May 27 Full Recap
Watson Leads Wire to Wire for First Feature Win of Season at Delaware
Following a disappointing finish in last weekend’s ‘Great Canadian 200’, Mark Watson (#78) of St. Thomas returned to Delaware with vengeance Friday night. He led every circuit of the 35-lap caution-free main event for his first victory of the season in the FT Garage Late Model division at Delaware Speedway.
Watson started the night with a victory in his 10-lap heat race, earning the pole for the feature. Matt Pritiko (#21) of London, tried his best to find traction in the outside line, but was forced to step in behind Watson in the early going.
As the laps clicked by, Watson pulled away from the rest of the field, while May 13th feature winner John Urlin (#4) of London was picking his way towards the front. “Having the pole was good,” explained Watson. “It’s always a lot of fun to race through the field, but we’ll take the starting spot.”
Gord Sheppherd (#10x) of Hawkestone, fell into third on the start, but that was short lived as Matt Box (#27) of Milton, took the position, going to the inside on lap seven, and bringing Urlin through to fourth. Box tried to hold off Urlin, but by lap 12 the black #4 was too much, as John took the position.
From there, John hunted down his teammate Pritiko and made short work of the sophomore, before taking off in pursuit of the leader. Watson had a three-second lead with 14 laps to go, but Urlin was eating real estate, and found himself within two car lengths as the pair received the white flag. Despite Urlin’s speed, Watson was able to turn a perfect circle on the final laps to take home his first feature win of the season.
Mark spoke about what the win meant to him, “We’ve been through so much in the past week and a half. I dropped a washer down the motor a week ago Thursday. It rattled around in there, and we couldn’t race the motor. The next thing you know, Roger Newman [Barry’s father] calls me and tells me I can borrow their backup motor. I can’t say enough about that. That was awesome of Roger and Barry. We ran well in the Great Canadian 200, but I knew our motor was just a little bit better. I also put my crew through that, and they had to work their butts off for the last week. They gave me a good car, and I think I would’ve been able to come through traffic with the car we had.”
As for Urlin looming larger in his mirror, he said, “I was counting down the laps, and I went too easy while he was catching me. The next thing I know Heather [Watson – spotter/car owner] told me he was two car lengths back and I had to pick it up.”
Urlin was pleased with the run that ended up one position short of the black and white flag, “We just needed another five laps, or a yellow flag. We’ve been here the last three weeks, and we have two heat race wins, led all 35 laps and won on Siskinds night, and led the most laps during the 200-lapper. I can’t complain about second. We had some fun, and there isn’t a tire mark on the car.”
Box’s blue #27 was able to rebound, putting on a late charge to take third from Pritiko on lap 27, bring Gresel along with him. By that time, the leaders had distanced themselves from the duo, as Box picked up the bronze medal.
Point leader Gresel entered the evening with an 18-point lead over Matt Robblee (#28) of Dorchester, but despite finishing fourth to Robblee’s sixth, the gap to second shrunk to 15 as Box moved to second in the championship standings.
Pritiko rounded out the top-five, moving from seventh to fourth in points with the result.
Watson won the first heat, while Shawn Thompson (#72) of Ailsa Craig was knocked out for the night after contact with Jesse Kennedy (#10) of Southwold, and then a barrier. Neither would compete in the feature, dropping them from eight and sixth in points outside the top-ten.
In the second heat, Scott Lindsay (#20) of St. Mary’s was leading when a failure on his car led to hard contact, knocking him back to tenth in points, while Urlin picked up the win.
Newman Makes it Two for Two in Modified Action
Last week’s feature winner, Barry ‘The Bear’ Newman (#1) of Aylmer, continued dominance of the Powerade Modified division on week two of their 2011 calendar. Between a third-place run, followed by a win in his heat race competition, Newman was able to earn the pole for the 25-lap feature, and took the green with sophomore Justin Demelo (#82) of London, beside him. Demelo had also been victorious in a qualifying race.
After a brief battle when the green appeared, Newman dropped the hammer and pulled out to a 10 car length lead over Demelo, with David McCullough (#39) of Glencoe, and Tyler Hendricks (#38) of Pain Court chasing the #82.
Hendricks made the first break out of line, putting a move on McCullough on lap 10 to take third, but was unable to make contact with Demelo through the remainder of the event.
Newman went wire-to-wire for his second feature win of the season at the London-area half-mile, and expanding his lead over Hendricks from two points to 12 in his quest for title number three. The Bear spoke about the win, “If you can pass guys in the heat race, you don’t have to pass them in the feature, and that’s our new race line up. The 82 [Demelo] had a strong start, but our car was so good that when I got past him I was able to open up a little lead. I tried to stay on a steady pace, but when you’re out front like that, sometimes you get caught daydreaming. I tried to keep concentrating, and hitting my marks and I knew what kind of lead I had. We want to be the points leaders all year long, and a night like this is a good way to help do that.”
Demelo finished second, with Hendricks coming home third. McCullough had to hold off a strong challenge from Darrell Limon (#54) of Watford, to post a fourth-place finish, with Limon coming home fifth.
Lidster Returns to Victory Lane in Super Stock
2009 Dynamic Fluids Super Stock champion Jason Lidster (#11) of St. Thomas, returned to victory lane for the first time in 2011 Friday night with a strong run in the feature.
Pole sitter Matt Humphrys (#04) of St. Mary’s, took the early lead while Steve Smith (#84) of Arkona bolted through traffic to find the leader’s bumper after just three laps. A few corners later Smith had captured command with Paul Fothergill (#33) of London, who started ninth, and Lidster, who rolled fifth, in hot pursuit.
Fothergill was the busiest of the trio, playing offence and defence – on many occasions at the same time – before Lidster tapped him on lap 14 to pick up second spot. Jason continued to apply pressure, this time to Smith who skated up the track in turn three with just five laps left, allowing Lidster to sweep his car to the bottom and take the lead. Smith was never able to mount a response and chased Lidster to the line in second-place as Jason claimed his first feature of the season.
The St. Thomas driver talked about getting to the front, “I really feel bad for getting into the #33 [Fothergill], but we were all racing so close. He was right caught up to the #84 [Smith]. It was too early for a bump and run, but I wasn’t going to give it back after I was past him. With Steve, I could see that his car was going away, and getting loose. I knew I had to keep pressing him until he made a mistake. Finally he made a mistake, and I was able to get under him.”
For Lidster, who was very dominating in that championship season, this could be an early warning sign that his team is ready to make a title run. “We were fast in 2009, and it seemed like everyone caught us in speed last year. We’ve done some work with Mike McColl, and have really worked on a different setup this year. We didn’t go back to the old notes, because we think this can work, and tonight it did. We lucked into our heat race win tonight. We had a good starting spot, and a good start. We had a lot of handling issues, but the guys worked hard tonight, and my new crew chief Mike Reno came up with some good ideas, and we were able to get it better in the feature.”
2010 division champion ‘Cowboy’ Kris Lawrence (#28) of London, caught Fothergill late in the event and passed him to bring home a third-place finish, with Fothergill wound up fourth.
Raymond Yeo (#55) of St. Thomas, recovered from contact with D.J. De Jesus (#9) of London, on lap one to record a top-five finish.
Humphrys and Lidster won their heat races.
Also on the card Friday night were the annual Jesse’s Journey track-walk to raise money for Jesse’s Journey, and John Davidson was on hand to participate in the walk around the ½-mile.
The first annual High School Cross Country Challenge hit the track during pre-race event. Wes Root, representing Medway High School was victorious in the inaugural event, a three-lap race.
Story and photos by Jamie Maudsley and www.maudsleymotorsports.com
