Repeat winners on double feature night at track
Dave Bailey is proof that numbers can be deceiving.
While the Hagersville driver has been No. 49 since he started racing in the Hoosier Stock class, he’s been nothing but No. 1 across the finish line in feature races at two tracks in southern Ontario so far this season.
Bailey improved to 4-0 at Merrittville Speedway, winning both ends of a doubleheader Saturday night in impressive fashion, and he has taken the only checkered flag in the 8-cylinder class at Ohsweken Speedway this year.
Bailey, the defending track champion at Merrittville, Ohsweken as well as New Humberstone Speedway in Port Colborne, is at a loss to explain why victory lane has become a reserved parking spot for his red, white and blue Camaro.
“I have no idea,” he said. “If I knew, I could sell it.”
Bailey changed all four tires after defeating Welland’s Derek VanMill by 7.735 seconds — nearly half a lap — in a makeup race for a feature that was rained out on May 13.
“It gets burned up, it slows down little a bit,” he said of how the clay surface changed during a long night of racing.
Bailey clocked the fastest lap time in the first feature, 18.448 seconds; as well as in the second, 18.576.
Kyle Pelrine, Beamsville; Trevor DeBoer, Hagersville; and Rob Murray, St. Catharines; rounded out the top five in the first feature.
Murray, who trailed Bailey across the finish line by 3.483 seconds in the nightcap, Vince Fargnoli, Niagara Falls; Ken Sargent, Hamilton, were the top also-rans in the second feature.
There was also a doubleheader, and a repeat winner, in the Mod Lite racing class at the Thorold track.
Josh Sliter of Ridgeway snapped Thorold driver and teammate Brent Begolo’s two-race winning streak with a victory by 1.889 seconds in the makeup race.
“I can’t let him win every week, can I?” Sliter quipped in victory lane after winning his first race of the season at his hometown track.
Sliter and Begolo also finished 1-2 in Saturday’s second Mod Lite feature, but the margin of victory was much closer. Try 1/1,000th of a second.
Jeffrey May, Mount Hope, near Hamilton; Chris Watson, Niagara Falls; and R.J. Pietz, Port Colborne; rounded out the top five in the first race. May, Watson and Marty DeMoel, Welland; finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the second feature.
Sportsman racer James Michael Friesen of St. Catharines held on to win Round 1 of this year’s King of the Crates Series despite losing leads of several car lengths — and momentum — to five cautions in eight laps.
Friesen held off St. Catharines’ Brad Rouse, also from St. Catharines, on the first four restarts, but the stop-and-go racing took its toll when Cody McPherson, also from St. Catharines, overtook Friesen with two circuits remaining in the 30-lapper.
McPherson’s stay up front was short-lived as Friesen went on to win his first of the season by 0.365 seconds.
Rouse, Begolo and Dave Flannigan Jr., St. Catharines, trailed McPherson across the finish line to round out the top five.
Jay Mallory, St. Catharines; Flannigan and Mark Chiddy, Boston, Ont., near Simcoe; set the pace in the qualifying heats.
Order of finish in the Novice Sportsman feature was Gregg Rauscher, Thorold; Jeff Larmet, St. Catharines; and Scott Sonnenberg.
Chad Brachmann of Sanborn, N.Y., needed 12 laps to take over the lead in the 358 Modified feature and 23 to hold off challengers for his win of the season in Merrittville’s premier racing division.
Greg Panunte, Port Colborne; Gary Lindberg, Ridgeway; Scott Wood, Thorold; and Fred Carleton, St. Catharines; also finished in the top five, with Brachmann, Phil Vigneri III, Elba, N.Y.; and Tyler McPherson, St. Catharines; winning their heats.
In Mini Stocks, it was Port Colborne’s Leroy Buscumb ending the night in victory lane after holding off challenges from Tony Kelly, Niagara Falls; Jason Coutu, St. Catharines; Olivier Larocque; and Tyler Lafantaisie, Welland.
Sam Iftody, Fenwick; and Clinton Nicholls, Hamilton; were the heat winners in the 4-cylinder class.