Photos courtesy James MacDonald Apex One Photo)
Louis Clements in Victory Lane after his third straight Sport Stocks feature win, with the night’s sponsor Darrell Clarke of Clarke Drainage Contractors.... Jim Dale Jr. hoists the feature checkered flag for the third straight week in the Schinkel’s Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds.... Kirk Hooker, with son Jake, in Victory Lane after winning his first UMP Late Model feature in two years.... Action shot of Kirk Hooker (38) and Jim Dale Jr. (00) battle in out for second place in the UMP Late Model feature on Saturday.
From Mike Bennett // South Buxton Raceway
Chatham’s Louis Clements and Shrewsbury’s Jim Dale Jr. remain perfect in August as both drivers posted their third feature wins of the month Saturday at South Buxton Raceway on Clarke Drainage Contractors Ltd. Night.
Chatham’s Kirk Hooker also won his third feature of the month – but his first at South Buxton. The veteran driver won twice earlier this month on the pavement at Delaware Speedway.
While these veteran drivers are no strangers to Victory Lane, Saturday also featured a first-time winner – for about an hour.
The joy of Reid Fenton’s first career feature was short lived as the 16-year-old’s car was disqualified when his carburetor was found to be illegal in post-race inspection.
The win was awarded to second-place finisher Nate McNally, giving the Charing Cross driver two straight feature wins and four on the season Dain Naida of Belleville, Mich., won the Southern Ontario Sprints feature.
Sun Parlour Trailer Sport Stocks
For the second week in a row, Louis Clements made a late-race pass of one of the Vanderiviere brothers to get to Victory Lane. Saturday’s win, however, wasn’t quite as dramatic as the previous week when he beat Eren Vanderiviere by a bumper at the finish line.
This Saturday, it was Eric Vanderiviere who Clements chased down for this third straight and fourth feature win of the season. Vanderiviere, who won the May 30 feature, led from the drop of the green and was a half-track ahead of the pack at one point.
Clements, who started in the sixth row, moved into third on lap five and needed another five laps to get pass Kingsville’s Rob Young for second. “When I got into second, I thought, ‘man, he’s a long ways up there,’” he said of Vanderiviere.
Clements got a break when the only caution in the race came out on lap. After the restart, Clements made the pass of Vanderiviere coming out of turn four and easily pulled away to extend his perfect August.
“I could tell I was slowly catching him, but I might have run out of laps … I don’t know,” Clements said of his chase of Vanderiviere. “But then the caution came out, and that made things easier.”
On the restart, Clements noticed Vanderiviere pushed up a little in turn one.
“I got myself a little closer going into three and he did the same thing, the car pushed up and he left the whole bottom open,” Clements described the pass for the lead. The handling of Vanderiviere’s car went away over the final laps as he wound up finishing fifth.
Young – the division sponsor and owner of Sun Parlour Trailers in Windsor – finished second while driving the No. 28M car for Maidstone’s Scott MacKenzie for the night. Wallaceburg’s Gary Vyse, who went into the night 74 points behind Clements in the points race, came home third, followed by the Vanderiviere boys – Eren and Eric.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Clements said of his August winning streak. He also won two out of three features in August last year, ironically finishing second to Eric Vanderiviere on Aug. 23, 2008. “I guess we’ve just found our stride and everything’s clicking.”
Schinkel’s Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds
Like Clements, Jim Dale Jr. is perfect in August with three feature wins in three race nights. He also won the Late Model Summer Sizzler on Aug. 1, giving him four feature wins for the month. The Shrewsbury driver started in the fourth row in the nine-car field and patiently worked his way to the front. He moved into the top three on lap seven, where he had a good view of the battle for the lead between LaSalle’s Mike Demars and Rutherford’s Chris Van De Wiele.
Dale passed both of the front runners on lap 14 and drove away to a half-track margin of victory.
“The car’s perfect,” Dale Jr. described his ride. “I’d go mid-track, turn the car (into the corner) and it’d go right to the bottom and out every time. It’s been this way three weeks in a row … the car is just awesome.”
Before the race, Dale Jr. expected Van De Wiele, who was starting on the outside pole, would be the car to beat.
“When I saw the line-up, I figured it was Chris’s race,” Dale Jr. said. “I was hoping we’d get a couple of cautions and then I’d have a chance to race him. But it looks like hit a couple of holes and overdrove a little.”
Van De Wiele and Demars traded the lead until Dale Jr. went to the point on lap 14. Demers held on to the second position until he got turned around in turn four on the final lap and got passed by the entire field. His best run of the season turned into a ninth-place finish.
Van De Wiele wound up finishing second, followed by Woodslee’s Clayton Smith, Belle River’s Mario Toniolo and Merlin’s Brad McLeod. His feature win and second-place finish to Demars in the heat race – coupled with Van De Wiele’s DNS in the heat – will help Dale Jr. pad his points lead. He went into the night with a 56-point advantage.
“If everything keeps goes like it’s been going, we should be fine,” Dale Jr. said of his quest for a sixth career points championship.
Ultimate Sandblasting & Coatings Late Models
It may not have been as dramatic as Mark Messier’s guarantee of a New York Rangers’ victory in Game 6 of the 1994 Stanley Cup playoffs, but Kirk Hooker lived up to a guarantee he made two weeks ago.
After winning his first of two straight features at Delaware Speedway, Hooker issued a guarantee on www.southbuxtonraceway.com and on George Brooks’ Pit Pass show on Country 92.9 FM/630 AM CFCO that he would win a feature before the year was out at South Buxton.
“Whatever promises I make, I usually hold up,” Hooker smiled about fulfilling his bold prediction. But man … it feels great to finally get this monkey off my back!”
That monkey was more like King Kong for Hooker, who’s last feature win at South Buxton was June 30, 2007.
He appeared to be headed for another bridesmaid finish as Chatham’s Brad Authier dominated the first 19 laps before hitting a rut coming out of turn two after a restart on lap 20.
“I thought, ‘I’m gonna win this son-of-a …’” Hooker said to himself as he passed the spinning Authier to take the lead with five laps to go. “A couple of weeks ago I threw one away,” he reflected back to July 4 when he missed a restart with two laps to go while leading, allowing Authier to make the pass and go on to the victory. “But I know this car is good enough to win.”
Hooker’s biggest challenge was holding off Jim Dale Jr. for second, a battle that ended when Dale Jr. hit one of the apron tires and crashed into the front stretch on lap 19, bringing out the caution that set up Hooker’s pass for the lead.
“I think I was a little bit faster than Kirk, but I probably should have waited a couple more laps to make that move,” Dale Jr. said. “I was committed to the bottom and Kirk was holding his line. I hit the tire instead of Kirk,” said Dale Jr., who had a win and two second-place finishes in the last three features but wound up eighth with Saturday’s DNF.
Hooker was able to catch Authier in the corners but didn’t think he’d be able to make a clean pass.
“Me and Brad have been racing a long time and there’s been some bad blood between us some nights …” said Hooker, adding he didn’t want to dump his rival to take the lead. “But,” he paused with a smile, “if it would have come down to the last lap, someone would have ended up in the rhubarb.”
A second caution came out two laps after Hooker took the lead but he was able to hold off Blenheim’s Brett Reaume over the final four circuits to secure the win.
Wallaceburg’s Mike Lewis had a season best third-place finish while Thamesville’s Dale Glassford was able to take fourth away from Authier in a heated final lap. Hooker credited his crew – and some help from Reaume – for his victory.
“We broke an axle in the heat and Brett gave us one, and I have to thank my crew for getting it fixed for the feature.”
In his Victory Lane speech, Hooker said ending his feature famine at South Buxton meant more than his recent back-to-back wins at Delaware. “This is home, this will always be home,” he said of South Buxton. “I’ll be 70 years old with a cane and I’ll still be out here every Saturday. “The fans, the promoter (Scott Mihalco) all make it good for us to come here,” Hooker said.
Four Season Driver Education Comp 4s
The ‘feel good’ story of the night turned into a bad dream for Blenheim’s Reid Fenton. The 16-year-old led from the drop of the green to the wave of the checkered flag for what appeared to be his first career feature win.
But the joy of his triumph came to a crashing halt when tech inspectors ruled that the carburetor on the No. 47 was illegal. Fenton’s feature win, his heat victory and all points earned on the night were wiped off the books.
Nate McNally of Charing Cross was declared the winner as the rest of the field all moved up one spot. Blenheim’s Dave Jones was elevated to a second-place finish, while points leader Brandon Windsor of Leamington was third, Cottam’s Rob Quick fourth and Essex’s Patrick Lajeunesse fifth.
Southern Ontario Sprints
Ridgetown’s Adam West wasn’t able to pull off a South Buxton Raceway sweep but he still wound up in first place. West finished fourth in the Southern Ontario Sprint feature but overtook Shedden’s Justin Martin for points lead.
West’s feature finish, coupled with a third-place finish in the heat race, enabled him to turn an 11-point deficit into a four-point lead with two events to go. Martin was seventh in both the feature and his heat.
West was hoping to sweep the SOS season series at South Buxton, where he won on the first trip on May 23.
Dain Naida of Belleville, Mich., led all 20 caution-free laps for his first career SOS victory. Naida, a regular driver on the Michigan-based Sprints On Dirt series, started on the outside front row and took the lead at the drop of the green from Lefroy’s Warren Mahoney.
Naida held off several charges from Burford’s Jamie Collard to win his first SOS feature. Jim Porter, of Grand Island N.Y. was third, followed by West and Mahoney. The SOS season ends with a two-race show at Brighton on Sept. 5-6.
0 comments:
Post a Comment