FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 6, 2014
Chad McGlynn Wins First Sportsman Series Race
(Stittsville, ON) – The 2014 Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup Series Presented by Meineke toured to Capital City Speedway Saturday for the first event at the Ottawa-area 3/8th-mile track for the first time since 2009, and race number three of the eighth race championship season. The 100-lap feature saw local driver Dave Connelly (#82) of Arnprior, enter his home track event as the point leader, with sophomore surprise Kevin Allen (#54) of Drumbo, second, just four points back, and another driver who cut his teeth at Capital City, Doug Cathcart (#48) of Ottawa, third, just 12 markers out of the lead.
Local driver Todd Musker (#13) of Carlton Place, was the first driver to hit the track for JWO Racing qualifying, and he broke the track record, held by Steve Robblee, before Chad McGlynn (#18) of Kitchener, went a little bit quicker to shoot to the top of the chart. Halfway through the session, Jake ‘Juicebox’ Ott (#60) of Ayr, went extremely low with a lap of 18.995 seconds to take the top spot, but it was Shawn McGlynn (#81) of Kitchener, who stole the show late in the session, ripping off a lap of 18.785 seconds to claim the fast qualifying award. Ott finished second, with Connelly clocking in third, while Allen timed in fourth. Chad McGlynn held on for fifth position, and a chance to draw for the pole in the Lucas Oil ‘Fast Five’ draw, while 10 drivers broke the previous track record.
After getting paired up with a kid for the ‘Fast Five’ draw, Ott drew the pole, with Chad McGlynn on the outside of the front row. Allen and Connelly would roll from the second row, and Shawn McGlynn from fifth, alongside Josh Wood (#66) of London.
The day would start miserably for Connelly, one of the pre-race favorites, as he broke a tie rod on the first lap, and headed to the pit area for repairs Ott would lead the first two laps, but not by much as he and McGlynn ran side-by-side until Chad was finally able to creep to the front on lap three. Shawn McGlynn was on a charge, taking third on lap 15, and then gaining second on a lap 23 restart before he started to challenge his brother for the point.
On lap 27 Shawn was able to get past but just three laps later Chad came storming by again to retake the lead.
Chad paced the way through the middle sections of the race with his brother in tow, while Ott ran third, with Allen all over him, trying to find a way past. Shawn was able to seize the lead again from Chad on a lap 69 restart, but Chad appeared to have the upper hand on this day as he pushed the nose of his Fusion out front again a lap later.
A lap 78 restart would see business pick up, as Shawn was on the attack again for the lead, but this time, contact between him and his brother broke a tie rod on his Mustang, and he got loose coming out of turn two, slowing with the whole field behind him. Ott was directly back of McGlynn and didn’t have time to lift as he shoved Shawn into the infield. Shawn McGlynn would pit and lose a number of laps.
The Allen and Ott showdown for second would continue until eight laps to go when Allen took the silver medal position, and took off in search of McGlynn, but even though he was able to take a large chunk out of the gap, he ran out of laps, finishing second, while Chad McGlynn captured his first career Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup presented by Meineke feature win.
Chad spoke about his trip to victory lane, “It’s starting to sink in now. We won a weekly feature at Delaware in one of these cars in 1999 or 2000, but haven’t been able to win on the tour. Our car was good in practice, but not that good. We made some changes to find some speed, and it just hooked up. I was able to get Ott on the outside for the lead the first time early, and that’s kind of when I realized we had a good car. Then about 20 laps in, it was almost too easy, our car was just pulling so well off the corners, and I was just waiting to see what would happen to us next. The car just kept running.”
On the final restart, Ott and Allen were side-by-side, allowing McGlynn to creep out to a solid lead before that pair got single file. Chad said, “I didn’t even know what was happening behind me. I was just looking out the front and trying to hit my marks. I knew someone was coming late in the race for sure, but I was only looking forward. I think I only really made two mistakes today getting in the corners, and sliding it, but the car was good enough that it didn’t matter.”
Chad continued, “This will give our team a lot of confidence for sure. I just can’t say enough about my dad and all the work he does on this car, as well as the guys that come and help us out. My brother helps me out so much as well, and it was awesome to race with him for the lead. That’s about the only thing that could’ve made this day better is if we had finished one-two. I’ve also never raced here before, and while it was a long haul to get here, it’s a challenging track, and a lot of fun to race on.”
Allen came up just short in his attempt to reel in McGlynn at the end of the race, but the second year pilot used his third podium finish of the season to move to the top of the standings with a commanding nine-point cushion over Connelly. “It was another good finish for us, and I just needed to get past Jake Ott quicker than I did, and we could’ve had a shot at Chad for the win. We had one of the quickest cars, and we enjoyed coming here for the first time. I think we were able to get our car pretty quick for never seeing this place before.”
As far as being the point leader, “If you had told me in May we would’ve been leading the points after three races I would’ve told you that you were nuts. I knew we had improved the car over the winter, but wasn’t expecting this kind of start. I think the keys have been that we’ve been fast, and that I’ve been able to have patience. Today I think I had too much patience, and it might have cost us the win, but we’ll take another second-place finish.”
Ott held on to third to move himself up to third in the championship standings, tied with Cathcart, 14 points back of Allen. He spoke about his maiden voyage at Capital City Speedway, “I think it was a good race for us, a good race for the series, and I hope the fans got their monies worth. We’re happy with third after never being here before, and we gained some points back on everyone but Allen. We just missed the pole again, and Shawn was able to get it, but we were one and two again. We had some old tires on the car today and we could’ve really used some new ones. Our fronts have over 300 laps on them now, but we’ll get some new tires and be ready for round four at Flamboro.”
Musker, one of the local heroes started ninth and was able to pick his way through the field in the 100-lap affair to record a solid fourth-place finish, while Cathcart recorded his third top-five finish of the season to remain in a tie for third in the championship standings.
The field is so tight in the championship standings that fifth through 12th are separated by a mere seven points.
Final Results – 1. Chad McGlynn, 2. Allen, 3. Ott, 4. Musker, 5. Cathcart.
Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup presented by Meineke - Championship Points Standings (after 3 of 8 events) – 1. Allen (292 points), 2. Connelly (283), 3. (tie) Ott, Cathcart (278), 5. (tie) Chad McGlynn, Mike Nelson.
JWO Racing Qualifying points – 1. Ott (29 points), 2. Shawn McGlynn (28), 3. Allen (21), 4. Josh Wood (17), 5. Connelly (16).
Other Race Award Winners
Champion Brands Hard Charger - #85 Mike Nelson
London Drive Systems voucher winner - #6 Jeremy Coulter
Performance Fiberglass voucher winners - #48 D. Cathcart & # 13 Todd Musker
McColl Racing Ent. voucher winner - #8 Adam Martin
Following back to back weekends of action the series will get a break until July 19th when the Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup presented by Meineke hits the track again for event number four of the season at Flamboro Speedway on Saturday July 19th. During the last visit to Flamboro on June 28th, Dave Connelly returned to victory lane for the first time since 2010, with Kevin Allen second, and Shawn McGlynn third.
For more information on the Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup Series, Lucas Oil, Meineke, Flamboro Speedway, or Capital City Speedway, please visit
www.lucasoilsportsmancup.com,
www.lucasoil.ca,
www.meineke.ca,
www.flamborospeedway.net,
www.capitalcityspeedway.com, or contact Series Director Dave Alexander at dalexand@sympatico.ca.
Release and Photos by Jamie and Jordan Maudsley and
www.maudsleymotorsports.com.
Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=19632.msg111521#msg111521
