PARSONS TOO QUICK FOR THE FIELD ON FINAL NIGHT
STROUD, ON – On the Saturday September 29th it was the last night of regular racing at Sunset Speedway for the 2007 season and realty was settling in as the long winter looms a head and with that no more racing until next spring.
There was still one points race to settle as # 00 Matt Henderson held a scant 7 point lead over the very quick # 14 Honda of Ken Britt as the program began. On the last night of racing for ’07 the big winners were # 1 Quick Vic Parsons in the HF Smith Home Hardware Sunset Late Models, #81 Dallas Hofscheier in the Domino’s Pizza Thunder Cars, # 48 young gun Nick “white walls” Brown in the Fox’s Buns Master 4 Cylinder Road Runners and # 4 Mark “box car” Kehoe took home the Fox’s 4 Fun feature.
I would also like to congratulate the 4 division winners that were crowned on this night as the ever popular # 11 “white lightning” machine of Chris “mo” Morrow took home the honours in the late model s, # 3 Ernie Fumerton finally after years of trying won the thunder cars, # 00 Matt Henderson edged a determined bid # 14 Ken Britt by a scant few points and the # 35 young gun Miles Jamieson won the 4 funs edging #00 Dan “rover” Nolan who led almost all year.
There was also a great event went on Saturday afternoon and into the night as the fine folks from Project Track Champion were on hand giving Handicapped people 80 in total a chance to get a ride in a specially prepared stock car.
We had 2 popular Sunset late model drivers ’07 champ Chris Morrow and Canadian stock car legend Quick Vic Parsons drive the folks around the Sunset oval and in talking to Vic and Chris said the people were thrilled. During the race they had a 50/50 draw and the organizers said that the great Sunset fans were the most generous of the entire tracks they had attended, nothing we didn’t know already as they collected almost $1700.
If you would like find out more about this great cause go to their web site: www.project-track-champion.com and they will be back next year so make sure you find out the night and attend as this car is outstanding and this is a great cause to support as we sometimes forget about the handicapped world. We will see them next year and show them how really generous the fans at Sunset Speedway are as we will blow away that number so this project can go on in the future.
THE 50 LAP HF SMITH HOME HARDWARE 50 LAP SUNSET LATE MODEL FEATURE
We had 22 of the finest late model drivers anywhere in Ontario ready to take on fastest and toughest 1/3 mile around and try and tame it a tough task to say the least. When you have the likes of Parsons, Morrow, Walters, the Quesnelle boys, rookie sensation Rob Poole and on and on a field very deep and anyone can win on any given Saturday you know it will be a great battle.
On the drop of the green # 28 Rod Tooley grabs the early lead with # 19 Jason Witty, # 1 Vic Parsons, # 7.3 Ken Heyward and # 17 Kevin Cornelius the fast 5. While Witty took the lead his stay was short as Parsons powered his way to the front followed by Witty, Cornelius, # 45 Rob Poole and # 47 Stompin” Tom Walters and we went 14 laps before the first caution flew as # 69 Maurizio Ciccarelli and the 57 car of Ron Quesnelle got together in turn 1.
On lap 17 we had a mishap that collected # 23 Paul Milligan and resulted in #31 Jeff Walt, Ciccarelli, Heyward and # 16 Amanda Connelly going to the pits for repairs. At the half way point Parsons was still the leader with Poole, Walters, Witty, Cornelius and # 34 Jason Tremble the fast 5 and then we had a series of cautions that really slowed the momentum that had been created in the first half of the race. Because of the number of cautions the decision was made before the races started that the race would be shortened so with 5 to go the fast 5 were Parsons, Poole, Walters, # 11 Chris Morrow and Tremble.
As they turned for home to take the checkered flag The running order was Parsons, Poole, Walters, Morrow, Tremble, Quesnelle and # 6 Keith Maiato. The heat winners were Ciccarelli, Poole,Quesnelle and Tremble. Congratulations to Quick Vic and the crew on back to back feature wins after being shut out in the ’07 season. I would like to thank Chris Morrow and Vic Parsons for giving up their Saturday to drive the less fortunate folks around the Sunset oval as it was a thrill of a life time for these folks well done gentlemen.
THE DOMINO’S PIZZA THUNDER CARS
Once again we had a great turn out of the best thunder cars in Ontario as 28 strong were ready to take on the bull ring known as Sunset Speedway not for the faint of heart. On the drop of the green flag # 81 Dallas Hofscheier would take the point with # 97 Roy Anderson, #02 Bob Phinnemore, # 84 Ken Weisbrod and # 4 Billy McDonald the fast 5.
The first yellow flew on lap 5 as # 46 Rob Harrison and # 60 Mike Norris got together but the big loser was Anderson as he was detected leaking fuel and summoned to the pits to repair it losing his runner up position. On the restart Hofscheier paced the field with Phinnemore, Weisbrod, # 57 Steve Lang and # 03 Rick Walt the top 5 with a mad scramble for position in behind. At the half way point the top 5 were the same but the action in behind was fierce with everyone trading paint and looking for any opportunity to move up.
With 5 to go Hofscheier was still in the lead with Phinnemore, Weisbrod, Lang and Walt the fast 5 but on lap 23 we had an incident that we do not like to see as the pack was motoring down the front chute # 14 Tyler Liscombe and the 8 car of Joseph Wise get involved with Wise making heavy contact with the wall and Liscombe rolling over twice and coming to rest on his wheels and both were ok but it’s a scene no one likes to see and both cars were destroyed.
The race was ended under a yellow and checkered scenario with running order Hofscheier, Phinnmore, Weisbrod, Lang, Walt, # 3 Ernie Fumerton and # 51 Mark Adams. The heat winners were Fumerton 2, # 55 Bruce Rankin, # 58 Stan Coe, Hofscheier and Weisbrod. Congratulations to Dallas and his crew chief Jim Cutting and the rest of the crew members on a great win and announced he will not be back next year.
THE FOX’S BUNS MASTER 4 CYLINDER ROAD RUNNERS
The 4 cylinder class just amazes me week in and week out as we had 34 of the best 4 cylinder machines anywhere ready to take on the Sunset Speedway bull ring and there still a 4 cylinder champion to be crowned as # 00 Matt Henderson held a slight lead on # 14 Ken Britt. It’s a tribute to the drivers that at the end of the year we would still have in excess of 30 cars ready to campaign it’s awesome. On the drop of the green flag # 42 Harold Noseworthy grabs the lead with # 10 Doug Butler, # 50 John Kaszab, # 48 Nick Brown and # 12Eric Rainey the fast 5.
We went 10 before the first caution when # 97 Dave Pitman and # 37 get together and on the restart Noseworthy was still the point man but he was under heavy pressure from Brown with Butler, Kaszab and # 2 Ben Melenhorst rounding out the top 5. On lap 12 Melenhorst loops it down the front chute and collects # 40 Mike Zinkie on the restart Brown still paces the field with Noseworthy under heavy pressure from points leader # 00 Matt Henderson and Britt a few points behind battling for position while # 79 Jason Podewils rounded out the top 5.
As the laps were winding down we had to battles taking place one for the feature win on this night and the other the season’s points battle going down to the wire on the last night of racing for points. Brown was the leader with Britt in the runner up spot trying to hold off a determined bid by Henderson as the three formed a triangle fighting for the win.
As they made the turn for home to take the checkered flag fro starter Rob the running order was Brown, Britt, Henderson, Podewils and # 45 Colt Carcone. The heat winners were #13X Jason Santos, Henderson 2, Carcone, Zinkie and Britt. Congratulations to Nick and his crew on a tremendous feature win holding off those 2 fierce competitors behind you and to the ‘07 points champion Matt Henderson on a very consistent performance in a very competitive division.
THE FOX’S BUNS MASTER 4 FUNS
There were unbelievably 30 four funs ready for action and see who was supreme on this particular evening and it’s unreal to see this many cars set active at this stage of the year a tribute in deed as we had a total of 39 four funs racing on this night. On the drop of the green flag the # 49 car of Johnny Whelan grabbed the early lead with # 4 Mark Kehoe, # 0 Jeremy Hodder, # 32 Ashley Romano and # 5 Tara Case the fast 5.
There was a caution on lap 6 as # 00 Dan Nolan, # 53 Kyle Lankin and # 69 Trevor Martin get together. At the half way point Kehoe is still the point man with Whelan, Hodder, Romano and # 48 Stacey Clark the top 5. On lap 12 Case and Clark get together and the top 5 were Kehoe, Whelan, Hodder, Romano and # 33 Ronald Goodall. As they exited turn to dash for the finish line the running order was Kehoe, # 6 Terry Woodley, Whelan, Goodall, # 9 Marshall Pender and # 15 Brendan Doherty.
The heat winners were Woodley, Jamieson, # 55 Bill Campbell, Pender, Martin and Doherty and the consi winner was # 38 Trevor Clubine. Congratulations to Mark on a great run. Once again we would like to thank the fans, drivers, staff and sponsor’s for a great 2007 race season as we had tremendous weather, car counts and racing all season long and hope everyone has a safe winter and see you all back next spring when we do it all over again but even bigger and better than ever.
I want to thank the great folks of Project Track Champion for attending our last regular show and making some handicapped peoples lives as their specially prepared race car was present. I would also like to thank Chris Morrow and Vic Parsons for volunteering to drive the car all afternoon as the folks were thrilled and they promise to be back next year.
Remember we have one special event left on our ’07 calendar on Sunday October 14th at 3 PM we have our annual Frosty Special a great way to say good bye to the 2007 race season as we will have invitational’s for Thunder cars, four cylinders and four funs as well as a special drifter show so get your last racing fix for ’07 as old man winter is just around the corner.
By BRIAN WATT // Sunset Speedway
No comments:
Post a Comment