‘He showed me a lot of maturity’
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.