Crowning achievement
Brad Rouse wins King of the Crates; Brent Begolo, Gregg Rauscher each take 7th flag
Brad Rouse’s victory in the King of the Crates Series at Merrittville Speedway was punctuated with an exclamation point worth $1,000.
Crowning achievement for the St. Catharines driver came in the marquee race on the six-division program at the Thorold track, the 40-lap, $1,000-to-win Gabe Bellante.
His fifth win of the season at Merrittville, and 10th overall at dirt tracks in Niagara, fell short of being a flag-to-flag victory, but it was nonetheless convincing.
Rouse, starting fifth in the 24car field for the Sportsman feature, three rows behind co-pole sitters Joey Herremans, overtook the front-runners well before the halfway point of the show-stopper and never relinquished the lead racing two his second King of the Crates Series race in a row.
Thorold’s Brent Begolo, hoping to set the pace in both the Sportsman and Mod Lites classes for the third time this year, finished second, 0.961 seconds behind Rouse.
Farnham, Tonawanda, N.Y.; Chad Chevalier, Port Colborne, the Sportsman winner the before at Ohsweken Speedway; and Cody McPherson, St. Catharines, the defending King of the Crates champion; rounded out the top five.
Herremans, Alisa Craig, Ont., northwest of London; Farnham; and James Michael Friesen, St. Catharines; won the heats, while Justin Sharp, St. Catharines; took the checkered flag in an eight-lap for the 13 non-qualifiers.
Rouse, whose car is sponsored by Bellante’s son Rick, also the sponsor of the Sportsman division at Merrittville, came into the King of the Crates finale leading Jay Mallory of St. Catharines by 28 points.
With a victory in the extra-distance worth 100 points and with second-to-last and last-place finishes worth 41 and 40 points, respectively, Rouse could have won the series by placing in the top third of the field in the finale.
Rouse, current points leader at Merrittville and the reigning track champion at Humberstone, topped the King of the Crates Series driver standings with 296 points, 38 more than Begolo.
McPherson, Adam Leslie, Port Colborne; and Friesen, the winner in the series opener; finished with 242, 232 and 222 points, respectively.
The memorial race honours a diehard race fan who never missed a Saturday night program at Merrittville in 50 years. Gabe Bellante died in October 2013.
Murray’s in a hurry again
For the fifth time this season, Rob Murray’s finish in the Hoosier Stocks feature at Merrittville matched the No. M1 on the side of his Camaro.
Like the other victories at his hometown track, the St. Catharines driver went to the green flag for the 20-lap feature far behind the co-pole setters.
On Saturday, the hard charger started 14th in the field of 19, seven rows back of Bill Podwinski of Caistor Centre and Brian (Go Fast) Teeple of Thorold.
Starting positions for Murray’s other victories this season were 19th, Aug. 9; 11th, Aug. 5; 12th, July 19; and 19th, July 12.
Brad Sheehan, St. Catharines; Kyle Pelrine, Smithville; and Dave Bailey, Hagersville; won the qualifiers, and Ryan Dinning, Caledonia; Jason Lungaro, Hamilton; Bailey and Dave Small, Port Colborne; rounded out the top five in the feature.
Bailey and Dinning each raced to a feature win Friday night at Ohsweken.
Bailey, an eight-time winner at Merrittville this season and the defending 8-cylinder champion, leads Murray 902-781 in the points race.
Fantastic freshman
Only thing quicker than Brent Begolo the learner is Brent Begolo the fast driver.
The Sportsman division veteran from Thorold, who is in his first year competing in Mod Lites, overtook Fonthill’s Steven Beckett in the late going of the 15-lap feature Saturday for his seventh win of the season.
Begolo, a driver for hire with Josh Sliter Racing, edged Beckett by 0.549 in the night’s most-exciting finish.
Jeffery May, Mount Hope, Ont., near Hamilton; Tyler Winger, Fort Erie; and Chris Watson, Niagara Falls; also had top-five finishes.
The six-lap heats were won by May and Begolo.
Winger started the evening taking a bow on the frontstretch where he was honoured as driver of the week for the second time this season and for the third time in his two-year career.
Familiar faces in victory lane
Repeat visits to victory lane was the order of the day Saturday at Merrittville.
Thorold’s Gregg Rauscher raced to his seventh win of the season in Novice Sportsman, while Ridgeway’s Gary Lindberg, in 358 Modifieds; and Welland’s Cole Hardy, in Mini Stocks; each won for the second time this season.
Rauscher, who has already clinched the points championship in the track’s newest racing class, led a top five of Gord McIntosh, Smithville; Scott Sonnenberg, Bethel; Ian Porter and Ian Farraway across the finish line in the six-lap main event.
Rauscher’s margin of victory was 1.035 seconds.
With a 230-point lead over Sonnenberg, Rauscher has already clinched a track championship he will be unable to defend next year. As was the case last year, when Trevor Wright of Smithville won the inaugural division title as a 14-year-old, Rauscher will no longer be able to compete in Novice Sportsman. “The champion has to move up. “I don’t really have the money to run the full-out Sportsman,” he said. “There are a lot less wrecks in novice.”
This is Rauscher’s first season competing at Merrittville, but he isn’t a stranger to sliding a Sportsman car into a turn on a dirt track. Years ago he ran regularly at Humberstone and Ohsweken.
He likes the new division and hopes to sticks around.
“It’s a good group of guys, I enjoy it,” Rauscher said. “There are not as many wrecks, there are not as many crashes.
“You can race the racetrack and have more fun.
“I’m really hoping the class survives because it’s important for guys starting out, for guys that have older equipment and for guys who maybe don’t have the ability or the car to run in the regular Sportsman.
“It’s a good class. I hope it survives.”
Rauscher could run his car in the regular Sportsman division — “Realistically, it would probably be a mid-pack car,” he said — but that’s on the immediate horizon for a veteran who is in his 18th consecutive season racing.
In fact, his Sportsman racer has already been sold. Rauscher intends to keep his hand in the sport by running “three to four races” on asphalt next season in an 8-cylinder.
“It’s the same engine as these cars actually,” he said. “It’s based on a Hoosier Stock, but it’s for asphalt.”
Rounding out the top five in 358 Modifieds behind Lindberg, a winner by 3.65 seconds in the 35-lapper, were Mat Williamson, St. Catharines; Chad Brachmann, Sanborn, N.Y.; reigning track champion Pete Bicknell, St. Catharines; and Ryan Sucise, Ransomville, N.Y.
Tommy Flannigan of St. Catharines, a feature winner Friday night at Ohsweken, and Lindberg each won a heat.
Brachmann, seeking his second track title at first since 2015, leads Lindberg 1,000 points to 948 in the race for the speedway championship.
Victories by Tom Neale, St. Catharines; and Garnet Wilson, Canfield, Ont.; in the qualifiers set the stage for a main event featuring a top five of Hardy, Alex Riley, Thorold; Jay Moulton, St. Catharines; Tony Kelly, Niagara Falls; and Rob Sauder, Port Colborne.
Kelly, with seven victories, 896 points; and Riley, three wins, 814 points; are 1-2 in the Mini Stocks driver standings.
Racing returns next weekend, weather permitting, with two days of racing. Full-throttle action gets under way with the 37-lap, $3,700-to-win Harry Sittler Memorial for 358 Modifieds highlighting Saturday night’s program.
On tap for a Sunday matinee beginning at 1 p.m. are a 100-lap enduro, backwards, flagpole, ladies and school bus races.
I’m really hoping the class survives because it’s important for guys starting out, for guys that have older equipment and for guys who maybe don’t have the ability or the car to run in the regular Sportsman.” Gregg Rauscher