VICTORIA DAY RACE WEEKEND WRAP UP

May 16, 17, 2008

John Houghton

It was a great weekend of racing at the half-mile of Delaware Speedway located just outside of London, Ontario that began on Friday evening with the weekly racing program and ended on Saturday with a Transmission Direct Enduro 250 presented by All-Round Truck & Auto Care.

Friday evening began with a call to “start your engines” by 36-year veteran speedway employee Ken Baker. Baker retired from Delaware Speedway at the end of the 2007 season and at the year-end “Night of Champions” was honoured with the prestigious “Harborne Lawrence Memorial Spirit of Racing Award”. On Friday, before giving the call, the speedway also issued him a renewable season pass in recognition of his continued contributions to the Delaware Speedway racing community.

 

Dan Delisle (#7) of Lasalle won the season opener for the APC Late Models. Delisle led from the outset of the marathon event, which contained six caution flags for incidents that sent numerous vehicles home with significant damage. Despite the incidents, the APC Late Model field featured a star-studded line-up of drivers along with numerous eager new challengers. Twenty-three cars took the green flag for the feature.

Jamie Ramsay was a strong early challenger to Delisle however after the first caution period Ramsay fell back before spinning in turn two. Scott Lindsay (#20) of St. Marys moved into second position with Jesse Kennedy (#10) of Southwold in third. As the pack moved tightly into turn four a bottleneck developed causing a chain reaction which sent Duke Sawchuck (#5) of Emeryville into the turn four tire. In the same incident third place runner Kennedy also received damage, causing his door panel to become wedged under his car. Kennedy made numerous attempts under yellow to dislodge the panel but was unable to do so. The race resumed and Kennedy soon lost a number of positions before fuel problems caused him to exit the event on the closing lap. Lindsay finished second, in his triumphant return event Steve Robblee (#28) of Dorchester finished third. “Rocket” Ron Sheridan (#52) of Mt. Brydges finished fourth with Delaware Speedway track champion and Nascar Nationwide Series driver D.J. Kennington in fourth.

“It was a long race, I can tell you that,” said Delisle in victory lane. “It was better sitting there then where some of the guys were. I was sorry to see some of them wreck. My spotter was saying I had three to four car lengths, but it felt like they were right on me.”

The Peterbilt of Ontario Super Stock feature race was won by Ray Morneau (#98) of Winsdor for the second week in a row, but it was by no means an easy victory. Jeremy Read (#76) of Kerwood started from the pole position and faced a strong outside fight from new challenger Dave Silverthorne Jr. (#9). The pair raced side by side with Cascar Super Series champion JR Fitzpatrick (#84) of Cambridge following close behind. Silverthorne JR. was able to complete the pass, soon after Fitzpatrick had a mechanical failure that sent him to the pits. When the drivers sorted themselves out again Silverthorne JR was facing challenges from Scott O’Connor (#9) who was substituting for DJ DeJesus. After a side-by-side battle O’Connor took the lead and pulled away from the field, but the yellow flag would fly within ten laps to go tightening up the field. Two laps after the restart Ray Morneau (#98) of Windsor would complete the pass on O’Connor and move on to victory lane.

“I’ve got to hand it to Delaware for introducing this crate motor. This thing is four years old we haven’t spent any money on it and it runs like Jack the Bear. It never breaks down it just keeps on ticking,” said Morneau in victory lane. “Randy and Dan set it up real good. It’s still easy to drive anyway!”

Paul Fothergill (#9) of London won the Challenger Motorfreight Truck feature race Friday evening. Randy Thompson (#1) of Dorchester led early on with Tom Zagorodny (#77) of Dorchester on his tail. The two drivers pulled away from the field but were quickly joined by Fothergill’s black truck. Fothergill worked his way around both drivers to take the lead. As the race continued Zagordny found himself racing hard with Darrell Porter (#8) of Dorchester. Contact between Devon Bloemendal (#01) of Mt. Brydges and Porter sent Porter spinning on the front stretch bringing out the yellow. On the restart the previous week’s winner Chad Rijnen (#33) of London attempted to take the lead on the outside of Fothergill. In his attempt Rijnen blew a tire sending him to pit lane and Fothergill on to victory.

“I hope I didn’t squeeze him into the wall,” said Fothergill in victory lane, referring to Rijnen’s flat tire. “I tried to give him enough room, and he was coming strong on the outside. We were on the straightaway and I felt someone touch me. I don’t know if that was the thing [that did it] or not.”

Randy Thompson (#1) of Dorchester finished second, Jeff Showler (#56) of Mt. Elgin finished third.

The Throne Kings of the Hill spectators race was won by Air Pressure in his famous Red Camero. Speedway flagman Rob Sharpe had his best run ever making it to the finals. New challengers in the event included a BMW, P.T. Cruiser and Titanic with strong showings, as well as the return of Grocery Getter.

Here are the results from the Throne Kings of the Hill Spectator’s Race:

1. Air Pressure / Venom Killer
2. Flag Man
3. BMW
4. Grocery Getter
5. Titanic
6. Karate Kid / Soccer Car
7. Silver Cavalier
8. P.T. Cruiser
9. ‘Lil Toyota
10. Lawn Man Landscaping (Snow Plow Light)
11. Brown Truck
12. Soccer Mom Van
13. Big Black Truck
14. Eclipse
15. Rag-Top Mustang
16. Blue Truck
17. For Sale Truck
18. Shoebox 2
19. Shoebox 1

Saturday:

Saturday’s event was the Transmission Direct Enduro 250 presented by All-Round Truck and Auto Care featuring the Ultimate Sandblasting & Coating Chaos Cars & Four Cylinder Invitational.

The day opened with the Ultimate Sandblasting & Coating Chaos Cars “Stop-Box Madness” event which used the front straightaway and pit road as an obstacle course. The defining feature of the event was a “Stop Box” located on pit road that required each car to come to a full stop as it passed through. The catch, was that the leader of the race had to wait for the second place car to enter the box and stop beside them before proceeding.

The newly introduced Snot Rod led the event early but quickly fell to battery problems handing the lead over to the exhibition event winner Red Baron. The Baron was followed closely by another new competitor by the name of Fred. The Baron continuously led Fred around the course but the stop box equalized the pair each lap. Fred landed a solid blow on the Baron at around the half-way point of the 10-lap event and managed to take the lead before the Baron passed Fred once more to take the win.

Unofficial Results:

1. Red Baron
2. Fred
3. Snot Rod
4. Kazakhstan Krunch
5. Chuck Norris

The Four-Cylinder invitational event was invaded by Ultimate Sandblasting and Coating Chaos cars who were joined by the first four-cylinder visitor to Delaware Speedway, Angela Webster (#33) of Glencoe. The event turned into an absolute door handle to door handle dogfight between the Red Baron (Dan Mills of London) and Fred (Matt Daltrey of Ingersoll), as Fred tried to regain his honour after his defeat in “Stop Box Madness”. The 10-lap race contained seven lead changes between the two drivers. On the final lap the Red Baron led but Fred was able to manoeuvre to the inside and scraped along the side of the baron tearing the bumpers off both vehicles and blowing out the front left tire on the Baron. Fred went on to win the event taking his final revenge on the Red Baron who finished second.

“That was awesome! Set ‘em up, set ‘em up, take ‘em out” said Fred (Matt Daltrey) in victory lane. “I want to thank Mark Baigent from Baigent excavating for helping us set this car up and Delaware Speedway for putting on this awesome class. If anyone wants to build one of these, it’s a blast out here. Come on out and join the fun.”

Following the race, Fred left the speedway out the back exit. Team Red Baron collected his bumper off the front straightaway and is holding it for ransom leading into the next event, which will take place on Friday, May 30th.

The unofficial results from the four-cylinder invitational:

1. Fred (Matt Daltrey of Ingersoll)
2. Red Baron (Dan Mills of London)
3. Angela Webster (#33) of Glencoe
4. Snot Rod (Tyssen Toll of London)
5. Chuck Norris (Doug Stewart of London, representing Beal Secondary School)

The Transmission Direct Enduro 250 was won by Dave Goertz (#15) of Arkona. Goertz took the lead on lap-35 of the event. The race was finished in record time, but contained a number of incidents around the speedway. As with the season opener the turn three and four side of the speedway was a popular one for off roading in the dirt. One of the most exciting moments of the day came when Tony Rumble (#04) of Blenhem moved in to assist Claude Ratelle (#7) who was sideways on the front straightaway. Rumble moved in and pushed Ratelle’s vehicle into the pits and to the attention of his crew. David McCullough (#39) of Glencoe was again strong in the event and was able to avoid the type of incidents that took him out of contention in the previous event allowing him to finish second.

“It was a good run. The car worked awesome and traffic was great,” said Dave Goertz in victory lane.

Unofficial Top 5:

1. Dave Goertz
2. David McCullough
3. John Lynch
4. Steve Smith
5. Jeff Coward

Full results from the Transmission Direct Enduro will be available online Tuesday.

The next Delaware Speedway race event is Friday May 23 presented by O’Tools Rent or Buy. The line-up features the Challenger Motor Freight Trucks, Peterbilt of Ontario Super Stocks and APC Late Models. Gates open at 6:00 PM, racing starts at 8:00 PM.