Speedway crowns Canada Day champions

Saturday, July 3rd marked the annual Canada Day Championships presented by Brighton Automotive at the Brighton Speedway.  The evening started early as drivers and crews came to prepare for the once a year time trial qualifying for the Bills John’s Comp 4, Brighton Automotive Pro Stocks, Bainer’s Radiator Canadian Modified and the Vanderlaan Building Supplies Late Models.  Drivers in these four classes would all get their chance to turn two laps against the clock to score the fastest lap on the night and secure pole position in the heats and features for the night with double points and bonus money on the line.

Time trails began at 5pm under the hot sun and the stands began to fill up for the night.  Setting the fastest laps on the night were number #2 Leslie Mowat in Comp 4, #8 Gary Vandertoorn in Pro Stock, #11 Dan Ferguson in Canadian Modified and Phil Potts in the Pro Late Model Class.

The first main event was the 30 lap Pro Stock Championship and Vandertoorn used his fast lap starting position to grab the early lead however, Kraig Handley of Picton was hot on his tail and by lap 8 had worked his way under Vandertoorn for the lead.  While all this was going on back in the field #72 Doug was working his way through traffic and before long he too had got underneath Vandertoorn for the second spot and set his sights on Handley.  Anderson and Handley would battle it out for the rest of the race with Anderson taking the lead at the half way mark and Handley chasing closely.  A late race restart flag would bunch the field back up as Matt Schonauer rolled his #47 Monte Carlo on the front straight away.  Matt walked away from the accident unharmed and on the ensuing restart Handley would once again challenge Anderson for the number one spot but Anderson would have nothing of it coming home to take the checkered flag followed by Handley and #45 Mike Schonauer.

It was #11 Dan Ferguson and #4 Shawn Gregory that brought the Canadian Modifieds to the green flag for their 50 Lap double points feature.  The lead would change hands three times on the first lap before Gregory finely took the spot.  The battle was not over as Ferguson continued to put the heat on!  On lap 15 Ferguson would get inside Gregory coming out of turn 4 and the two would drag race down the front straight and battle into corner one where the two touched and Gregory would get a flat tire out of the ordeal and had to pit.  Ferguson continued to lead on and now Tim Burke was starting to make ground on Ferguson.  Now well past the halfway mark in the race Burke was now at Ferguson’s back bumper when bad luck would now strike Ferguson as his left rear tire went down, allowing Burke to now inherit the lead and hold on for his first win in years.  Burke was followed across the line by #69 Ed Snider and #42 Adam Nayler.

In the 50 Lap Late Model main event #29 Phil Potts was perfect on the night.  Potts won the fastest lap, won his heat and led wire to wire in the feature to earn the Campbellford Chrysler Driver of the Week honours.  Although he led the whole race he was challenged many times by outside pole sitter #25 Greg Belyea early in the race and later on by recent feature winners #87 Andrew Hennessy and #57 Charlie Sandercock. Although they all put the heat on Potts none of them could get the job done to pass the #29.  Following Potts across the line were Sandercock and Hennessy, however Hennessy was later found with a technical infraction during post race inspection.

Brandon Gregory won his third feature event of the season in the 20 lap Comp 4 feature.  Not to be out done by the Pro Stock red flag the 24 car field of Comp 4’s wasted no time with their own stoppage when on the opening green flag a massive front straight away pile up ended with #23 Jeff Briscoe on his roof and the #95 Rob Brooks on top of the #04 Josh Read.  All drivers walked away from the incident.  On the restart Gregory working from his third place starting spot found his way around #2 Leslie Mowat and then battled with #12 of Kyle Sopaz for the remainder of the race as Sopaz tried high and low but could not get back around Gregory.  Following Gregory and Sopaz across the line for third was #32 of Terry Hough.

To go along with the great racing action on the track, Mystical Distributing provided a great fireworks show for everyone in attendance to enjoy.

Be sure to join us this week as Dekeyser Excavating presents the Southern Ontario Sprints along with the special edition Excavator Olympics!  Come out and watch these full size excavators destroy cars while in competition!  All this and more next Saturday, gates open at 5:00 and racing starts at 7pm!  For complete details go to www.brightonspeedway.com or email info@brightonspeedway.com

Photo Tag Line: #29 Stomping Phil Potts setting the fastest lap of the night with a 16.192 second lap during time trials at the Canada Day Championships

July 3rd – Canada Day Championships results

Brighton Automotive Pro Stock

1. Doug Anderson (Trenton, ON), 2. Kraig Handley (Picton, ON), 3. Mike Schonauer (Brighton, ON), 4. Gary Vandertoorn (Brighton, ON), 5. Adam Whaley (Trenton, ON),

Bainer’s Radiators Canadian Modified

1. Tim Burke (Carrying Place, ON), 2. Ed Snyder (Tweed, ON), 3. Adam Nayler (Quinte West, ON), 4. Dan Ferguson (Bloomfield, ON), 5. Jamie Marshall (Trenton, ON),

Vanderlaan’s Pro Late Models

1. Phil Potts (Frankford, On), 2. Charlie Sandercock (Trenton, ON), 3. Caley Weese (Carrying Place, ON), 4. Corey Earl (Picton, ON), 5. Greg Belyea (Frankford, ON),

Bill’s Johns Comp 4

1. Brandon Gregory (Trenton, ON), 2. Kyle Sopaz (Carrying Place, ON), 3. Terry Hough (Brighton, ON), 4. Zac McBride (Baltimore, ON), 5. Derrick Greig (Carrying Place, ON),