Mini Stock track championships going down to wire

Only two points separate top two drivers in Humberstone’s 4-cylinder division

Leroy Buscumb and Alex Riley head into weekend racing at Niagara’s two dirt tracks firing on all four cylinders.

Buscumb and Riley top the Mini Stock point standing at their respective hometown tracks, New Humberstone Speedway in Port Colborne and Merrittville Speedway in Thorold.

Neither is feeling all that comfortable in the driver’s seat sitting at the front of pack.

Only two points separate Buscumb and defending track champion Cole Hardy after nine feature races in the Sunday night program at Humberstone.

Rounding out the top five behind Buscumb, 518; Hardy, 516; are Evan Curtis, 481; Mike Sarantakos, 468; and Sea Iftody.

Olivier Larocque, though only sixth in points, with 398; leads the division with four wins.

Hardy is also a close second in Mini Stocks points at Merrittville, where Riley has a 620-617 lead.

Jay Moulton, 548; Anthony Kelly, 492; and Vincent Pagnotta also are in the top five heading into Saturday night’s racing program.

Dave Bailey of Hagersville, the defending 8-cylinder champion at both tracks, leads Pete Reid 496488 in the Thunder Stock division at Humberstone, and trails Rob Murray of St. Catharines 800-726 in the Hoosier Stock class at Merrittville.

Sportsman, the other racing class shared by the Niagara tracks, has St. Catharines’ Cody McPherson leading Port Colborne’s Adam Leslie 568-500 in the Humberstone driver standings.

At Merrittville, Niagara Falls’ James Michael Friesen, with 650 points; Brent Begolo, Leslie, each with 626; Paul Gaboury, 620; and Rob Knapp, 618; are the top five in Sportsman points.

With 668 points, 92 more than Chris Watson, Begolo, a thirdgeneration racer from Thorold, sits alone atop Mod Lites, a division exclusive to Merrittville.

Also only running regularly at Merrittville is 358 Modified. Mat Williamson, St. Catharines; Gary Lindberg, Ridgeway; and Chad Brachmann are top three in that division with 774, 742 and 734, points, respectively.

Front-runners in the Humberstone-only divisions – Pro 4 Trucks, Late Models – enjoy 78and 25-points leads.

Mitch Dumont of Welland is the top point-getter in 4-cylinder trucks with 532. Danny Wurster is second, 454 points.

Dumont has also raced to a division- and track-high seven wins.

Chad Homan of Macdeon, N.Y., southeast of Rochester, leads Sam Pennacchio 852-827 in the race to the points championships in the Batmobile-like Late Models.

Weather permitting, race returns to Merrittville Saturday and to Humberstone the following night. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. with the show getting underway at 7 p.m. at Merrittville.

Times at Humberstone are 4:30 p.m., grandstand opens; and 7 p.m., first race.