‘Two-rrific’ night
Two drivers start season 2-0, two drivers do double duty on a night of twos at Thorold track
Good things came in twos when Merrittville Speedway outraced Mother Nature with an entertaining program Saturday night in Thorold.
Fans were treated to two wowdid-you-that moves in heavy traffic, two down-to-the-wire battles for second place, two almost identical No. 28 Cutlasses competing in a 20-lap feature, as well as two drivers doing double duty by racing in two divisions.
If that wasn’t enough, there were also two drivers who have started the 2017 points race at Merrittville with — you guessed it — two wins in as many starts.
Mat Williamson, a winner the night before at Lernerville Speedway in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, overtook fellow St. Catharines driver Mike Bowman with 12 laps remaining to win an exciting 358 Modified feature.
Bowman turned heads in the grandstand and in the tower when he slid underneath Phil Vigneri III with a daring move to take the lead 10 circuits into the 35-lapper.
Bowman led a field that included three former track champions by as much as half a straightaway, but three caution flags and a loss of traction along the top of a super-slick clay surface were too much to overcome against the hard-charging Williamson who was hugging the inside of the track.
“Mike did himself a disadvantage by staying at the top,” Williamson said in victory lane. “(Turns) 1 and 2 got worse and worse.
“He stole one from me last year, so I had to get him back tonight.”
The third 358 Modified feature of the young season featured a spirited battle between Bowman and Port Robinson’s Tim Jones, the Week 1 winner, for second place. Bowman edged Jones by 0.586 seconds.
St. Catharines’ Pete Bicknell, the reigning points champion; and Port Colborne’s Larry Lampman Jr. rounded out the top five. Scott Wood of Thorold, Chad Brachmann of Sanborn, N.Y., the 2015 champion; and Bowman were the heat winners.
Unlike Bowman, Brad Rouse of St. Catharines took the lead to stay after making a daring move in the Sportsman feature. He surged from a starting position of 10th to second in no time at all and was leading Adam Leslie of Port Colborne by 10 car lengths when a caution nine laps into the 25-lap race erased that lead.
Rouse would also lose leads after the yellow flag flew on Laps 18 and 21, but he never lost his frontrunning position as he beat Leslie by 0.958 seconds. For fans, this was another race in which second place was in doubt until the final seconds. Try as he might, and he tried mightily many times to no avail, Chad Chavalier, also of Port Colborne, could finish no higher than third, 1.121 seconds behind Rouse.
Cody McPherson, St. Catharines; and Luke Carleton, Port Colborne; also finished in the top five, while Chris Storm, St. Catharines; Leslie; and Jay Mallory, St. Catharines; won their heats.
Sportsman consi winners were Dave Flannigan Jr. of St. Catharines and Chris Bellamy of Hamilton.
Hagersville’s Dave Bailey and Thorold’s Brent Begolo won their second in a row at Merrittville in the Hoosier Stock and Mod Lite divisions, respectively, while Thorold’s Greg Rausher won a battle of attrition in a Novice Sportsman feature that was decided when the only other car damaged its drive train on the second lap.
Bailey’s victory was the mostthrilling — and the closest — of the night. After overtaking James Thompson of St. Catharines midway into the 20-lap feature, Billy Bleich Jr. of Port Robinson set the pace until Bailey darted into first on the last lap for a victory by 0.329 seconds.
Rounding out the top five were Thompson, Kyle Pelrine of Beamsville and Trevor DeBoer of Hagersville.
Bleich, Steve Shaw of Merlin, Ont., south of Chatham, and Rob Murray of St. Catharines were the heat winners.
Bailey won the season opener at Ohsweken Speedway the night before to improve to 3-0 at tracks where he is the reigning points champion.
He also won the title at New Humberstone Speedway last season, but action at the Port Colborne dirt track has yet to get underway following three rainouts.
Caistor Centre’s Jim Lampman finished ninth in Saturday’s Hoosier Stock race, which featured the debut of 13-year-old son Donny in the Thorold track’s 8-cylinder class.
Father and son each drove Cutlasses that were identical, except that dad’s was No. 28 and Donny’s was No. 28D.
“He insisted on having the same colour so if he moved me out of the way there would be no evidence,” the elder Lampman said with a chuckle.
Donny, who was five when he started racing karts and who won his karting division at Merrittville last season, received permission to start at the tail end of the field in order to get seat time.
Lampman said his son knew he would need to get off the track if he started posing a safety risk to himself or the other drivers.
However, Donny more than held his own in his feature race in the faster and more-powerful class. Not only did he complete all 20 circuits, he also moved up three positions to finish 17th.
Lampman said he wasn’t worried about the Cutlass being too much car for his son to handle at such a young age.
“I wouldn’t have him in the car if I didn’t think he was ready,” the father said. “He holds as good a line as some of the guys we race against.
“He showed me a lot of maturity last summer in the karts, from where he was to where he finished. He gained patience, he learned how to drive through and he learned how to hold his lines.”
Jim Lampman’s most-important lesson to his son?
“Go fast and turn left,” the Grade 8 student at Twenty Valley Public School in Vineland said. “Don’t go off the track, don’t look at the guy in front of you, look past him and make sure you’re not going to drive into anything.”
A family affair wasn’t limited to the Hoosier Stock class for the Lampmans. Daughter Kathleen was driving in the enduro.
Rain started falling as fans were leaving the grandstand area and tow trucks were hauling stalled and damaged cars off the track following the enduro ... Ryan Susice of Ransomville, N.Y., was honoured as driver of the week ... A total of 25 cars raced 25 laps in a battle of the beaters in the third of three qualifiers for an enduro that will close out Merrittville’s 66th season ... Thorold’s Brent Begolo, Mod Lite, Sportsman; and Port Colborne’s Rob Goulding, Sportsman, enduro; each competed in two races.