SAULT STE. MARIE, ON – Sault Ste. Marie, ON native Daniel Bibeau (#08) enjoyed a perfect night at Laird Raceway on Thursday (07-04-2024) completing the sweep in the Lakeway Automotive Factory Stock division. The veteran pilot won both of his division’s heat races before capping off the night with the 20-lap main event later in the night as well.
That was Bibeau’s 1st feature win of the early local stock car racing season and while one other LIR competitor captured that feat for the first time this season as well, there was three repeat winners last night on another memorable and efficient race program at the Laird speedplant.
Qualifying started the night out and the early bragging rights went to Chase Wilson (#77, Sault Ste. Marie ON) in the Service Rental and Sales Super Late Models by setting the mark at 14.154 seconds around the 1/3 mile d-shaped oval.
Jerry Ross (#01, Echo Bay ON) paced the NAPA Reyco Modifieds with a time of 15.497 while Dale Tucker (#4, Sault Ste. Marie ON) was fastest in the Lakeway Automotive Factory Stock Feature at 16.056 before Dyllen Sherrard (#16 Sault Ste. Marie, ON) set a new track record in the Northland Auto Body Four Cylinder Feature at a time of 17.265.
That’s the second straight week the Four Cylinders have seen someone set the high standard here in the new season.
Heat race action went smoothly and led into the intermission where Aaron Chapman flew around the infield dirt oval to the Lawn Mower Race feature event before it was on to the features.
John Ross and Jordan Parniak led the Super Late Model field to the green flag for their 30-lap feature event and it was Ross who would take the early lead.
The Echo Bay, ON product was pacing a tighly-packed, nose-to-tail field around the track for over half the race while fast qualifier Chase Wilson picked his way to the back bumper of the leader.
Ross and Wilson ran 1-2 until an racing incident saw the two cars touch entering turn 1 seeing Wilson holding the lead on the restart and Ross tagging the rear of the field.
Wilson would hold off any potential late charges by Jordan Sims and Jeremy Van Hoek to take his car to victory lane for the 2nd time in as many nights this season.
SERVICE RENTAL AND SALES SUPER LATE MODELS: 1. 77 Chase Wilson2. 47 Jordan Sims3. 51 Jeremy Van Hoek4. 826 Jordan Parniak5. 61 Dustin Jackson6. 01 John Ross // Heat 1 Winner – #47 Jordan Sims
Terrence Devon rode momentum of a pair of heat race wins into the Modified feature and led the pack early on in their feature event with last week’s feature winner Jerry Ross hot on his tail.
Ross overtook the lead but quickly saw JP Delpaggio on his back bumper and Mark Laakso who rallied some car problems on the night and stormed from the tail of the field.
No one could deny Ross his second feature of the season as the top three remain unchanged and Rookie of the Year contender Matt Lewis finished a strong 4th.
NAPA REYCO MODIFIEDS FEATURE: 1. 01 Jerry Ross2. 22 JP Delpaggio3. 84 Mark Laakso4. 20 Matt Lewis5. 78 Jason Herrington6. 7 Terrence Devon7. 36 Jesse BaileyDNS- 15 Chris Miller // Heat 1 Winner – 7 Terrence Devon // Heat 2 Winner – 7 Terrence Devon
Three trips to victory lane was not going to be denied of Daniel Bibeau in the Factory Stock Division.
Coming off a pair of heat races earlier in the night Bibeau grabbed an early lead and built up enough track space to take a comfortable 20-laps into victory lane.
Jamie Fox moved from the 5th starting position and within striking distance but time expired before his challenge could be mounted while fast qualifier Dale Tucker capped off the top 3.
LAKEWAY AUTOMOTIVE FACTORY STOCK FEATURE: 1. 08 Daniel Bibeau2. 51 Jamie Fox3. 4 Dale Tucker4. 12 Owen Brown5. 57 Rick Ellis6. 29 Xavier Carter7. 88 Rob Wagner8. 77X Ed Lapish9. 15 Andrew Givens // Heat 1 Winner – 08 Daniel Bibeau // Heat 2 Winner – 08 Daniel Bibeau
A season-high Four Cylinder Division car count saw an early race red flag halt things momentarily but once things got back underway Dyllen Sherrard followed-up his new track record by crossing the line for his 1st feature win of the year after starting 8th on the grid.
Shanna Harten continued her strong start to the year finishing in the runner-up position while Seth Ralph finished third in his 2024 debut to Laird.
NORTHLAND AUTO BODY FOUR CYLINDER FEATURE: 1. 16 Dyllen Sherrard2. 22 Shanna Harten3. 94 Seth Ralph4. 21 Daryl Whitmell5. 51 Kenn Schwarz6. 6 Wayne Devon7. 46 Ryder Byrnes8. 166 Wyatt Dubois9. 42 Jack Lannigan10. 8 Alex Lapensee11. 4 Kayleigh Tucker12. 31 Jaxson ByrnesDNS- 17 Shaun Desjardins, 8 Alex Lapensee, 86 Tyler Mortimore, 13 Logan Lavoy // Heat 1 Winner – #51 Kenn Schwarz // Heat 2 Winner – #42 Jack Lannigan
Dylan Connolly made it two straight victories in the AIM Recycling Enduro Division besting the 17-car field through it’s 15-lap main event.
Laird will now take a week off before returning to the track on Thursday, July 18th.
Qualifying will begin at 6 PM with racing action at 7:15 PM.
Full details of the race program can be found on www.lairdraceway.com along with their social media network (LairdRaceway) on Facebook.
Laird Raceway is proud to be one of only 50 tracks & series in North America to have the prestigeous Contingency Connection RACER REWARDS program in 2024. We are pleased to announce we will offer nearly $100,000 in National Contingency Connection Racer Rewards in 2024.
