Truck class, and Shae Gemmell took the early lead, but he was only able to hold off Marc Jacobs for a brief period of time.  Jacobs took the lead, with Dave Sharpe and Brady Smith in tow.
Sharpe would take a few shots at Jacobs, while Smith took a couple of looks at Sharpe, but in the end, they finished in that order.

Jr. Micro B
Following heat race action, the regular slate of features started with the Jr. Micro Sprint B class.  Ray Morneau took the lead early and cruised to a feature win.  Dalen Martin finished second, with Jayven March making his first career start and Grand Bend finishing third.

Jr. Micro A

Next up were the Jr. Micro Sprint A class, and Alicia Cable took the early lead, but it was short lived.  Trevor Collver blasted around with a power move on the outside.  He would only be slowed by a restart with two laps to go, but it wasn’t enough to take the win away.  

Courtney Marche finished second, with Jasmine Tanton becoming the second female on the podium.

Jr. Late Model

In Junior Late Model action, David Nethercott took the early lead, but the race would be red flagged early as Jared Hustler took a crazy ride down the front stretch flipping numerous times (pics linked below).

On the next restart, Jaxon Jacobs would move to the front, before he was forced to hold off Brandon Ronald.  Ronald pulled to the outside and the pair raced wheel to wheel for four laps before another yellow would line the field up again.

On the restart, Jacobs would again take command while Ronald tucked into line.  After three or four laps of following Jacobs, Brandon rolled to the outside again, and when Jacobs bobbled, Ronald took command.  During the next lap, both Jordan Lawrence and Brett Storr went to the high side as well, shuffling Jacobs back to fourth.

Lawrence took one turn trying to get Ronald high, but wasn’t able to make the pass, and opened the bottom lane up for Storr to go to the bottom and grab the silver medal as the checkers flew - the final order, Ronald, Storr, and Lawrence.

Mini Trucks

The Mini Trucks hit the ¼-mile next and Justin Collver was able to lead the first lap, but it was short lived as Wes Tanner brought his #22 to the front of the field.

Dave Sharpe and Jesse Kennedy were coming, and Kennedy was able to get there first.  Kennedy made short work of the leader and took command of the 25-lap main event.  Shawn Thompson picked his way through to second, but was 1.3 seconds behind Jesse.  Thompson got the yellow he needed, but at about the same point the caution flew Thompson’s truck slowed, turning second place back over to Tanner.  Tanner couldn’t do anything with Kennedy in the late stages, and Jess captured the feature win, with Tanner second, and Sharpe recording his second podium finish of the day.

TQ Midgets

Heat races were won by James Gray, Greg Smolders, and Rob Neely.

The feature kicked off with local driver Tom Kyle on the pole, and Mack DeMann beside him, as the 22-car field took the green.
DeMann would grab the lead, but the race was slowed early as Kent Turnbull pounded the turn one wall, ending his day (pics linked below).  

On the restart, Kyle, who cut his teeth at the Grand Bend Speedway, reasserted himself at the head of the pack, before the field was slowed again.  

On the next restart, DeMann was able to get back out front, until the field was slowed again on lap seven, as Chris Holman’s car died on track.  

He was able to get back out on the track, and would race from the back to a 10th-place finish.
The next yellow would fly on lap 11 as defending series champion Daniel Bois put his #84 in the fence coming out of turn four (pics linked below).

On the restart, the order was DeMann, Kyle, Smolders, and Gray, who had sliced his way through the field from 10th-starting position.

Shortly after the green flag, Gray made the move of the race.  Smolders dove to the inside of Kyle for second entering turn one, and Gray struck as the pair raced side by side off of turn two (pics linked below).  Gray explained the risky three-wide move, “I saw Greg get down to the inside, and Greg is a pretty aggressive driver.  He carried a lot of speed in there, and I assumed that the door would be open.  I got some good bite with the rear end and was able to get a run and get by both of them down the back straight.  The opportunity was there.”

Despite moving from fourth to second, Gray wasn’t done yet.  He went after DeMann, and with just a handful of laps left, opportunity knocked.  “He slipped up in turn three,” started James.  “No offence to Mack DeMann.  After all, he was good enough to finish second.  He just messed up once, and that was all it took.  If he didn’t make that mistake, it would have been one heck of a race between us for the win.”

The races final yellow flew with just two laps left when Wayne Turnbull had a scary incident on the front stretch.  The entire motor caught fire, and luckily the safety crew was on top of the situation, extinguishing the flame very quickly after the car stopped (pic link below).  

Threatening weather had moved this Saturday even to Sunday, and the pit area saw some rain earlier in the afternoon.  Between a huge strip of the oil that didn’t manage to burn off the ruminants’ of Turnbull’s motor, the intense lightning on the horizon, and evident rain, race officials tapped out, and rightly so.

The dozen or so that were left ran for cover, and after when the heavy stuff let up I had caught up with the race winner in the comfort of his trailer following his second straight feature win.  “It was really great to come back to Grand Bend.  This is the tightest track that we race on, and there are not a lot of lanes to pick.  I was able to get my car to handle where no one else was, and that was the key today.  
Lapped traffic is also tough here, and we were able to deal with it.”

DeMann finished second, with Smolders third, Kyle fourth, and Colin Turnbull fifth after starting 11th.
Other notable finishes came from two other home grown talent on the shores of Lake Huron, Darren McLennan who raced from 12th to seventh, and Corey Moesker, who overcame a trouble filled day to come from the back of the pack to a ninth-place finish.

The only downside to the day was the 4-Cylinder class being cancelled.  The rain wash out their feature after an awesome heat race.

Pics to follow