'Mr. Highside' Brennan Didero Wins First Feature!
(Milgrove, ON) – After suffering four rain outs to start the 2015 Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup Series finally got back on the track for the second time on Saturday night at Flamboro Speedway for the MS Society 100. Josh Wood (#66) of London, was looking to back up his season opening win, and held the championship lead. 'Mr. Highside' Brennan Didero (#24) of Ancaster, was coming off yet another runner-up finish. He sat second in the standings and was still looking for his first career win in his seventh year on the tour after close to a double digit of second-place finishes. Three-time series champion Shawn McGlynn (#81) of Kitchener, was returning to action after Ken Grubb replaced him in his Ford during the season opener because of another commitment, and he was looking to win at a track where he posted four victories at in the last five years.
Former Flamboro Speedway champion Shawn Chenoweth (#89c) of Plattsville, was making his first career start in the division, and he went to the top of the speed chart in qualifying, turning a lap of 16.517 seconds, with Jason Meyer (#93) of Tillsonburg second by less than 1/10th of a second. Tim 'The Intimidator' Tolton (#3) of Guelph, qualified third, with Didero, and Chad McGlynn (#18) of Kitchener, rounding out the top-five.
When the Lucas Oil 'Fast Five' draw was done, the starting line-up was re-shuffled with Tolton and Chad McGlynn on the front row, Meyer and Didero in row two, and Chenoweth starting fifth.
Tolton and McGlynn duelled for a number of laps before 'The Intimidator' took control As the run went on, he started to creep away from McGlynn's Ford.
Meyer was having his own battle with Chenoweth for third while Didero, Wood, and Cathcart looked on. 'The Bandit' Alvin McNichol (#17) of Exeter, rolled off 11th, and made progress through the first 50 laps as he climbed to eighth.
On lap 54, Chenoweth slowed in turn four with an issue that turned out to be a flat tire, as the yellow flag was shown for the first time in the event.
On the restart, a scramble ensued in turn three and contact between Chad McGlynn and Jason Meyer sent Meyer into the wall, ending his promising season debut.
When the green dropped again, with Didero on the outside, and Tolton setting the pace, it was time for Didero to pounce. The pair cornered in unison for several laps, with Didero leading at the stripe by a nose every completed circuit before he moved out front. Tolton unsuccessfully tried to hang with Didero, as Chenoweth started to cut through the field. After less than 20 laps Chenoweth later he had blitzed past everyone, including Tolton to move to second. He was catching the leader as the races third yellow flew when Chad McGlynn spun to close the field up for a late restart.
There was one more slow down for yellow four when Mike Nelson (#85) of Peterborough, stopped on the backstretch, setting up a 14 lap dash to the checkers, and for Didero and Chenoweth to settle the MS Society 100.
Chenoweth's Camero was getting through the corners better than Didero, but Brennan was faster down the straights and Chenoweth couldn't get enough of a run on the leader. With two laps to go, Chenoweth finally got his break when Didero slipped up exiting turn two, but Didero was able to use a lapped car to his advantage and hold Chenoweth at bay. Didero closed the deal with a perfect final lap, to claim his first career Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup feature.
Didero was thrilled to now be a winner on tour, "Finally! The guys and I have been working at this for seven years, and we finally have a win. We struggled all day - the car was horrible in practice - we couldn't get the tire stagger that we were looking for. We put two new left side tires on it to try and fix the problem, but we didn't have time to scuff them in, and had to qualifying on stickers. We were fourth in qualifying, and pulled the fourth starting position then followed Chad McGlynn for a while. I like the outside here, and when I got to start on the outside of Tolton on the restart we had a good race for a few laps and I was able to clear him. Chenoweth was better in the turns and gave me all I could handle. I made one error, but luckily I was able to get him trapped behind the lapped car and keep the lead. I've raced him a lot of times here in Late Models, and he's a great guy to race with. He raced me clean, and I think we put on a show for the fans."
Didero admitted shortly after the race, "This still hasn't sunk in yet. We have had so many second-place finishes. After we struggled all day - I'm just beat - I just want to go home to bed. We won't have to change much for our race here again in two weeks, and we will see if we can go back-to-back. This finish gives us the points lead, and that's the position we want to be in."
Chenoweth spoke about his Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup Debut, "The schedule lined up right and we were able to race with these guys tonight, and we did pretty well. We set fast time, and there are a lot of good guys in the series, and a few questionable ones. We were giving up a lot of horsepower to these guys, and brought a dull knife to a gun fight, but still almost won.
We had to go to the front, then to the back, then to the front again, and I had to use a ton of the car to get back to the front - the #24 [Didero] was probably glad we had to go to the back. I've raced here a lot of time with Brennan in the Late Models, and it was a good, clean race. I think we had the two best cars, and if I was able to get ahead of him earlier in the race when we were coming through the traffic, and not had the flat, it would've been the other way around."
Before Saturday night, Tolton's previous career-best finish was fourth at the Mosport oval a number of years ago. In recording his first podium finish, he had to fend off the challenge of championship favourite Shawn McGlynn, and was thrilled with the run, "That's the first time that we've been on the podium, and the second race in a row that we've finished. My son Bobby and I teamed up this year, and I've been the crew chief on his Mini-Stock, and he's been the crew chief on our Lucas Oil Series car, and it's went better than expected. He won three Mini-Stock races this week, and then we finished third. I think that early on in the race we had the car to beat and I was able to pull away from Chad McGlynn, but on that first restart our car got tight. It kept getting tighter on every restart after that. I didn't really hold up Chenoweth, because he was a lot faster, and it would've cost us both time, but I thought we were as good as Shawn McGlynn, and I was able to hold him off."
Two-time defending champion Shawn McGlynn finished fourth, while Connelly rounded out the top-five. Round one winner Wood finished sixth, McNichol had a career best seventh-place result, rookie Brandt Graham (#14) of Orono, finished eighth, while Chad McGlynn, and Kevin Trevellin (#45) of Windsor, rounded out the top-ten.
The series will return to Flamboro Speedway in two weeks for event number two of the seven-race series. The Fuel for Kids 100 is on Saturday July 18th, before the series heads to Full Throttle Motor Speedway on July 25th for the running of the RunaLung 100. As always, the action will also be available live on Race Time Radio.
Final Results – 1. Didero, 2. Chenoweth, 3. Tolton, 4. Shawn McGlynn, 5. Connelly.
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Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup - Championship Points Standings (after 2 of 7 events) – 1. Didero (198 points), 2. Wood (191), 3. Shawn McGlynn (188), 4. Tolton (186), 5. Chad McGlynn (184).
Fast Time #89 Shawn Chenoweth - 16.517 (record 16.369)
McColl Racing Ent. voucher winner - #93 Jason Meyer
Grisdale-American Racer Tire award winner - #43 Bob Merrifield
London Drive Systems voucher winner - #89 Shawn Chenoweth
Trailers By Jim Bray voucher winner - # 77 Alvin McNicol
Performance Fiberglass voucher winners - #93 Jason Meyer & #18 Chad McGlynn
For more information on the Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup Series, Lucas Oil, Flamboro Speedway, or Race Time Radio, please visit
www.lucasoilsportsmancup.com,
www.lucasoil.ca,
www.flamborospeedway.net,
www.racetimeradio.com, or contact Series Director Dave Alexander at dalexand@sympatico.ca.
Release by Jamie Maudsley photos by Jordan Maudsley -www.maudsleymotorsports.com, and
Derek Smith -
www.racepulse.com Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=21415.msg113908#msg113908
