I know there's been some discussion about this on the Barrie forum, but I thought I'd post a sysnopsis of the race here.
An eleven car inversion put the 5x of Dave Hassel on pole and he jumped into an early, but short lived, lead. About 4 or 5 laps in the 47 of Tom Walters made an out side pass for the lead and began to pull away. A few laps later the 20 of Dwight Brown made the same move for second and also began to pull away as a group of cars including 9 Watson, 53 Kyle Donaldson, 22 Todd Delisle,1 Vic Parsons, 82 Barry Ross, 48 Dwayne Baker and 98 Craig Graham were battling each other hard as they made their way past Hassel. Watson was the next to pass the 5x and move into third but he in turn was passed by Delisle and then Donaldson. Ross and Parsons were pushing Watson hard for fifth. At this point Walters had a large gap over Brown who in turn had a big cushion over Delisle. Donaldson made a great move on Delisle to grab third and set off in pursuit of Brown. As Donaldson steadily closed the gap on Brown and Delisle remained in fourth the battle for fifth now became a four car race between Watson, Ross, Parsons and now Graham. Donaldson ran down and passed Brown for second and soon after Brown slowed and pulled off, an unlucky end to a strong run for the 20. By now it was evident that Donaldson was very fast, but the question was, did he have time to catch Walters? At this point the top five were Walters, Donaldson, Delisle, Watson and Ross. Once again Donaldson steadily reeled in Walters while Delisle ran all alone in third and the battle for fourth was now being waged between Watson, Ross and Graham as they seperated themselves from Parsons somewhat. With just over ten laps to go the 82 of Ross began smoking and was given the black flag, another tough break for a car that had been in the top five most of the night. About this same time Donaldson caught Walters and tried every thing he could to get past; high, low, in traffic or alone he tried Walters, but the veteran rebuffed every move. The closest Donaldson would come was with about five to go, the two went side by side down the front straight approaching a lapped car, but after trading some paint Walters was able to keep the 53 pinned behind the backmarker. At the checkers it was 47 Walters, 53 Donaldson, 22 Delisle, 9 Watson, 98 Graham, 1 Parsons and the final lead lap car, 48 Baker.
Every driver in this field deserves a round of applause, these guys raced hard throughout, and to go 100 laps caution free is unbelievable. Hopefully a race like this will help convince Derek Lynch not to get rid of this class.
Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=6401.msg28393#msg28393
