Issue 39

The Notebook

IWK 250 Presented by Steve Lewis Auto Body

“That’s great Saturday night racing right there.”

Kent Vincent hit the nail on the head after a great battle at the end of the IWK 250 Presented by Steve Lewis Auto Body on Saturday night. On a restart with thirteen to go it was Shawn Tucker and Jonathan Hicken in command. Tucker would brush up the track out of turn two which in turn left the door open down low. That door was ran through by Vincent and Wayne Smith and the two, like last year in this event dueled it out for the win – only this time Kent beat Wayne to the stripe!

“I gave it up to Wayne last year and I had to make it up to the crew,” said the driver of the Vector Aerospace Dodge Charger after the event. Vincent finished second to The Oval Outlaw last season in a close finish similar to the 2010 edition. Steve Lewis would present Kent with the trophy and commented before handing it over that “it is such a nice trophy, I don’t know if I want to hand it over.” The two shared a laugh with Kent having the last word “I’m a bit wore out from being in the car but I have enough left in me if you want to fight for it!”

Second place driver Wayne Smith and team members were some of the first to the drivers window to congratulate the Vincent Racing team and Kent on the victory. “I knew it was going to get wild at the end,” said the pilot of the #44 Jetco Contracting/ICI Paints, Color Your World Bayers Lake Impala following the race. “We had a bad set of tires in the second half and had to fight back.” Smith would lead at halfway – one of the fifty three laps he led all night long.

Speaking of laps led it was Shawn Tucker who led the most – just shy of half of them at 112. With that, the Fredericton driver racked up a cool $5600 in lap money from the numerous laps sponsors to go along with the cash for finishing in third place. Tucker and the A.L. Gullison Disaster Kleenup team will now head home to Speedway 660 next weekend where Shawn is the defending champion of the Parts for Trucks 100 in the Geary woods!

Hicken made his way to the front of the field like he did en route to his win at Oyster Bed Speedway. The #5 Chapman Brothers Construction/CASTLE Building Centers Chevrolet waited for the chances for lanes to open and stuck his Impala in the open door to take positions without any big contact. With all the action and excitement in the late going, Hicken brought his car home in fourth place and in one piece.

What about the run that Chris Hughes put up in the IWK 250 Presented by Steve Lewis Auto Body? After a slow start in qualifying, the Pauley Equipment/Pauley Paving Toyota Camry started dead last on the thirty-one car field. No more than a dozen laps after the halfway break, Hughes was running in second. Not only was he running in second, he was pulling away from third place Jonathan Hicken. Hughes was driving his car hard in the second half of the event – so hard the car spun out coming off corner four! After many laps in second, Hughes settled for fifth – the third Islander in the top five on Saturday night! With a great run in the IWK 250, watch for Hughes to build on momentum banked from Riverside for a Summer stretch run on the Pro Stock Tour!

Along with Hughes, one of the most impressive runs came from Donald Chisholm. Chisholm spun out and hit the wall in his #89 Keltic Ford Fusion while in the lead early in the event. The Nova Racing crew went to work, pushing the rear end back into place and sending the Antigonish driver back on his way. Less than fifty laps later, Chisholm was back up front but that stint at the top of the scoreboard was halted when he had a run in with a lapped car. Chisholm came back to pit road with heavy right side damage to his Pioneer Coal/Nova Construction ride but the team didn’t give up. The crew fixed the damage under caution and sent Donald back out. Chisholm worked his way back to the front of the field and was in contention for a top three finish before getting tagged by point leader Shawn Turple going into corner three racing for third with thirteen to go, ending his night. With the way the #89 team has been running this season, you would have to think that first feature win of 2010 is just around the corner for Donald Chisholm!

Chisholm’s teammates also suffered tough luck at the three quarter distance mark of the race. Marcos Ambrose led twice for nineteen laps in the event and was a top five car all night long before the halfway break. After the service on his #10 Atlantic CAT/CAT Car for Kids Camry at the break he returned to the track after the allotted ten minutes were up – relegating him to the rear of the running order. Ambrose was on his way back to the front when his car slowed on lap 184. He would come to pit road the next lap, ending his chances at an IWK 250 trophy. Ambrose would take the time during his post Atlantic Tiltload Time Trial Interview to thank the staff and fans of Riverside Speedway and also commented on the great racing community we have up here. “This is also the first time I’ve qualified second and started third,” joked Ambrose after finding the #3 hat in the Dash draw. New Glasgow’s George Koszkulics also was solid in the IWK 250 but suffered from brake problems and ended up heading down pit road one lap after Ambrose.

Darren MacKinnon had a great night going in the #18 Shaw’s Towing/MacKinnon Brothers Service Center Chevrolet until his night ended just after the halfway break. MacKinnon had run his Impala up in the top ten for the late part of the first half after having to run the “B” Feature to qualify into the IWK 250. Other drivers who had good runs when the checkered flag flew included season high finishes for rookie Jerome Kehoe (8th), “the King of the Road” Roger Miller (9th) and Pete Miller (11th).

Marty MEGA Prevost had a great afternoon at Riverside Speedway. The driver who was celebrating his birthday with the IWK 250 qualified tenth in the Atlantic Tiltload Time Trials and drew and finished third in the Dartmouth Dodge Dash for Cash. “We have a good car and the old SFR crew is working it,” said Prevost following the Dash draw. The driver was up on the wheel in the first segment of the race before hard racing with another car sent the #11 Mega Enterprises/Reaction Auto Sales Chevrolet Impala up into the turn three wall, ending his night. Expect Prevost to be up front whenever car #11 hits the track next!

The heartbreak of the evening had to belong to Greg Proude. After a multi-car incident into the first turn on lap one, the remainder of the field was ready to take the green when Proude’s #29 slowed to a crawl in turn three and around to his turn four pit stall. Proude’s crew would fix the problem on him #29 APM/Loyalist Marble and Tile Dodge but the remedy would cost Proude twenty-five laps at the beginning of the race. The Springvale, PEI driver who won the Ron MacGillivray Chevrolet 100 earlier in the season would have to settle for fourteenth – a finish that’ll likely see Proude take a hit in the standings after the IWK 250.

You could say that Saint John, New Brunswick driver Lonnie Sommerville gave away the pole for the Dartmouth Dodge Dash for Cash. After Sommerville picked his hat, he looked down at the line of hats remaining, pointed to the one next to his selection and said “that is the pole.” The next driver up in the draw took Lonnie’s advice and John Flemming would be the one starting the #97 The Roofing Connection Dodge from the pole of the dozen lap dash. Sommerville would finish seventh in the race while Flemming ran into problems with his Charger as he wound up finishing 24th.

Finally, to put an exclamation point on this Notebook – if you noticed before we kicked off festivities for the Dartmouth Dodge Dash for Cash Hat Draw I was sitting on the wall on the front straight. One season ago I sat on the very same stretch of wall that had then been freshly painted and ended up with the infamous “stripe!” This season the drivers kept it clean in the practice and time trial sessions, meaning the wall still had the fresh white and red paint it did from the morning. The crew at the track deserves a pat on the back though as they were there prior to our arrival at around 9am painting the walls, cleaning the grounds and mending the fence in turn one that Sportsman driver Hughie Richard got into the night before. Hats off to the entire staff at Riverside for another job well done!

Remember to get your entries in for the 2010 Bracket Challenge. This is your chance to be on track with yours truly and twenty-six of the best Pro Stock drivers on the East Coast as the Grand Marshall of the Parts for Trucks 200 Finale at Scotia Speedworld! Entries close this Friday, so don’t delay!

Later in the week we will preview round two of the Parts for Trucks Challenge as the Parts for Trucks 100 goes green from Speedway 660. You will not want to miss the fifth race of the season as we emanate from the Geary woods in New Brunswick’s Capital Region!

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!