“Home Sweet Home”
Each event featured merely average car counts compared to last year (26 at Ohsweken, 22 at Merrittville), but the quality of the competition made up for the slightly low quantity. After a rough and tumble three race tour of Quebec and Eastern Ontario last weekend, quite a few of the touring ESS teams were sporting spare cars and/or spare parts, including Dan Kaszubinski, the defending winner of both of the events held last year on this doubleheader weekend, who brought out a trusty old former “Scruffy” Bobby Allen frame from 1987! Kaszubinski promptly put “The Junk”, as he calls this particular car, into victory lane at Ohsweken on Friday night, coming from the 21st position on the grid in the process after an oil pressure gauge issue prevented the team from running a heat race. Quebec’s Alain Bergeron, who finished 2nd to Kaszubinski at Ohsweken after leading almost the whole event, and ran 3rd at Merrittville, also had two backup cars out, as his mount at Merrittville sported some body panels from what looked like Patriot Sprint Group driver Curt Shuttleworth’s car.
Only a handful of Southern Ontario Sprints competitors came out to try their hand against the travelers from New York, and other parts of the North East, because of the unfavourable (for them) handicapping process which guarantees that the top 12 feature starting spots will go to ESS tour regulars, and the fact that they have to buy two new tires as the ESS specifies both the left and right rear tire brand and compound. However, some of the SOS regulars who did show were moderately successful, especially at Ohsweken where “home track advantage” is starting become a factor for those who race regularly at the Brantford-area track. Two SOS regulars who started near the back of the pack - Jim Porter and Jamie Collard - finished 5th and 6th respectively at Ohsweken, but unfortunately Porter was DQ’ed after failing to report to the scales immediately after the feature, as all top 5 finishers are required to do.
Personally, and this’ll probably generate an e-mail or two, I think the DQ wasn’t particularly fair, or to put it in not so politically correct terms, I think it was a load of crap. I know, I know, rules are rules, but a lot of the time in sprint car races, drivers do not know exactly where they are running or have finished until someone tells them, and as far as I’m concerned the onus is on the race directors and officials to tell the drivers over the one-way radios where they finished and whether they need to report to the tech inspection area after a race or not. Every driver and team has made the effort to get these radios, so perhaps they should be used? For his part, Porter has reportedly decided that he won’t be running any more ESS events anytime soon, and I don’t blame him one bit really.
As mentioned before, Dan Kaszubinski took home feature win honours at Ohsweken, while 2004 ESS champion Lance Yonge was the victor at Merrittville, as he took the lead from John Karklin, Jr. after a mid-race caution period and drove a smooth line around the top groove for the convincing victory, his third of the season.
“Odds n’ Ends”
….Glenn Styres took the SOS race at South Buxton off last weekend in order to run with ESS in Quebec and Eastern Ontario so that he would be eligible to be involved in the handicapping procedure which determines the starting order. Unfortunately neither of his weekends went as planned: Last Friday’s event at the Autodrome Granby was rained out, the lone bright spot came at Autodrome Drummond last Saturday where he finished 6th, and then Styres and Alain Bergeron did a double flip off the start of the feature Sunday at Cornwall which took Glenn for a trip through a billboard. Both were able to get back into the event and salvage half-decent finishes at least, but then Glenn flipped again down the front stretch on Friday night at Ohsweken and pretty much wrote the car off. Originally the plan was to get their backup car out and use the engine from the primary, but it was later discovered that the engine had over-revved during it’s trip through the Ohsweken night, and the rear end gears had fouled as well, so Glenn and the team had to scratch from Saturday’s event at Merrittville….
…Jamie Collard’s decision not to run the ESS event at Merrittville, despite a fine 6th place result Friday night at Ohsweken, turned out to be a good one as the Princeton, Ontario native put Vinny Christiano’s TQ Midget in Victory Lane at Lancaster Raceway Park near Buffalo on Saturday night…
…Ryan Litt has done very well for himself with the wing strapped on as of late. In only his second start with a wing, and only his 10th start in a full sized sprint car, the 18 year old from Lyons, Ontario was 5th fastest in AVSS (Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper Super Sprints Series) sprint car time trials at Toledo Speedway’s “Fastest Short Track Show in the World” two weeks ago, and backed that up with a solid 6th place in the feature. This past weekend, the team went to Berlin Raceway in Michigan to compete again with the AVSS, and Ryan picked up where he left off at Toledo by time trialing 6th and finishing 2nd in the feature, leading a handful of laps near the end before eventual winner Cameron Dodson got by for his 3rd AVSS feature win in a row. Saturday night marked the last AVSS event Ryan will compete in until August, as the team has decided to keep Ryan’s rookie status with that club for next season. The AVSS limit is 5 events, so Ryan will be able to compete in the remaining two Ontario events on the AVSS schedule, but he’ll finish this season running mainly USAC and HOSS (Hoosier Outlaw Sprint Series) shows. Next up on the HOSS schedule is a Sunday, July 3 show at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway in Ohio, and then it’ll be back to Toledo on Friday, July 8 for a USAC event, followed by a return trip to Mansfield the night after for another USAC show, both of which will feature the USAC National Sprint Car and National Midget divisions. Competing on these tracks first with a wing before taking it off for the USAC shows should be of some benefit for Ryan…
…A big shout-out is in order for another Ryan - Ryan Coniam from Burlington, Ontario. The former SOS and ESS competitor, who also happens to be the son of Supermodified legend and Canadian Motorsports Hall of Famer Warren Coniam, passed veteran Danny Smith for the lead on lap 19 and went on to win his first ever All Star Circuit of Champions feature event at the Lernerville Speedway in Pennsylvania on Friday Night. It was the first ever win in a 410 sprint car for the ’03 All Star rookie of the year, who has come together with his brand new team very quickly, and good things should be in store for Ryan and the great looking BanCon #46 car. Just before the win, it was announced that Ryan will compete in the Clean-O World Challenge at the famed Knoxville Raceway in August. The World Challenge race is part of a huge 10 night sprint car bonanza called Southern Iowa SprintWeek and takes place the night before the Super Bowl of Sprint Car Racing – The Knoxville Nationals...
…’04 SOS Champ Cody Geldart is quietly putting together a decent rookie season on the All Star trail. He’s taken his lumps and had his share of ups and downs, but he is gaining experience and confidence every time he’s in the seat. The 17 year old time trialed 8th at Lernerville on Friday but failed to transfer to the main from his heat, forcing him to run the B-Main, which he subsequently won. Then he managed to race his way to an 11th place finish in the feature. It’s been that kind of season for Geldart, who seems to be able to turn it up a notch when his back’s against the wall, and has multiple B-Main wins to his credit. Sooner or later he’ll figure out how to drive like that all the time…
…2004 ISMA Supermodified Rookie of the Year Mike Lichty had a rather forgettable beginning to his USAC Silver Crown career. The young driver posted the slowest time in practice for the event at Richmond International Raceway in Virginia and posted no time in qualifying…
…On a personal note, I have a bit of a wish list this week: I wish Merrittville Speedway could hold more than one sprint car event per year. I wish the Southern Ontario Sprints could hold a sanctioned race of their own at what is one of Southern Ontario’s nicest and most historic short track racing venues. Last but not least, I wish the local open wheel scene was more a part of the holiday weekends here in Ontario, especially the Canada Day weekend which begins on Friday. The Can-Am Midget club is the only open wheel group running any kind of event in Ontario this holiday weekend (2 day Friday-Saturday event at Sauble Speedway). The Southern Ontario Sprints group generally has a break in their schedule on this weekend to permit their teams to travel to Hartford, Michigan for the big “King of Michigan” race, but it’s only a one day show, runs only on the Friday night, and generally only attracts a handful of SOS teams anyway…
…Two notes for Erik Thomas: Friday is Canada’s 138th Birthday, and the World of Outlaws do indeed run a 4 abreast parade lap…
That’s all for me this week. On Friday night I’ll be at Dixie Motor Speedway in Birch Run, Michigan for the AVSS show featuring, among others, Mount Brydges, Ontario driver Mike Ling. If you’ve never been to Dixie before or haven’t been there in awhile, I highly recommend it. Over the winter of 2002/2003, the speedway underwent a huge renovation, which included the addition of a high banked 4/10’s mile oval very much like Toledo Speedway, and a state of the art lighting system which is one of the brightest I have seen at any short track. This Friday marks the first of 3 visits this season to Dixie for AVSS. If you would like to e-mail me, the address is tommygoudge@hotmail.com. See you at the track!