A win for one is a win for everyone
Twisted Metal Racing now has six drivers competing at Merrittville Speedway in Thorold
Metal twisted in on-track contact won’t remain twisted for long if you’re part of Twisted Metal Racing (TMR) competing out of Merrittville Speedway.
Tyler Lafantaisie, the founder of a team that this season will have six drivers racing in the 4-Cylinder division at the clay track in Thorold, knows from first-hand experience how quick the turnaround can be when there’s a “team effort” with everyone pitching in.
“We’ve had nights where we wrecked a car and are able to get it out to the next race the next day,” he recalled. “Rebuilding the whole thing, right from the ground up. “We all work together at it.” Belonging to a group he likened to a drivers co-operative will also ease the headaches of finding spare parts with a race night looming.
“The biggest thing is any time one of us needs help or struggling to find parts, one of us usually has it,” Lafantaisie said. “We need manpower and someone has to get a car done in crunch time.”
Like all drivers racing on the weekend dirt track circuit, the 32year-old from Port Colborne doesn’t like trailing anyone across the finish line. But the automotive technician would make the exception for someone competing under the TMR umbrella.
“Pretty well. We all put a team effort into it,” he said. “If anyone of us do well, it’s a good night.”
Last Saturday was such a night.
Lafantaisie began defence of his 2019 Duel of the Dirt Series 4-Cylinder championship with his fourth win in as many starts at his hometown track this season.
His TMR teammates Austyn Werstroh, Clinton Barrick and Kyle Rothwell, the 2021 Merrittville
points champion, placed fourth, ninth and 10th, respectively.
Besides featuring two races at his hometown track, the eight-race series will have two each at Humberstone Speedway, in Port Colborne; Ohsweken Speedway, near Brantford; and, new to the circuit this year, Brighton Speedway, west of Belleville.
“That’s going to be a new challenge this year,” said Lafantaisie, who intends to enter all eight races.
Each track requires a different racing strategy, “different setups, different a lot of things.”
Merrittville is “pretty tricky” for drivers unfamiliar with the Dshaped track. “That Turn 4 is tricky. I like it. I kind of try to use it to my advantage,” Lafantaisie said.
He has switched to a Pontiac G5 from a Nissan. He also raced a teammate’s Volkswagen for a year in class in which VWs are popular.
“It’s fun, but this is just a little cheaper of a car to run, and easier to find parts for,” he said of the G5, which shares a chassis with a Chevrolet Cobalt. “It’s the same car.”
What’s the secret to Lafantaisie’s successful start to the 2022 season? Is it the people wielding the wrenches in the pit area or the driver behind the wheel on the track?
“A little bit of both,” he answered after some thought. “We go over these cars. Make sure everything is safe on them, and that there are no mechanical issues.
“When you don’t have to fight mechanical problems, you can just focus on the driving,” he said.
Brent Begolo, from Thorold, was the only the other repeat winner when Merrittville held its fourth program of the season. The defending Mod Lite champion won his second in a row while Ryan Susice, from Wilson, N.Y., won the 35-lap Brian Stevens Memorial, Saturday night’s show-stopper in the 358 Modified division.
Darrell Farraway of Hamilton and Mark Fawcett, from Canfield, near Dunnville, also ended the night taking the checkered flags in the Sportsman and Hoosier Stock features, respectively.
Racing returns next Saturday when V6 and the first enduro qualifier of the season round out a program featuring 358 Modified, Sportsman, Mod Lite and 4-Cylinders.
Pit gates are scheduled to open at 5 p.m., with the grandstands opening at 5:30 p.m.
Track talk Susice also won the 358 Modified feature Friday night at Ransomville Speedway in western New York, where Mike Bowman finished second and fellow St. Catharines racer Peter Bicknell placed sixth … Mat Williamson, also from St. Catharines, ended the night in the pits after two laps.
When you don’t have to fight mechanical problems, you can just focus on the driving. TYLER LAFANTAISIE DRIVER