PERKINS WINS SHOWDOWN!

July 4, 2008

John Houghton

Andrew Perkins (#3) of London won the Peterbilt of Ontario Super Stock Showdown Friday evening at Delaware Speedway.  His win makes him the first ever repeat winner of the special showdown format.  The showdown format puts Peterbilt of Ontario Super Stock drivers into competition in a multi-segment event with an increased payout and more points on the line.

 

The evening began with time trials for the Peterbilt of Ontario Super Stocks.  Ray Morneau (#98) of Windsor won the trials and broke his own track record.  His lap time was 21.223 seconds.

 

The first races up on the evening were the heat races.  Truck heat #1 was won by Devon Bloemendal (#01) of Delaware, Heat #2 was won by Shawn Johns (#55) of St. Marys.  Powerade Open Wheel Modified heat #1 was won by Gary Brookes (#57), heat race # 2 was won by Jamie Cox (#3) of Dorchester.

 

Jeremy Reid (#76) of Kerwood won segment number one.  Reid faced tough challenges from Darrell “Hollywood” Lake (#77) of London.  Kris Lawrence (#28) of London also followed closely behind.  Eventual showdown winner Andrew Perkins (#3) of London had trouble early in the 15-lap segment falling back through the field.  The event also saw an incident that took Stephen Richmond (#24) of Appin out of competition when he became involved in a crash with Jim Mairs (#5) of London.

 

“It wasn’t too bad of a hit,” said Richmond.  “I got air off the wall again, so that wasn’t any fun.  The car’s worse then I am.  The car was working good tonight, but we had a bad qualifying run when it was stuck in second gear.  We were just hoping to ride around at the back tonight”.

 

The Challenger Motor Freight truck feature was won by Justin DeMello (#82) of London.  On the first lap of the race a crash nearly took out a number of fast drivers including Paul Fothergill (#9) of London and Jeff Showler (#56) of Mt. Elgin.  All trucks managed to recover but the yellow would fly for Chad Rijnen (#33) of London.  After a pit stop he would manage to get out only one lap down, but would fall prey to the leader within a few laps.  A battle for third, fourth, fifth and sixth developed between a number of the top drivers including Steve Lovie (#41) of Dutton, Randy Thompson (#1) of Dorchester, “The Black Knight” Paul Fothergill (#9) of Dorchester, Devon Bloemendal (#01) of Delaware, and Shawn Johns (#00) of St. Marys.  Running second was Dennis McColl (#6) of London.  He would fall victim to that pack of trucks.  In the closing laps it would be “The Black Knight” of Fothergill who would mount a challenge on DeMello, but it would come too late.  “The Black Knight” Paul Fothergill finished second, Bloemendal finished third with DeMello in victory lane for the first time ever in the Challenger Motor Freight Trucks.

 

Segment #2 for the Peterbilt of Ontairo Super Stock Showdown began before the field rolled off pit road.  Dennis McColl (#6) of the Challenger Motorfreight Truck feature suffered a brake failure and coasted into the back of the parked #77 of Darrell Lake of London.  The crew scrambled to make repairs to the back of the #77 and there were no injuries from the incident.

 

The segment would also see an early crash involving the previous segment winner, Jeremy Reed (#76) of Kerwood, Kris Lawrence (#28) of London, Scott Nagy (#99) of London and Jason Meyer (#93) of Courtland.  All drivers managed to pull away from the crash.

 

The event continued with Jason Lidster (#11) of St. Thomas out front.  Lidster would go on to win the segment,  Jeremiah Rabideau (#51) of Glencoe was second, Ray Morneau (#98) finished third.

 

The POWERADE Open-Wheel Modified 25-lap feature race was led early on by Gary Brookes (#57) who was soon passed by Paul Shipway (#88) of Ailsa Craig.  Mark Watson (#20) was also on the move passing both Jamie Cox (#3) of Dorchester and David McCullough.  Watson chased the #88 for a number of laps before making a high side pass in turn three.  Watson would go on to win the event, Barry Newman (#1) of Springfield finished second, third was Darrell Limon (#54) of Watford.  Watson’s win was especially remarkable, as he had crashed in heat race competition causing damage to the back of his vehicle.

 

“This win means more to me than anything,” said Watson in victory lane.  “To go through that heat and back it into the wall like that - - we never got excited, we fixed it up.  This car was hooked up, unbelievable.”

 

The final segment of the Peterbilt of Ontario Super Stock Showdown was won by Andrew Perkins (#3) of London.  He started on the inside of the second row and as the race began found himself in second with Darrel Lake (#77) of London leading with Ray Morneau (#98) of Windsor behind him.  Perkins would look up high on Lake and complete the pass.  Morneau would follow him for a second place finish, but gave Perkins a run for his money in the final laps.  Finishing third was Jeremy Reid (#76) of Kerwood.

 

“Ray is the class of this division he really is,” said Perkins in victory lane.  “He raced me clean and I love racing against him.  It’s intimidating having him behind you, because you know how good he is, but you’re never worried about him hitting you.”

 

The Ultimate Sandblasting & Coating Chaos Car event was won by first time competitor “Undertaker” driven by Dan Stinson.  Second was “Snot Rod” followed by “One-Eyed Purple Car Eater”, “Kazakhstan Krunch”, and “Red Baron”.  The event saw a good amount of Chaos that kept fans in the seats until the very end with plenty of barrel turns and weaving cones.  All vehicles managed to finish the event in good running condition, with the exception of the “Red Baron” who pulled off near the end of the event for a dragging bumper.  The race went to red flag in the closing laps to reset part of the obstacle course that had been knocked over.  Coming to the white flag “One-Eyed Purple Car Eater” was out front but was passed by “Undertaker” exiting the “Stop Box”.  The next event for the Ultimate Sandblasting & Coating Chaos Cars is at the Transmission Direct Enduro race July 19 at 7:00 PM.

 

The next race event at Delaware Speedway is Friday, July 11.  The line-up features the APC Late Models, POWERADE Open-Wheel Modifieds and Challenger Motor Freight Trucks.  Following the event will be a Throne Kings of the Hill spectators race.  As well, the Krown Body Maintenance Junior Racing League will be hosting a pre-race show between 7:00-7:45 PM where drivers will discuss the first part of their season and the exciting races ahead of them this year

 

Gates open at 6:00 PM the main race program begins at 8:00 PM.