Bowmanville, ON/ (July 20, 2013)- Dwight Brown claimed his fourth consecutive feature victory in the Ontario Modified Racing Series powered by Techtonix series, but for the Beeton, ON driver, this win did not come without its concerns.
Able to break free of the Modified pack and push into the race lead by Lap 4, Brown attempted to put some distance between his #2 Bourque Transmission Mod and his open wheeled challengers. However, perennial rival Darren Kearnan was also able to clear traffic and set off in dogged pursuit of Brown’s rapidly disappearing rear nerf bar.
With Kearnan eventually closing to within three car lengths by half-race distance, Brown found himself forced to deal with a gaggle of slower cars blocking his progress.
“Darren was catching me and I started to wonder how I was going to get around this bunch of guys,” recalled Brown from Victory Lane. “If Darren had gotten much closer, someone might have been moved to give me a line!”
At the same time as traffic issues were coming into play, Kearnan’s #55 TTR Transport Modified appeared to be getting loose, a post-race inspection revealing that an engine oil cap had become dislodged, allowing oil to spray the length of Kearnan’s mount and onto his rear tire.
“I thought I might have a tire going down, but then I smelled the oil,” said Kearnan. “I really needed to get a finish, we’ve had a lot of bad luck this year, so I held on as best I could.”
While the Brown/ Kearnan duo were fronting the Techtonix Modified feature, behind them, twin two-car battles were raging in the pursuit of top five results.
For a dozen laps, Nick Lees (#09) was able to defend his third place position against repeated challenges from the #95 of Rob Warnes. With seven laps remaining in the 25 lap feature, Warnes was finally able to squeeze past Lees to snatch away the final step on the podium.
“I’ve got a new motor in this thing, so I was pretty strong down the straights,” explained Warnes. “I was trying to be patient, and when Nick got loose in (turn) Three, I snuck the nose in. Nick could have chopped me, but he gave me room and we both came away without a mark.”
Added Lees, “Rob and I have the same philosophy. If we break our cars, we’ve got to fix them, so sometimes we’re a little nicer than we’d like to be!”
Slightly further adrift, Bill Pickford (#61) and Rick Warnes were similarly engaged, Warnes eventually managing to slide the purple #90 into a top five finishing position with two-to-go.
Video of Round 5 of the Techtonix Modified Series can be found at http://youtu.be/bwIHYATacWo
Prepared by: J. Wally Nesbitt/ Corner 5 Communications
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