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By Dave Sully
(Thorold, Ontario) Rick Richner scored a convincing win in the thirty-five
lap modified feature at Merrittville on Saturday, August 4th. Richner, from Niagara Falls,
NY, parlayed a fourth place starting spot and a low groove set up to score his second win of
the season over a strong field. The veteran driver hung around the front, moved past leader
Tim Jones on lap 23 and then drove away from the field over the remaining twelve laps.
Rookie Chris Steele set the early pace, outgunning pole sitter Scott George at
the drop of the green from his outside pole starting spot. He set a blistering pace to open
a sizable lead, but lost it on lap ten when Todd Gordon looped his machine in turn two.
George appeared to take the lead on the restart but was penalized for jumping and lost two
spots on the next restart, which occurred two laps later when Roger Chrysler spun in turn
two.
Jones took the lead from Steele on a lap fifteen restart, taking Richner with
him into second. Richner then stalked Jones, using the lower groove aggressively, before
easing by in turn four on lap 23. From there the race for first was essentially over, as he
drove out to a commanding lead.
There was plenty of action behind him, however, as several cars improved their
positions.
Chief of those was Chad Brachmann, winner of the previous week’s Lucas Oil
Shootout, who went off thirteenth and scampered up to third, Larry Lampman Jr., who started
fifteenth, and soldiered up to fifth, and Scott Wood, who was ninth on the grid and worked
his way up to second. George, who has been having a rough time of late, had one of his best
runs of the year and ended up fourth.
Richner explained the keys to his win, declaring, “When I saw how rough the
top was, I thought I’d stay around the bottom. We had a good starting spot. That helped. I
knew I could beat him (Jones) off the corner, so I kept trying and trying until I finally got
the lead.”
The twenty-five lap sportsman feature went to Travis Braun, who scored his
first Merrittville victory. The former Hoosier stock standout from Jordan Station led every
lap from the pole, holding off the field on three restarts over the course of the event.
Big movers in the race were Mat Williamson, who made a charge from thirteenth
to finish second, followed by Mike Bowman who placed third after starting eleventh. Alan
Sleight also made dramatic progress, moving from twelfth to fourth in the final accounting.
Braun commented, “There was a ton of bite down low, and I just had to make
sure I didn’t overdrive any of the corners, and hit all of my marks. I knew we had enough
gear to pull coming out of the corner down low.”
The Hoosier stocks put on another twenty lap barn burner, with Rob Murray from
St. Catharines withstanding a withering assault from teenager Cody McPherson to claim a
hard-earned win. Murray came from tenth to take the lead on a lap 4 restart and then had to
fend off McPherson, who claimed second a lap later. Murray hugged the bottom forcing
McPherson outside, and try as he might, the youngster couldn’t get enough bite to get by.
McPherson ended up second, followed by Paul Wichert, Kirk Wilson, and last week’s winner Mike
Dooley.
The beat went on in the open wheel lites, as Paul Klager won his eye-popping
tenth feature of the year, coming from twelfth place to do it. Klager, from Beamsville,
sliced through the field to take the lead on lap thirteen of the twenty lap event, and then
drove away to the win. Last week’s winner Shawn Sliter made a late race charge to finish
second after starting tenth.
Finally, Mike Giberson from Blackheath scored his first ever Merrittville four
cylinder mini-stock victory, taking the lead when the top two runners, Jocelyn Wiley, bidding
for her first ever win was spun on lap nineteen by Carey Gore, after Wiley led every previous
lap. Giberson held off Rob Overholt on the restart to claim his historic first win.
NOTES: The Gore spin of Wiley set off a setto in the pits between members of
the two teams, resulting in Gore and Wiley’s husband Aaron, who also drove in the race, to be
DQd. for contact following the event.……..There was post-race activity on two fronts after
last week’s program. The cylinder heads of the top five cars in the 56 lap Lucas oil
Shootout were checked and third place finisher Adam Ferri’s No 1F was deemed to be illegal.
Ferri was suspended for four weeks and fined as a result………… From that same race, Boyd
Mactavish, who was already on probation, was suspended for one race, along with losing his
points and money for deliberate contact with Scott Wood……… There were 108 cars in the pits
on a perfect night for racing………….Popular longtime driver Terry St. Amand took home the
trophy in the Motorcycle “Show and Shine” competition, gaining the loudest response from the
crowd for his orange Harley.
Results:
L. St Amand Modifieds: (35 laps) Rick Richner, Scott Wood, Chad Brachmann,
Scott George, Larry Lampman Jr., Pete Bicknell, Chris Steele, Tim Jones, Randy Chrysler, Ken
Cosgrove, Todd Gordon, Brian Stevens, Dan Miller, Dereck Lemyre, Roger Chrysler, George Bosse,
Robbie Krull, Rich Vinson, and Jon Miller. Heat winners were George, Brachmann, and
Bicknell.
Original Pizza Logs Sportsman: (25 laps) Travis Braun, Mat Williamson, Mike
Bowman, Alan Sleight, Mark D’Ilario, Bill Bleich, Wayne Conn, Jim Johnstone, Tyler McPherson,
Luke Carleton, Darren Zumpe, Tim Lipsitt, Robbie Rounce, Norm Mark, Robbie Knapp, Chad
Chevalier, Zack Zumpe, Don Spiece, BJ Willard, Brandon Easey, Nick Cupolo, and Justin Sharp.
Heat winners were Braun, Bowman, and Willard.
Hoosier Stocks: (20 laps) Rob Murray, Cody McPherson, Paul Wichert, Kirk
Wilson, Mike Dooley, Russ Davidson, Peter Reid, Brent Begolo, Brad Herron, Bill Bleich Jr.,
Jeff Dayman, Jason Fontaine, Kevin Kocarik, Dave Small, Shayne Pierce, Vince Fargnoli,
Kevin Knapp, Barry Blanchard, Rick Champigny, Ron Kingsbury, and Rob Disher.
Heat winners were Wichert, McPherson, and Begolo.
Lucas Oil Open Wheel Lites: (20 laps) Paul Klager, Shawn Sliter,
Wayne Robins, Kory Howe, Dave Russell, Kevin Aube, Scott Billings, Lorne Collings, Jamie
Gilbert, Jordan Curran, Jason Corless, Wally Billing, Andy Tallman, Bob Bredin, Kellie Mason,
Joel Szigetti, Ray Sliter Jr., Andrew Sittler, Josh Sliter, Melvin Jeffrey, Adam Leslie,
Derek Bredin, Rick Brubacher, James Curran. DNS: Mark Brighton, Dan Russell Heat winners were Robins, Bob Bredin, and Howe.
Turn 4 Collision Minis: (20 laps) Mike Giberson, Rob Overholt, Greg Wilson,
Garnet Wilson, Evan Curtis, Rob Goulding, Abel Castelein, Tony Kelly, Ed McLean, Baden
Curtis, Terry Larmet, Jocelyn Wiley, David Lopes, Trevor Goulding, and Brandon Iuduciani, DQ:
Charlie Lynch, Carey Gore, and Aaron Wiley. Heat winners were Abel Castelein and Greg Wilson.
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