4TH ANNUAL ARROW EXPRESS CANADIAN SPRINT CAR NATIONALS TAKE CENTRE STAGE THIS WEEKEND AT OHSWEKEN
by Tommy Goudge (September 9, 2008) –
The 2008 season at Ohsweken Speedway will be capped off in spectacular fashion this Friday, September 12 and Saturday, September 13 when Arrow Express Presents the 4th annual Canadian Sprint Car Nationals. Featuring 70 or more of the best 360 sprint car teams and drivers from Ontario, Quebec, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and beyond, the Nationals have quickly grown into a must-see event for Canadian race fans and Sprint Car fans everywhere. Continuing the commitment made by Speedway co-owner Glenn Styres and event coordinators Ken and Cheryl Pelkie to increase the purse each year, this Saturday’s A-Main will pay a whopping $8,000 to the winner, $4,000 to the runner-up, and $600 just to start the race. Also on the line are bragging rights, as the winner will have to beat the best drivers from the Southern Ontario Sprints, Empire Super Sprints, ASCS Sprints on Dirt, ASCS Patriots, National Racing Alliance, the new Corr/Pak Merchandising Sprint Car division that has been competing weekly at Ohsweken all season long, plus potential surprise visitors - including one already confirmed all the way from Australia.
Ken and Cheryl Pelkie were surprised and happy to receive a late entry on Monday from Steven Lines of Mount Gambier, South Australia. Lines is an accomplished racer in his native land, and has been in the US since the middle of June racing with the United Sprint Car Series in the South-Eastern U.S., and lately in weekly events at Sharon Speedway in Ohio and Lernerville Speedway in Western Pennsylvania for car owner Jeff McCall of Cherryville, North Carolina. Lines took home 1 feature win during the last Australian season, and has won 2 USCS features this summer. The toughest competition for Lines thus far in his North American season was on Labour Day weekend at Lernerville Speedway when the All Star Circuit of Champions visited the track with 39 cars signed in for competition. Lines performed well, making the field by winning his heat race, and coming home 17th in the feature, ahead of champion 410 sprint car drivers such as Byron Reed and Greg Wilson. Lines will be the first entrant from outside North America in the Nationals since Knoxville International Development Driver (KIDD) program driver Stevie Walsh of New Zealand competed in the first edition of the event in 2005.
It was a successful first season for weekly sprint car racing at Ohsweken Speedway, and that success has prompted title sponsor Corr/Pak Merchandising to sign on again for next season, as well as return to present the Best Appearing Car award at the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals this weekend for the 2nd year in a row. Only two drivers claimed multiple Corr/Pak features this season at Ohsweken, including Corr/Pak Sprint Car Rookie of the Year Ryan Hunsinger, who claimed victory on May 30, and again on Mid-Season championship night on July 12. Hunsinger also claimed 2 feature wins at the Brighton Speedway during Southern Ontario Sprints Labour Day Classic weekend, and has 4 feature wins total in 2008. Glenn Styres also has 2 Corr/Pak feature wins to his credit this season, as he claimed victory on opening night, and again visited the Engine Pro Racing Winner’s Circle at Ohsweken on August 29. Styres also claimed 3 Southern Ontario Sprints victories on his way to a 2nd consecutive SOS championship, and is tied with Steve Poirier for the most sprint car feature wins in Ontario this season. Other Corr/Pak feature winners include Quebec invader and regular Empire Super Sprints competitor Alain Bergeron on May 23, Salamanca, New York driver Jared Zimbardi on June 6, and Brad Malloy of Niagara Falls on August 22. The inaugural champion for the Corr/Pak Merchandising Sprint Car division is Keith Dempster, who claimed the title by a margin of just 3 points over Zimbardi, while Hunsinger finished 3rd in the standings, just 6 points back of Dempster. Rounding out the rest of the top 10 in the Corr/Pak standings are Kevin Job, Glenn Styres, Rob Pietz, Rookie Dave Dykstra, Brad Malloy, another Rookie in Mikey Kruchka, and John Riegling in 10th. Dempster doesn’t have a feature win in 2008, but has been very consistent all season, finishing no worse than 8th in any of the Corr/Pak features.
Along with the weekly action, special sprint car events also took place at Ohsweken this season, starting with the Empire Super Sprints tour on June 20. Steve Poirier of Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloueil, Quebec claimed the victory that night after starting 14th on the grid, and has since gone on to dominate the Northeast 360 Sprint Car Poirier has won the last 2 Empire Super Sprints points titles, as well as the last 2 editions of the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals, currently leads the ESS standings again this season, and must be considered the odds-on favourite to win again this weekend. On July 4 and 5, the first annual American Sprint Car Series Northern Summer Nationals weekend came to Ohsweken, featuring the Michigan-based ASCS SoD series versus the New York-based ASCS Patriot series, with a $3,000 winner’s cheque going to Saturday night’s feature winner. Portland, Michigan’s Dustin Daggett claimed Friday night victory, while Brian Howland of Auburn, NY bounced back from missing the feature on Friday night to take the big win on Saturday night. The Southern Ontario Sprints tour also made a visit to Ohsweken this season on July 18, and it was Kevin Job of Campbellville taking feature win honours that night, after an entertaining duel with Keith Dempster, while Warren Mahoney, Rob Pietz, and Glenn Styres rounded out the top 5 after he charged through the pack from 17th on the grid.
Playing a large part in the success of the Nationals are the 5 affiliate sanctioning bodies and clubs which have agreed to be a part of the event again this season. They include the Ontario-based Southern Ontario Sprints, Michigan-based American Sprint Car Series Sprints on Dirt region, Ohio-based National Racing Alliance, and the Empire Super Sprints and American Sprint Car Series Patriot region, both of which are based in New York State. As part of the sanctioning agreement, receive a provisional starting spot in Saturday night’s A-Main final, if none of that sanction's competitors qualified for the A-Main. Saturday’s A-Main starting field will be determined using Time Trials, 6 heat races, and 3 B-Mains, plus the new Riverside Bar and Grill Non-Qualifiers Second Chance, which will transfer the winner of that “Little Feature” to the tail of the A-Main field. Time Trials take on added importance this year as the driver who runs quick time will receive $500 from Kear's Speed Shop, while the Fastest Canadian Qualifier award presented by Bicknell Racing Products is also back this season.
On Friday night, twin 15 lap features will cap off the "Night Before the Nationals" show, and the winner of each of those races will receive a guaranteed starting spot in Saturday night's Canadian Sprint Car Nationals A-Main. Also running on Friday night are two unique events - the Village Pizza Ohsweken Shootout and the Dave MacLeod Memorial Mr. Sprint Car Challenge. The Shootout will pit the top finishers from each affiliate sanction's event at Ohsweken against each other in a 10 lap race, with $500 going to the winner, while the Mr. Sprint Car Challenge will consist of a match-racing tournament, which proved to be a popular portion of the program last season.
The Southern Ontario Sprints champion for 2008 is Glenn Styres of Ohsweken, who clinched the title for the 2nd year in a row, and record 3rd time overall on Labour Day weekend at Brighton Speedway. Behind Styres in the SOS standings is Lefroy’s Warren Mahoney, who claimed a feature win at the South Buxton Raceway on August 2, a 3rd place in SOS action at Ohsweken on July 18, and made 1 appearance in the Corr/Pak division at Ohsweken, scoring a 10th place finish on May 23rd. Keith Dempster, Adam West, and Bob Crawford of Sutton round out the top 5 in the SOS points, and Dempster and Crawford also ran full time in the Corr/Pak division at Ohsweken this season. Crawford did not have a season he would have liked, but did come home 5th in SOS points and 11th in Corr/Pak points, and does have one career feature win at Ohsweken, a feat he accomplished in 2004.
The ASCS Sprints on Dirt (SoD) tour champion for 2008 is Brett Mann of Goshen, Indiana. Mann won 3 SoD features in 2008, including the King of Michigan event at Hartford Speedway last Friday night. Mann has not yet filed an entry, but will likely be in attendance this weekend. Other SoD drivers already pre-entered for the weekend include Louie Carufel, Dain Naida, Dustin Daggett, Andy Teunessen, and Ryan Grubaugh. Naida has made the trip to Ohsweken with his #6n as often as he can this season, and has been very fast each time out. Naida’s last visit to Ohsweken on August 22nd produced a 3rd place feature finish, despite his 14th starting position that night. Grubaugh’s last race at Ohsweken was not a highlight, as his #00 suffered heavy damage after a hard flip on the frontstretch on July 5. The night before, Grubaugh had raced his way to 5th after starting 18th, and has made the Nationals A-Main in each of the last 2 years, including a 3rd place in 2006. Running a full schedule but not all with the same series, Daggett has claimed 8 feature wins this season, and has also run a handful of 410 sprint car events with the World of Outlaws and All Star Circuit of Champions this season and been competitive. Daggett's record at Ohsweken is very good, as he has claimed 5 wins and finished in the top five 9 times in 13 career visits to the Speedway, but he would like to add a Nationals victory to his resume.
The National Racing Alliance (NRA) champion for 2008 is J.R. Stewart of Bellefontaine, Ohio. Stewart took just 1 feature win in NRA competition this season, but his consistency throughout the season earned him the title over Elida, Ohio's Darren Long, who took home 3 NRA feature wins in 2008. Stewart made a name for himself last year at Ohsweken by claiming the win in the first annual Dave MacLeod Mr. Sprint Car Challenge, which consists of a series of tournament-style match races. Also entered from the NRA series is Tim Allison of Lima, Ohio. Allison, surprisingly, did not collect an NRA feature win in 2008, but did finish 4th in NRA points this season, and won 3 features in weekly competition at Limaland Motorsports Park and Waynesfield Motorsports Park. Allison struggled in the Nationals at Ohsweken last season, but finished 10th in 2006.
The battle for the Empire Super Sprints title is ongoing, but with a 269 point lead, Steve Poirier is in command at the top of the standings, and looks to be on his way to a 3rd ESS championship in a row. Poirier has won 9 ESS features this season, as well as an SOS feature in his first and only SOS thus far in his career at Brockville Ontario Speedway in May, and enters this weekend having won the last 2 Nationals in a row. Poirier enters the weekend as the favourite, but his fellow ESS competitors will surely be very competitive as well. 2nd in the ESS standings is Lance Yonge of Penn Yan, New York. Yonge does not have a feature win yet in 2008, but his consistency has been matched only by Poirier, as Yonge has finished in the top 10 in 18 ESS races this year, while Poirier has accomplished that feat 19 times. Other ESS drivers currently pre-entered for the weekend include Mike Stelter, Chuck Hebing, Tim Kelly, Doug Emery, Jeff Cook, Justin Barger, and Alain Bergeron.
Like ESS, the title fight in the ASCS Patriots series has not yet been decided, but unlike ESS, the gap between 1st and 2nd is only 90 points with 4 more points events to go in the Patriots season. Bryan Howland of Auburn, NY currently leads Salamanca, NY driver Jared Zimbardi in the battle for the championship, while another New Yorker in Chris Muhlheisen sits 3rd. Howland took the big ASCS Northern Summer Nationals $3,000 paycheque at Ohsweken on July 5 in dominating fashion, and has since won 2 more features in Patriot competition, while Zimbardi has yet to claim a win on the Patriot circuit this season. Other Patriot drivers currently pre-entered for the weekend include Daniel Lampron, the brother team of Blake and Bobby Breen, Bubba Broderick, Jared Fink, Kyle Moffitt, and Scott Kruetter. Broderick, a rookie this season from Connecticut, turned heads with some veteran moves in his first visit to Ohsweken in July and is currently 4th in the Patriot standings, followed by Kruetter in 5th, who came home with two 3rd place finishes in two nights at Ohsweken in July.
Plenty of good seats still remain for both the Night Before the Nationals on Friday, September 12, and the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals on September 13. Advance Reserved seats for Friday night are available at a cost of $15 for adults, $5 for kids ages 6-12, and free for kids 5 and under, while general admission seating will be available on race day only at a cost of $10 for adults, $5 for kids ages 6-12, and free for kids 5 and under. Advance Reserved seats for Saturday night are available at a cost of $35 for adults, $5 for kids ages 6-12, and free for kids 5 and under, while general admission seating will be available on race day only at a cost of $20 for adults, $5 for kids ages 6-12, and free for kids 5 and under. Please visit
www.OhswekenSpeedway.com for additional information about ticket sales, gate times, directions to the speedway, and much more!
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Tommy Goudge
Ohsweken Speedway Media
media@ohswekenspeedway.com
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