LUCAS OIL CAN-AM MIDGETS: DRYDEN AND STAHLE HANG 10 IN VICTORY LANE
It was a Canada Day long Weekend Battle at the Beach for the Lucas Oil Can-Am Midgets.
Darren Dryden and Adrian Stahle both rode the big wave and found themselves in Victory Lane with the coveted Surfboard Trophy after winning back to back Lucas Oil Can-Am Midget Features Saturday and Sunday night.
Dryden claimed his Surfboard Sunday night.
“We didn’t know we were going to have an axel snap on us last night but honestly it’s probably a good thing because this thing has never been so fast. I have to thank my dad and Steve for all the work they put into it last night to get this car back up to shape and for the killer set up for today as well.” When asked what happened last night Dryden’s reply was, “Honestly just ware and tare, we just had the axel snap on us and no one got into us.”
In the Final Lucas Oil Can-Am Midget Feature of the weekend, Lucas Munsie lined up on pole along with last years 2017 Lucas Oil Can-Am Midget Rookie of the year Dominique Smith.
As the green flag dropped it was smith who got the jump on Munsie taking off like a rocket. Munsie held onto second until turn 3 when Ryan Fraser took Munsie on the outside bring along last years Lucas Oil Can-Am Midget Champion Adam Racine.
Trying to hang onto fourth Munsie was passed high in turn 2 by Brandon Hauck followed by a very strong running Adrian Stahle.
As Smith increased her lead over the field, Racine settled into second knocking Fraser back to third and setting sights on Smith as his laps time were faster then hers.
Once the front runners finished jockeying for positions, Dryden who started seventh, began his ascend forward as he gained a position or two with each lap.
As Racine chased down Smith with each lap, Dryden found himself in the mix of a four-way battle for third with Fraser, Stahle, and Hauck. Munsie who was trying to stay away from the battle went too high and tagged the wall slightly along the front stretch sending him further back in the field.
Racine had finally caught smith and was riding her tail waiting to make his move, as there was a 10-car gap from second to third. Stahle made a dive low in turn 3 to get by Hauck as he made the same move on Fraser the very next lap going into turn 1 claiming third. Once in third Stahle had a lot of wheelin to do to catch Racine and Smith.
Two laps after Stahle passed Fraser for third Racine made a dive bomb move going low in turn 3 and forcing smith to go high as he completed the pass on her to take the lead.
As Racine took off like a rocket out in front, Stahle had caught the back of smith as Dryden was knocking on the back of Stahle. Another 3 way battle for third ensued as Dryden utilized smith to keep Stahle behind her until as he ran in their inside until he was able to complete the pass on both of them and with Dryden out of the way Stahle was able to complete the pass on Smith as well.
Steven Murdock who ran a strong car this weekend finishing on the podium more than once had now made it into the top four while Fraser was settling into fifth.
Dryden finally caught up to Racine just as Racine had caught up to Glen Fenwick at the rear of the field, who the week before at Peterborough Speedway blew an engine and caught fire. Thanks to the quick action of the safety, crew Fenwick walked away unharmed.
Fenwick took the inside in turn 3 as the leaders battled past him. Just past the start finish line Dryden made his move on the inside of Racine to capture the lead just before a caution flew when Cassidy Marche spun around in turn 2.
On the restart it was Dryden, Racine, Stahle, Murdock and Fraser who were your top 5 and with the drop of the green Dryden was off and running away with the lead again as Racine settled into second Stahle in third and Murdock in Fourth and Fraser in fifth.
Murdock battled Stahle with a last lap pass coming out of turn 4 by making contact with Stahle sending him high forcing him to settle for a fourth place finish as Dryden took the win and the Surfboard trophy.
The final finish for the Lucas Oil Can-Am Midgets feature 2 for July 1/18 at Sauble Speedway was as follows; 1. DARREN DRYDEN, 2. Adam Racine, 3. Steven Murdock, 4. Adrian Stahle, 5. Ryan Fraser, 6. Brandon Hauck, 7. Dominique Smith, 8. Brandon Zavarella, 9. Cassidy Marche, 10. Lucas Munsie, 11. Glen Fenwick, 12. Cory Whittam
In the first Lucas Oil Can-Am Midget feature of the night, Racine held the pole along side Munsie. With the green flag in the air, Racine was off and running as Munsie seemed to have issues getting going and fell to the rear of the field. Fraser jumped two spots from his starting position and landed in second followed by Stahle, Zavarella, and Dryden.
Stahle began having issues just after the drop of the green when his left side panel of his wing came loose and was flapping.
Dryden made leaps and bounds gaining positions lap after lap as he chased down Racine.
Caution came out on lap 9, to Racine’s dismay, as Stahle’s wing panel detached ending his time in this feature.
On the restart, it was Racine and Dryden going nose to tail battling for the lead as they pulled away from the third place car of Fraser and the fourth place car of Murdock while Zavarella trailed behind in fifth.
At the half waypoint, Murdock began a pass on Fraser just getting him by a hair at the start finish line to claim third.
As the laps flew past to the checkers, Dryden ran uncontested with almost a straightaway’s lead over last year Lucas Oil Can-Am Midget champion Racine. The only battle was bewtwen Murdock and Racine as Murdock wanted that second spot from Racine but laps ran out as the checkers dropped for Dryden.
The final finish for the Lucas Oil Can-Am Midgets feature 1 for July 1/18 at Sauble Speedway was as follows; 1. DARREN DRYDEN, 2. Adam Racine, 3. Steven Murdock, 4. Ryan Fraser, 5. Brandon Hauck, 6. Brandon Zavarella, 7. Dominique Smith, 8. Cassidy Marche, 9. Lucas Munsie, 10. Glen Fenwick, 11. Adrian Stahle, 12. Cory Whittam
Saturday Night the Lucas Oil Can-Am Midgets battled under the stars in Sauble Beach as they kicked of a double-header weekend of racing. Stahle, who was celebrating his Birthday, proved he had the stronger car. There could not have been a more perfect way to celebrate a birthday than earning a Surfboard Trophy to commemorate the event by taking the Double Features.
“We double downed and I think we got rid of one of our issues so it feels good, I have to thank my dad for working on the car all week getting it ready. I’d like to thank all my sponsors for getting me here, Bell Cartage and Larka Custom Machining, Lucas Oil and Grisdales and especially to the fans for coming out and braving this heat, a special shout out to my friends who came out this weekend. I sure hope we have something for tomorrow but we will see, it will be a totally different day and we will take it from there.”
Stahle started fifth for the last feature of the night but quickly jumped to third getting past Dryden on the first lap as Murdock passed Fraser to capture the lead on the second lap.
Murdock ran out in front, as Stahle moved to second with at fast Dryden in third trying to make it up front.
Caution on lap 8 occurred when Dryden’s front axel snapped ending his night.
With the restart set and the field bunched up Stahle was poised to get by Murdock for the lead at the drop of the green.
On the restart, Stahle became plagued by the charge of Murdock and Fraser as the three of them ran ahead of the rest of the field.
As the laps counted down Stahle ran faster pulling away from the duo as Hauck in fourth made his attempt to mix things up with a close following Smith to round out the top 5.
At the end, Stahle claimed the Checkers and a new surfboard to add to his already impressive collection.
The final finish for the Lucas Oil Can-Am Midgets Feature 2 for June 30/18 at Sauble Speedway was as follows; 1. ADRIAN STAHLE, 2. Steven Murdock, 3. Ryan Fraser, 4. Brandon Hauck, 5. Dominique Smith, 6. Brandon Zavarella, 7. Cassidy Marche, 8. Lucas Munsie, 9. Darren Dryden, 10. Cory Whittam
The Lucas Oil Can-Am Midgets lined up for the first of four features Munsie sat on pole with Smith on his outside.
When the green waved, the field ran bunched together through turns; one and two, Munsie fell to the rear as he just could get his car going. While trying to stay out of the way of the faster drivers Munsie got a punt from Racine as he was trying to make his passes forward.
At the front, Stahle who captured the lead from Smith and was gone out in front uncontested for 19 laps. Murdock made his charge forward two laps later passing Smith knocking her to third while Dryden began picking off cars on his way to the front.
At the half waypoint, Stahle was leading; Murdock was second followed by Dryden, Smith and Racine.
Stahle had this Lucas Oil Can-Am Midget feature in the books as he caught the tail end of the field lapping new comer to the club, Bob Bailey, on lap 13 while Dryden made the pass on Murdock for second.
When the white flag dropped, Stahle had lapped Munsie as well before adding another feature win to his season.
The final finish for the Lucas Oil Can-Am Midgets Feature 1 for June 30/18 at Sauble Speedway was as follows; 1. ADRIAN STAHLE, 2. Darren Dryden, 3. Steven Murdock, 4. Dominique Smith, 5. Ryan Fraser, 6. Brandon Hauck, 7. Cassidy Marche, 8. Lucas Munsie, 9.Bob Bailey, 10. Adam Racine, 11. Brandon Zavarella, 12. Cory Whittam
The Lucas Oil Can-AM Midget top 12 in Driver points after Sauble Speedway on July 1/18 is as follows;
1. DARREN DRYDEN…1510, 2. Adrian Stahle…1501, 3. Steven Murdock… 1376, 4. Ryan Fraser…1275, 5. Adam Racine…1247, 6. Brandon Zavarella…1228, 7. Dominique Smith…1150, 8. Lucas Munsie…1092, 9. Cory Whittam…646, 10. Cassidy Marche…590, 11. Glen Fenwick…496, 12. Brandon Hauck…458
The Lucas Oil Can-AM Midget top 12 in Driver points after Sauble Speedway on June 30/18 is as follows;
1. ADRIAN STAHLE…1293, 2. Darren Dryden…1220, 3. Steven Murdock…1120, 4. Ryan Fraser…1037, 5. Brandon Zavarella…1018, 6. Adam Racine…977, 7. Dominique Smith…940, 8. Lucas Munsie…907, 9. Cory Whittam…539, 10. Cassidy Marche…395, 11. Glen Fenwick…320, 12. Brandon Hauck…232
Join the Lucas Oil Can-Am Midgets for another Beach Bash this weekend July 7th when they travel to the Bull Ring known as Grand Bend Speedway. Rain Date is Sunday July 8th.
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