Issue 70

The Notebook: Ron MacGillivray Chevrolet Buick GMC 100

Donald Chisholm was not to be denied on Saturday.

Chisholm stormed to the front after finding himself near the tail early in the Ron MacGillivray Chevrolet Buick GMC 100. When he got to the front, he found himself dueling with Wayne Smith for the win. Smith had dominated the event to that point, picking up the King Freight Lines Halfway and Linde Most Laps Led awards. As Smith had mentioned in his post race interview it was Chisholm who had a bit more on the late restarts and when the mist fell on lap ninety it was Chisholm holding the top spot. The “Oval Outlaw” will leave Riverside with the point lead to a track where he won last season at – Oyster Bed Speedway.

This win is big for Chisholm in many respects. It is his second consecutive win at his home track and fifth career victory on the Tour. That second statistic moves him into a tie for fifth overall on the All Time Win list with Greg Proude and Shawn Turple and one behind Gordie Ryan’s mark set at six wins.

The NOVA Racing stable was fast all round on Saturday. George Koszkulics set fast time in the Atlantic Tiltload Time Trials and was competitive throughout the race. Their teammate for the weekend Jason Hathaway enjoyed a top five run for the first half of the Ron MacGillivray Chevrolet Buick GMC 100 but began to fall back as the race went on. He would find himself involved in a late-race incident as he tried to hold on to a top ten run. The contact relegated him to the pits where he joined championship contender John Flemming, who also had tough luck before the checkers flew.

A big tip of the cap goes to the #98 Ideal Concrete/Zutphen Contractors team out of Sydney. During practice the car got away from driver Jerome Kehoe and slammed the front straightaway wall, leaving black marks where the front and back end hit just after the finish line. From my position in the tower it looked like the team would be done for the day with the damage sustained from the hit but the team didn’t give up. They thrashed away on the Chevrolet from the time the Keltic Ford Clean Up Crew dropped the car at their pit until the time Jerome fired the car and brought it out for his Atlantic Tiltload Time Trial pass. Kehoe would finish the feature in seventeenth place and will head to the track where he got his first ever Tour heat win on Saturday!

Give a call out to Darren MacKinnon. The Charlottetown driver has had one of the fastest cars in each of the first three Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour races but something had foiled the good run by the #18 in the first two races. This time it was different as MacKinnon was a fighting fourth at the completion of ninety laps. MacKinnon and eventual third place finisher Jonathan Hicken had rapidly made their way through the field and MacKinnon had given the Brudenell driver a run for his podium spot but the #5 would hold on for the third position.

Brad Mann recorded his first top ten of the season this past Saturday night with an eighth place run at Riverside. Mann, who makes the long haul from Glen Livet, NB each week kept his Majestik sponsored ride clean and was rewarded with the good finish.

This is the key over the next few weeks for most teams, keeping the car clean. We have three more weeks with consecutive races so if the car is wrecked big, the repair time is shorter in comparison to a week where we have no race on the following weekend. I believe some of the casual fans may overlook the fact that these drivers and crews put hours upon hours of work into these chariots over the week.

Before I sign off for this edition, the Riverside International Speedway and Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour officials need to pat themselves on the back for jiggling around the schedule Saturday to get the racing program in. If it wasn’t for them, we likely would have been reporting about rubber duck or canoe racing instead of stock car racing. Great job ladies and gentlemen!

We’re not done this week, coming up is the preview for the Parts for Trucks 100 at Oyster Bed Speedway. Stay tuned to MaritimeProStockTour.com to see who will be the drivers to watch come Saturday night on picturesque Prince Edward Island!

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