Brad Rouse answers the long-distance call
St. Catharines racer sets the pace in 40-lap Gabe Bellante Memorial
When the call came from the tower for another long-distance race, Brad Rouse answered with another dialed-in performance.
After the dust from a 40-lap Sportsman feature finally settled, the St. Catharines driver again was in victory lane celebrating an impressive win.
Sunday night at New Humberstone Speedway in Port Colborne, it was the Gabe Bellante Memorial; the night before at Merrittville Speedway in Thorold, the Bill Willard Sr. Sterling Silver Memorial.
At Port Colborne, Tyler Puchalski and defending track champion Chad Chevalier brought the Sportsman field to the green flag.
Chevalier jumped out to the lead, though Rouse was never far behind. They battled back and forth for the front-runner position until Rouse regained the lead on Lap 16 and started pulling away from the field.
It was Rouse’s second win of the season at Humberstone as well as his second victory in the Gabe Bellante Memorial.
Sunday night’s win in the extended-distance race – Sportsman features regularly go 25 laps — was Rouse’s third in four starts at dirt tracks in Niagara. On the Aug. 11 and 12 weekend, he won at Merrittville before finishing near the back of the pack at Humberstone.
Drivers from the region swept all five racing divisions Sunday night at Humberstone.
Welland’s Mitch Dumont won his eighth of the season in Pro 4 Trucks, while Niagara Falls’ Sam Pennacchio, in Late Models; Port Colborne’s Jason Fontaine, Thunder Stocks; and St. Catharines’ Jay Moulton, Mini Stocks; took checkered flags for the first time.
Pennacchio started the main event in the Late Model class alongside Stan Zanchin in the front row. Reigning division champion and current points leader Chad Homan caught Pennacchio working lap traffic on
Lap 15, but the graduate of the track’s truck division withstood the challenge and continued to set the pace the rest of the way.
Outside pole-sitter Danny Wurster led the Pro 4 Truck feature for the first three circuits before being overtaken by Dumont who led the 15-lapper after that for the win.
Co-pole sitter Billy Bleich Jr. led the Thunder Stock for 18 laps, but saw his lead over the field — Fontaine, in particular — erased after Dumont’s spinout in Turn 3 brought out the first caution flag
on Lap 16.
With two laps remaining, Fontaine finally overtook Bleich and held on for his first win of the year at his hometown track.
Moulton raced flag-to-flag for the victory after starting the 20-lap Mini Stocks feature in the front row next to Jeremy Cooper.
Weather permitting, racing returns next Sunday with the 75-lap, $4,000-to-win Pete Cosco Memorial for the visiting Modified class.
Also honouring the memory of the Humberstone track owner and former racer is the $2,000-towin Race of Champions 602 Sportsman Series feature.
Late Models, Thunder Stocks, Mini Stocks and Pro 4 Trucks round out the six-division program. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. with racing getting underway two hours later.
Cosco and wife Linda purchased the former Gasport Speedway in 2004 and renamed it New Humberstone Speedway. He was 60 when he died of a brain aneurysm in August 2014.
Track Talk: A total of 68 race cars and trucks were pitside … Highlighting Autograph Night were NASCAR-like driver instructions prior to the start of the Gabe Bellante Memorial.