Cowboy Wins Super Stock Spectacular
A three car battle turned messy in the Dynamic Fluid Super Stock event Friday night at Delaware Speedway, as ‘Cowboy’ Kris Lawrence (#28) of London, took advantage of late contact between the leaders to capture his second feature win of the season.
Steve ‘Pee Wee’ Smith (#84) of Arkona, snatched the lead from Lawrence, but with Jeremy Reid (#76) of Kerwood, also in the mix the three made contact with two laps to go. Smith and Reid crashed, handing control to Lawrence.
Lawrence spoke about the contact, “The #84 [Smith] and the #76 [Reid] had a run on me, and we went down into turn one and Steve came up on me and we made some contact and that started it. I was in the middle of it, but I just tried to see through the smoke and get through it without stopping.”
Reid said, “I ran through all the dirt on the track from when the #28 [Lawrence] got by me. Then he washed up and I followed Steve through the hole. I went under him and then I was knocked into the #84 [Smith].”
While Reid lost his shot at the win, Smith was in the hunt for the points lead, and also talked about the incident, “I took the lead in four from the #28 [Lawrence], and we went into turn one, and the next thing I knew I was hit. We were looking at a win and the point lead.”
Kris held off Darrell ‘Hollywood’ Lake (#77) of London, on the final restart in the 35-lap special that saw the divisions’ tallest car count of the season. “Darrell and I were working together a lot on our setups, so when I was out front with him behind me, I figured that I could hold him off because we had about the same stuff. Still, we’re teammates and we finished one-two, so it was a great night for BT Racing.”
Paul Fothergill (#33) of London, picked the right lanes early in the feature and darted to the front, moving from 11th to third by a lap four restart. Fothergill made short work of Jake ‘Juicebox’ Ott (#60) of Ayr, getting him on the high side, and then set his sights on Reid, who had led since starting on the pole.
The bright red #33 stalked Reid before making his move on lap 13 to take command. Fothergill then walked away from the field opening up a large lead before his night came crashing down just six laps shy of the finish as he pitted with a flat right rear tire.
Lake finished second, with Matt Humphrys (#04) of St. Mary’s, rounding out the podium with his first top-five of the season. Kenny McNichol Jr. (#17) of Exeter, finished fourth, and Scott Nagy (#99) of Strathroy wound up fifth.
Smith raced his way back to eighth and now sits five points behind Lawrence, while Reid finished 13th.
2009 division champion Jason Lidster (#11) of St. Thomas, who entered the night as the point leader was penalized two laps early in the event, but fought back to the lead lap and an eighth-place result. He trails Lawrence by six markers.
Tim McGregor (#48) of St. Thomas, finished a career high sixth, and Delaware ‘King of the Hill’ legend ‘Venom’ Riaan Vanvuuren (#9) of London, finished ninth in his stock car debut.
Reid and McNichol won heat races.
Barry Newman Records Hat Trick
Barry Newman (#1) of Springfield, captured his third checkered flag of the season, as the leaders wrecked on lap four, opening his championship lead to 21 points of Tyler Hendricks (#38) of Pain Court.
Darrell Limon (#54) of Watford, was the early leader until Justin Demelo (#82) of London, made contact with the leader, sending both drivers into the wall. Newman was running third at the time and drove away from the pack during the remainder of the event.
Newman, a two-time division champ spoke about the win, “We fell into the lead, and it was really a gift. On the restart, the #24 [Stephen Richmond of London] was able to stay with me for a bit, but I said, ‘I don’t want to overdrive the corners’. It feels good to be the point leader.”
Richmond was able to stay close to Newman, but never challenged, finishing a season-high second. David McCullough (#39) of Glencoe, wound up third, holding off Hendricks, who ended up fourth. Demelo raced back to a fifth-place result.
McCullough and Newman were winners in the pair of heat races.
Rijnen Captures First Feature Win of Season and Expands Points Lead
Rookie truck racer Shawn Potvin (#43) of London, started the night by winning his first career Demar Aggregate Truck heat race of his career, and followed it up by leading the early laps of the 25-lap main event. Gary Adriaensen (#55) of Belmont, wrestled the lead away on lap five, but dropped off the pace momentarily on lap 10, falling back to fifth and turning control over to Potvin again.
Chad Rijnen (#16) of Thamesford, took the green from 11th, and quickly cut his way through the field. He was involved in some contact that also involved Shea Gemmell (#3) of Dorchester, and Devon Bloemendal (#01) of Mt. Brydges.
Potvin retook the lead before Rijnen took the rookie to school with a beautiful move on lap 11, shortly after a restart. Potvin tried to battle back, but it was short lived as Craig Marche (#15) of London, passed the rookie as well. Marche hung tight for a few laps, before Rijnen put some distance between himself and the field. By leading the rest of the laps and picking up the win, Chad expanded his point lead to 17 over Bloemendal.
Adriaensen lost a number of positions, but rallied late to bring home a third-place finish, while rookie Tyler Finlay (#25) of London, ran as high as third before finishing fourth. Shawn Johns (#14) of St. Mary’s, made his first start of the season, finishing fifth while filling in for Chris Riddell.
Potvin and Adriaensen picked up heat race wins, with the Adriaensen victory being memorable courtesy of a tremendous battle for the win between him and Jeff Showler (#56) of Mt. Elgin, as the pair swapped the lead back and forth.
Trains Race Side by Side at Delaware
A pair of Brandy Point Service Racing were on hand for the first ‘Train Race’ of the season, as six cars joined to make three ‘trains’ and race for eight laps around the ½-mile. The duo duelled early until one of them derailed into the wall. It came down to a Ray Lewis owned GAW Recycling Enduro ‘engine’ with a Brady Point ‘caboose’, who were able to outdistance a pair of Ultimate Sandblasting and Coatings Chaos Cars to capture the win.
Winning drivers Costas Koellias and Kyle Neumeister were all smiles in victory lane, saying, “This was a lot of fun, now we just need some more cars. Ray Lewis volunteered his car, and we learned a few things about train racing last year.”
Story and photo by Jamie Maudsley and www.maudsleymotorsports.com
