PETERBOROUGH, ON (August 23, 2021)- With temperatures hovering around the 30-degree Celsius mark and the humidex even higher, the Saturday night action was the perfect match for the forecast as Peterborough Speedway rolled another Hot August Night to the starting line.
With a full moon beginning to show its face on the horizon, 17 KOD Disposal Super Stock teams headed for the green flag to kick-off the night’s feature race action with Bobby Cousineau and James Townsend on the front row. Cousineau took the early lead, with fan favourite Marlie Owen moving into the runner-up spot. With the lap counter showing three complete, Owen claimed the top spot and was running there when the race’s only yellow flag came out a couple of laps later. During the caution, mechanical issues sent the machines of Mark Gordon and Paul Boundy to the pits, ending the night for both drivers. Owen showed her strength and stayed focused for the balance of the race, scoring her first win of the year. Rob Richards, former track champion Bailey Jacobs, Anthony DiBello and Kyle Gordon completed the top five.
Mark Gordon, DiBello, Jacobs and Richards took the Super Stock qualifying races.
Christen Lavalle and Sean Kennedy led a strong field of Battlefield Equipment Rental Bone Stockers to the Great Canadian RV green flag and with a quick shot from his outside front row starting spot, Kennedy took the lead with Steve Finnegan on his back bumper. The pair ran side-by-side with nearly identical laps during the early stages before Finnegan took the lead. A lap six caution flag – for an incident in the second turn – slowed the pace, but Finnegan maintained his lead on the restart, with Shawn Solomon moving into second. Lapped traffic came into play with less than a handful of laps remaining but didn’t slow Finnegan’s quest for the win. Solomon, Ryan Oosterholt, Kyle Novis and Kennedy rounded-out the fast five.
Kris Khan was originally credited with third, but his No. 48 machine failed required post-race inspection and was disqualified.
Solomon had a pair of Bone Stock heat wins, with the others going to Finnegan and Oosterholt.
After being sidelined by rare mechanical issues a week earlier, Dan McHattie and Tim Batty were on the front row for the 25-lap Late Model feature. From the drop of the green flag, McHattie – a multi-time track champion – took total control of the field and built-up an advantage of half a track over Batty, while Steve Powell, Bryan Mercer and Robert Cousineau waged their own battle for position. After catching the tail end of the pack with about a dozen laps remaining, McHattie left little doubt of the race’s eventual outcome and took the checkered flag. Batty, Powell, Mercer and Cousineau followed the victor across the line.
McHattie and Mercer claimed checkered flags in the Late Model preliminary rounds.
15 Jiffy Lube Mini Stock racers were set to tackle Canada’s Toughest 1/3-Mile Oval for 50 laps, with Kevin Strutt and Ryan Oosterholt leading the way.
Perhaps motivated by a hard wreck a week ago, Strutt took control early and in just a few laps had developed a lead of about 10 car lengths over Oosterholt. Backmarkers became an issue with just over a handful of laps complete but Strutt was still showing the fast way around. Ember Junkin moved into the runner-up spot on lap 24 and John Lavalle took third with only five laps remaining. All anyone could do was watch Strutt, as the race went caution-free and the No. 34 took the win, Junkin, Lavalle, Brock Baker and Oosterholt completed the top five.
Mini Stock heat race wins were taken by Jeremy Kelly, Ryan Edwards-Kiss, Ryan Oosterholt and John Lavalle
Bullring bullet points: Mark Gordon did double-duty, wheeling both a Super Stock and Late Model. Brandon Feeney took that one step further, running his own Late Model, along with the No. 53 Mini Stock and Super Stock of Victor Vowles…’The Dentman’ Dave Watchorn hauled from Ottawa to join the Mini Stock field for their 50 lap feature…Jordan Latimer was on-hand with his No. 90 Super Stock…With the 50-lap Mini Stock feature running caution-free, the full night of racing was wrapped-up in just over three hours.
Prepared by Jim Clarke, Clarke Motorsports Communications/First Draft Media
