BROWN DRAWS A PAIR OF SEVENS: Kennington Comes Up with Aces

By Ken Spencer

Doug Brown’s last minute gamble to go west as part of CASCAR’s Super Series schedule has paid a huge return for the NAPA/Autopro sponsored driver.

Two seventh place finishes at Vernon, BC’s Sun Valley Speedway –one in Friday’s 100-lap qualifier and the second in Saturday’s 300-lap feature- have helped jettisoned the Brantford racing veteran into 12th spot (unofficially) in the series’ standing and just 52 short of his goal of tenth, a target he set for himself before the season began.

“It was definitely the right choice in making the trip”, Doug remarked in relaying his results back home. “We even had a good shot of a better finish in the qualifier but the car’s handling started to go away in the closing laps (while running fourth) so I had to back off a bit.”

Brown lined up 14th in the 28-car starting field for the 300-lap feature but went down a lap while running in the top ten when lapped cars created some problems for those running behind the four leaders. Quick pit stops helped keep Doug and the #10 car in the chase eventually gaining him a spot on a fuel and two-tire stop late in the event.

With 25 laps remaining, Doug hooked up with Dave Whitlock and JR Fitzpatrick in a three car challenge for sixth spot with the NAPA/Autopro driver edging past Fitzpatrick for seventh with 15 laps remaining but he couldn’t muster enough to catch Whitlock in the closing laps.

TEAM WORK A BIG FACTOR

For DJ Kennington, the trip west was even more rewarding.

The Castrol Canada Dodge driver set fast time in time trials, won his 100-lap qualifier then shuffled his way past late leader Brad Graham of Glencoe on lap 297 of Saturday’s main event to make it three wins in a row including last week’s 300-lap race in Calgary.

That string of victories and qualifying results has catapulted the St. Thomas driver into third place in the standings up from tenth when the western trip began.

Because both Brown and Kennington went west with skeleton crews, they helped each other out during pit stops and in repairing the damages to the #10 car following the Calgary race, demonstrating the teamwork of CASCAR competitors in this highly competitive series.

DISAPPOINTMENT FOR GRAHAM

For Brad Graham, second place was a bitter disappointment when it appeared he was on the verge of capturing his first ever career Super Series event. Unfortunately a lapped car caused problems by disrupting the battle between him and Kennington allowing Kennington to scrape by for the victory.

Don Thomson Jr. of Hamilton, Peter Gibbons of Stouffville and Ron Beauchamp of Windsor rounded out the top five finishers making it an all-Ontario sweep of the first eight positions in the 300-lap event. Ron VanEs of Smithville completed a successful journey west by finishing tenth behind Sherwood Park, Alberta’s Kevin Dowler.

The teams now return east for the five remaining events on the CASCAR calendar beginning this Saturday, August 6th at the half-mile oval at Mosport Speedway.