Velocity 250 Post Race Report
Written By: Ashley McCubbin
With over 150 cars at the track with some of the best drivers from across the province of Ontario, it was promising to be a great day of hard racing in every division.
In the Mini Stock division, Doug Butler would start on pole virtue of the two-car invert that saw top qualifier Warren Paxton starting second. Butler would pull out to the early lead over Paxton and Eric Yorke. The first caution would come at lap five when the 62 would spin in turn two.
On the restart, there’d be another caution as the 38 would spin while Melinda Thomas had her steering wheel pop off in turn three. The 19 also blew up, bringing forth a lengthy caution for cleanup.
The race would get back going till Rory Collett had problems on lap nine as Butler continued to read Paxton and Yorke. There’d be another caution two laps later on lap 12 as the 92 would run into problems.
On lap 22, Alex Lees would find himself with a flat tire after driving from the back to third place behind Butler and Paxton.
Butler would lead the final 13 laps to go on to win the event while Daryl Fice would finish second after starting back in 27th. The win would give Butler the 2011 McColl Racing Shootout Series Mini Stock Championship. Paxton would get third, followed by Travis Hallyburton and Dale Shaw.
In the Super Stock division, Randy Rusnell would get the pole virtue of the invert that saw top qualifiers Matt Mullholland and Lane Zardo starting around fifth and sixth. Early the event, problems would strike for a couple of drivers as the 03, 17, Herb Walters and Jim Belesky would find trouble in turn one. At that time, Rusnell still led while Zardo had worked his way up to second followed by Matt Bentley, Paul Maltese and Ken Britt.
On the restart, the big one would strike in turn 1 as Jay Cutting, Frank Davey, #2 and Ken Grubb would all make contact. On the second attempt at restarting the race, Zardo would pass Rusnell for the lead.
The contact in the previous accident brought forth more trouble for Cutting with 22 laps to go as he’d be done due to the damage.
There’d be another caution soon after as the 03 would be spun by 17 while Belesky had a flat tire. Dave Case also got a piece of the incident while Zardo continued to lead.
With 12 laps to go, the final caution would come out as the 17 would spin by his lonesome while Zardo led Rusnell, Bentley, MullHolland and Marty Monette. Zardo would lead the final 12 laps and win his sixth feature of the season. He would also be crowned the 2011 McColl Racing Shootout Series Championship to go with his Super Stock Championship.
In the Late Model feature, top qualifiers Kevin Cornelius and Sean Cronan would start third and fourth respectively after the invert while Chris Morrow would start on the pole. Cornelius would quickly find his way to the front as he would be leading by lap 8.
The first caution would come on lap 13 as Dario Capirchio would spin in turn 4 while Cornelius led over Morrow, Cronan, Tiemersma and Parker.
The second caution would come on lap 28 as Jason Tremble, Mike Brown and Bruce Rankin would wreck in turn four as Cornelius continued to lead over Cronan, Morrow, Tiemersma and Parker.
The third caution would come on lap 33 as Ernie Fumerton would spin Sean Grosman. This would be followed by a fourth caution on lap 35 for Mike Bentley spinning Grosman. The fifth caution for debris at lap 54 would set up a restart that would change the rest of the race.
On the restart coming out of turn two, Cronan gave Cornelius a bump getting him loose to take the lead. While trying to save the car and get his momentum back, Cornelius would head into the third corner three-wide with Billy Zardo and Tiemersma. Contact between Tiemersma and Cornelius would send Cornelius spinning.
Cronan would go on to lead the final 21 laps to win the race, followed by Chris Morrow and Tony Tiemersma. Cronan would also be crowned the 2011 McColl Racing Shootout Series Champion.
The final feature of the night would be the OSCAAR Super Late Models, which saw Lloyd Ritchie starting on pole. The first caution would come out early in the event for Brandon Watson being wrecked by the 97. The second incident of the night would involve Dwayne Baker, Wayne Issacs and Gary Passer getting tangled up in turn 2. At this time, Ritchie would continue to lead over Rob Clarke, Jeff Hanley and Roy Passer.
Soon after the restart, there’d be another caution as Gary Passer would make hard contact with the turn three wall after contact from Baker. On the restart, Clarke would find his way to the lead while Hanley would move up to second with Glenn Watson up to third.
With 39 laps to go, the fourth caution would come out for Jeff Dunford spinning the 34 while Clarke continued to lead over Hanley and Watson. That’d be short lived as with 38 to go, Hanley would take the lead while Watson would move to second with 35 to go.
With 32 to go, the fifth caution would come out for a wreck involving Roy Passer and Brandon Watson while Hanley continued to lead over Glenn Watson. Four laps after the restart, Glenn Watson would find his way to the lead, to be followed by the sixth caution with 28 to go for Gallant spinning to avoid Dunford. Under the caution, Hanley would pit out of second position to get two tires to see if he could make a charge at the end from 12th.
Hanley would get a bunch of chances to work his way through as the field would continue to get closed back up to close together due to a multitude of cautions. The seventh caution would come out on lap 34 of the 50 lapper for the 17 spinning again, followed by Ritchie spinning on lap 37 and the 97 going for a spin on lap 40. By that time, Glenn Watson would continue to lead while Clarke would run second followed by Mark Gordon, Hanley and Brandon Watson.
There’d be one final caution with 2 to go as the 17 would go
for his final caution. This would set up a final three lap battle
that’d be one to remember as Glenn Watson and Rob Clarke would
battle side-by-side for the lead, touching and rubbing. Rob Clarke
would out victorious in the end over Glenn Watson for his second win
of the season. Brandon Watson would bring his damaged car back up
to finish third while Hanley would get back to fourth.
