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GOERTZ WINS ENDURO CLASSIC June 20, 2009 John Houghton
“I thought I had a flat tire right at the start of the race,” said Goertz in victory lane. “I want to thank all the sponsors tonight, Whitworth Towing & Transmission Direct”.
Jim Ferguson (#06) of Essex finished second, third was Marc Machado (#160) of Strathroy, fourth was Paul Fothergill (#7) of London and fifth was Norm Roy (#37) of London driving for Steve Arrand. Paul “Fender” Fenton (#747) of Blenheim won the first heat race of the day. Dave Goertz (#15) won the second heat. Gortz’s win is especially notable, as the first driver to win both his heat and the feature on the same day in the new “Next Generation” program, earned himself an additional $450 on top of the $450 for winning the feature and $100 for winning the heat. All told it was a $1,000 payday for the winner.
Even though finishing outside the top-5 in the 200-lap feature, David McCullough (#39) of Glencoe’s seventh-place finish keeps him on top of the points standings after three events. McCullough leads the next closest challenger, Richard Ainsworth (#744) of Blenheim by 25 points. Each point is valued at one position. In other words, Ainsworth would need to finish 25 positions ahead of McCullough throughout the next event in order to gain ground on the Glencoe driver. Less than ten points separate second through fifth, as Dave Goertz’s win breaks him into the top-5 in points.
“It feels great to be here! Mom, I didn’t wreck it!” exclaimed Triska of Blue Thunder in victory lane. “I just tried to keep it clean and see if I could pull away from the field. It looks like it paid off!”
The race was a historic one for the Transmission Direct Enduro. It was the first race to be scored entirely using the new electronic scoring system. Within minutes of the event the final results were available, where previously it would take over an hour to tabulate the manual scorecards.
Following the event Delaware Speedway officials issued a series of statements regarding the race:
From Delaware Speedway Technical Inspection:
#06 Jim Fegusson was issued a $100 fine and 25 point deduction for running an unapproved wheel spacer. It was not deemed an advantage, based on how the driver could have run a different offset wheel to attain the same effect, however under the rulebook spacers are not allowed.
Race director Jeff Wilcox also made a statement regarding lap times and the new electronic scoring system:
“We have talked about speed in past seasons, and had an unofficial time cap of 23.5 seconds which monitored manually in previous seasons. We did state once the transponder system was installed and in use that we may need to run several events to gain data, and possibly adjust that time in the interest of keeping costs down,” said Race Director Jeff Wilcox. “In the heat races, since there are fewer cars on the track, the cars do run quicker than they do in the feature. We are very pleased with the information we are receiving from the timesheets for the main features, and are looking at an adjustment of the lap time cap. This will be discussed at the next race’s drivers meeting with input allowed from all drivers.”
The next race event at Delaware Speedway is this Friday, June 26, the PartSource 142 presented by BX93. The lineup features the speedway’s NASCAR Whelen All-American Divisions of APC Late Models, Delaware Super Stocks and Demar Aggregates Trucks. Tickets are available at a discounted price through the speedway website www.delawarespeedway.com until Wednesday evening, at which point they will return to regular gate price. Gates for the event open at 6:00 pm, time trials are at 7:30 pm, racing starts at 8:00 pm. Video Screen Captures Provided By: http://www.checkeredflagmedia.com
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Dave Goertz (#15) of Arkona won the Transmission Direct Enduro 200-Lap Classic presented by Whitworth Towing Saturday evening at Delaware Speedway. Goertz had to overcome going one lap down early in the event to take the win. Shortly after the green he went into the infield, believing he had a cut tire, only to be told by his crew that the tire was fine. For the remainder of the day Goertz drove the wheels off his green #15 Camaro trying to catch race leader Steve Book (#64) of Brantford. As the race came to an end with fifty laps to go, Book had the entire field except Goertz, who had managed to get his lap back. With over half a track lead on Goertz and both drivers holding the same distance interval, it seemed like almost a sure win for Book. As Transmission Direct Enduro fans know, however, nothing is ever certain in an Endurance race. On lap 167 of 200 race leader Steve Book suffered an engine failure sending him to the infield. Goertz took the lead and held on through traffic to get to victory lane.
In the action-packed Ultimate Sandblasting & Coating Chaos Cars Gary Triska of Staffordville piloted Blue Thunder to his first-ever win in the 10-lap event. It was a good Chaos points day for Blue Thunder who is now within three points of current leader, Spencer Rabideau and his car Bush Bomb. Rabideau led his share of laps in the event as well and was in striking distance of a potential win before being turned by defending Champion Tyssen Toll in the SnotRod on the final lap. Toll’s Snotrod would finish second, and Jake Truax’s Wrinkles II finished third. Rabideau’s Bush Bomb would settle for fourth.