Penalty no detour to victory lane
Rob Murray had the fastest car in the Hoosier Stock final Saturday night at Merrittville Speedway.
Given the extra distance the St. Catharines driver had to cover in the 20-lap feature, he had to. Not only did Murray start the race in the middle of the 15-car field, he was dropped to the back of the field for the restart after making contact with Billy Bleich Jr. six laps in.
That penalty didn’t slow the hard-charging Murray any. He needed only three laps to move up nine spots to begin putting pressure on the front-running Dave Small.
Murray appeared to take over the lead on Lap 17 just as the yellow caution lights started spinning at the Thorold track.
However, Small was still out front for the single-file restart, but his time in the cat-bird seat would be short-lived. Two laps later, following yet another restart, the roles were reserved, with but Small winning a one-lap shootout for his third victory in a row.
“This car’s a rocket on a dry track,” Murray said in victory lane. “My crew works on it all the time, I can’t thank them enough.”
Brad Sheehan, two-time track champion Dave Bailey and Kyle Pelrine rounded out the top five.
Bailey and Bleich won the features.
A third-time winner also took the checkered flag in the Mod Lite feature. Brent Begolo of Thorold, who also has one Sportsman win to his credit, dominated for much of the 15-lap feature leading Chris Watson, Ray Sliter Jr., Jeffery May and Rob Misener across the finish line.
Begolo, a third-generation racer and the division’s reigning points champion, said a track that was a “little slick” allowed him to use “more finesse” behind the wheel.
“I like that a lot, it puts the race into the driver’s hands,” he said of the track conditions. “I let one slip away last week.”
Watson and May set the pace in the qualifiers.
Much like Small, in Merrittville’s 8-cylinder class; and Begolo, in the speedway’s entry-level, open-wheel class; Adam Leslie of Port Colborne led much of the 25-lap Sportsman feature Saturday night.
Indeed, Leslie led Brandon Gruhl by as much as 3.1 seconds, only to see that erased on a caution with six laps remaining.
Hard-charging Jay Mallory overtook Gruhl for second place in the late going, but Leslie had the car that couldn’t be beat holding on for his first win of the season at Merrittville by six car lengths.
Leslie, who also has a win at Ransomville Speedway this year, thought the finish was much closer than that.
“I pulled away? I thought he (Mallory) was right with me until the end,” Leslie said. “He’s a great competitor.”
Rounding out the top five were reigning points king Cody McPherson, Greg Panunte and Trevor Wright.
Leslie, Gruhl and Mallory were first in their heats.
Modified 358, Mini Stocks and
Modified 358, Mini Stocks and Pure Stock V-6 all featured repeat winners in victory lane.
St. Catharines’ Mat Williamson won its fourth of the year at his hometown track, and his seventh overall, by outracing Gary Lindberg, Pete Bicknell, Chad Brachmann and Mike Bowman in the program’s show-stopper, the 35-lap Modified 358 feature.
Order of finish in Mini Stocks was Thorold’s Alex Riley, Cole Hardy, Jeremy Cooper, Vincent Pagnotta and Tom Neale.
Riley and Hardy set the pace in the heats that set the field for the 15-lap feature.
Caistor Centre’s Adam Plazek, the first-ever winner in Merrittville’s newest class, took his third victory of the season in V-6.
Notes: Saturday’s Autograph Night was sponsored by Thorold law firm Young McNamara … Drivers parked their vehicles along the front-stretch during intermission and mingled with fans.