CHATHAM, ON - Eric Vanderiviere’s recovery for a third-place finish after suffering a flat tire earlier in last Saturday night’s feature race has vaulted the Chatham driver into the points lead in the Windride Transportation Services Sport Stocks.
Vanderiviere went into the night nine points behind Essex’s Doris Lajeunesse. He has a nine-point lead going into this Saturday’s action (gates open 5:30p.m., racing begins at 7 p.m.).
Vanderiviere actually assumed the points lead before the feature, thanks to his heat win and fourth-place finish in the pursuit while Lajeunesse was sixth in the heat and 10th in the pursuit. Lajeunesse was fourth in the feature.
Lajeunesse has led the standings since opening night but Vanderiviere has chipped away at the deficit over the last month.
Vanderiviere was 24 points off the lead going into July as a pair of feature wins and four checkered flags in the last three race nights helped him overtake Lajeunesse.
Merlin’s Steve Shaw, on the strength of his third feature win of the season last Saturday, moved into third place, 56 points off the lead.
Lajeunesse has been the steadiest driver among the top three as he has managed to avoid all the mayhem that has marred the class this season. The Essex driver won the opening night feature and has seven top-5 finishes in nine features.
Vanderiviere has also missed the numerous crashes but has had three DNFs with mechanical issues.
Shaw’s only top-5 feature finishes have come in the races he’s won.
Brad McLeod has the biggest lead of the four classes as the seven-time track champion has a 110-point advantage atop the Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds.
Defending series champion Jim Dale Jr. of Shrewsbury had a 101-point lead over McLeod after the June 5 races but motor issues have dropped the six-time points champ to fourth place, 122 points behind the leader.
McLeod, who took the points lead on July 3, has 859 points.
Wyoming’s Brian Speelman moved into second place with 749 points, 11 ahead of Belle River’s Mario Toniolo who moved into third.
C.J. Field of Chatham, who led the standings for one week at the end of June, has slipped to fifth after missing last Saturday.
Chatham’s Brad Authier has won two straight feature races and has collected six of the last nine checkereds over the last three weeks in the Dover Sanitation UMP Late Models.
But the six-time track champ can’t gain ground on Dale Glassford’s lead.
Authier had a 79-point deficit going into last week’s action and despite his feature and heat wins, he only managed to reduce the deficit to nine points.
Glassford, the defending series champion from Ridgeown, has two wins and seven second-place finishes in the nine features run this season. He also has five wins and 16 second-place finishes in the 27 total races run in the class.
Chatham’s Jim Jones, 202 points off the lead, and Wallaceburg’s Mike Lewis, 261 back, moved ahead of Chatham’s Jason Haskell into third and fourth places. Haskell was one of four regulars who missed last week’s action after he wrecked the previous weekend in an ODLM event in Brockville.
Rob Quick knocked 24 points off Blenheim’s Shawn Jones’ lead in the Four Seasons Driver Comp 4 class.
Quick won his second feature of the season last Saturday while Jones carded a rare DNF, allowing the veteran Cottam driver to reduce the deficit from 68 to 44 points.
Jones finished 12th but was upgraded to 10th in the official results after Blenheim’s Reid Fenton and Chatham’s Randy McKinlay, who finished second and third, were disqualified for refusing tech inspection.
Quick went through inspection and passed, as did the top three finishers from the Sport Stocks feature (Shaw, Louis Clements and Vanderiviere).
As a result of the DQ’s, Blenheim’s Brett Hope was rewarded a second-place finish, while Chatham’s Rick Balasin, Tilbury’s James Beaulieu and Merlin’s Steve Shaw Jr. rounded out the top five. It was Balasin’s sixth top-5 and the first for Hope, Beaulieu and Shaw Jr.
Pit Notes
- Kirk Hooker’s family will present the Country View Cup trophies to all four feature winners on Saturday. Paul DeGoey won the first Country View Cup in 2008 in the Modified class while Hooker’s children – daughter Taylor and son Jake – presented Country View Cups to Andrew Reaume in the Late Models and Jim Dale Jr. in the Modifieds last year. Hooker said his children wanted to do all four classes this year so he bought four trophies.
- Hooker will be the guest on Pit Pass this week with host Mike Regnier on Country 92.9 FM/630 AM CFCO. Pit Pass airs Friday at 6:40 p.m. and Saturday at 10:40 a.m.
- Leamington’s Paul DeGoey, who made a memorable trip to the Winners Circle last Saturday, is not a registered driver, the reason he doesn’t appear in the points standings.
- DeGoey told track announcer Dean Outhouse during his post-race interview that he hopes to be back again this season. He sat out the 2009 season after his terrifying accident on Aug. 30, 2008, and has raced four times this season.
- The Junior Fan Club Party takes place next Saturday, Aug. 14, starting at 4 p.m.
- Next Saturday will also be Chatham Maroons Night, with several members of the Jr. ‘B’ hockey club – including Brett Hope, driver of the No. 49 Comp 4 car – will be on hand to sign autographs and meet fans. There will be ticket and merchandise giveaways from the Maroons.
- The ASCS Sprints On Dirt return in two weeks, Saturday, Aug. 21.
PICTURES: 1) Eric Vanderiviere (No. 29) takes the checkered flag and climbs on car after his July 17 Mid-Season Championship race win in the Windride Transporation Sport Stocks (James MacDonald Apex One Photo).
By Mike Bennett // South Buxton Raceway
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