In this week’s Motion Motorsport Report, Dave Mathers covers some high-dollar anniversary events at two Ontario short tracks, as well as the NASCAR Pinty’s Series at CTMP, F1, IndyCar, NHRA and more.
DELAWARE SPEEDWAY: BIG BUCKS were on the line Friday night with the ‘$7,000 to win’ Late Model 70-lapper and the ‘$3,000 to win’ Super Stock 52-lap race.
The track is 70 years old, having opened in 1952, thus the 70 laps and seven grand for the L/Ms and the 52 laps for the S/S.
The Super Stock race went off first and Shawn Chenoweth started from the pole followed by Trevor Collver and Pete Vanderwyst. On lap 44, Jay Doerr managed to get around Chenoweth, into the lead, which he held to the checker.
He finished ahead of Vanderwyst, Collver, Chenoweth and Nic Ramsay. Doerr had set fast time with a 19.889.
It was the 50th win for Doerr and his #43 car painted in the old Richard Petty STP colours. And Petty’s car, driven by Erik Jones, won Sunday at Darlington!!
Shae Gemmel started from the pole in the Late Model race, followed by Danny Benedict and Matt Robblee. On lap 29, Kyle Steckly was able to get around Gemmel for the lead.
The race’s only yellow came out on lap 59 when Jason Lidster spun, but was able to continue. Steckly won, followed by a fast closing Jake Sheridan, Connor Pritiko, Matt Pritiko and Benedict. Steckly had set fast time, in qualifying, with an 18.211.
Their next race is Friday with Late Models, Super Stocks and Bone Stocks.
UPCOMING: FAST EDDIE MOTORFEST
The Fast Eddie Motorfest takes place Saturday, September 10 at Stouffville’s Memorial Park. The car show runs from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. and will feature hundreds of amazing vehicles of all kinds. Click HERE and on the image below for more info. It’s always a great show, and we’ll see you there!
APC SERIES: Their next race is at Delaware, Friday and Saturday, September 26 & 27, part of the APC/Pinty’s BIG weekend.
ONTARIO SPORTSMAN SERIES: Their next race is at Flamboro Speedway, this coming Saturday.
NASCAR PINTY’S SERIES: Marc-Antoine Camirand, the points leader going in, took the pole at Mosport, on the weekend, qualifying ahead of Gary Klutt and Kevin Lacroix.
Twenty-six cars took the green and after 51 hard fought laps, Camirand was on the top step followed by Lacroix (null null), Klutt, L.P. Dumoulin and Treyten Lapcevich.
Despite the not great weather and the NASCAR Trucks not being on the weekend car for the first time in many years, there was a solid turnout of fans for the event, which also included the FEL series.
Camirand now has an insurmountable 33-point lead over Lacroix, and 34 over Kennington, in the championship points.
Their next race, the season’s finale, is Sunday, September 25 at Delaware Speedway, part of the big APC/Pinty’s weekend.
FLAMBORO SPEEDWAY: Their next race is Saturday with the Ontario Sportsman Series, Pro Late Models and Super Stocks. On Sunday, as part of the track’s 50th anniversary celebrations, the track hosted the Pot of Gold 300 enduro race.
Cameron Pedersen from Norwood, ON walked away with the $50,000 first prize! Rodney Rutherford came home second.
DRAG RACING: I will be adding big events only for the three local drag strips as they run regular bracket races each and every weekend.
GRAND BEND DRAGWAY: Their next big race is Fallfast, September 14 – 16.
ST. THOMAS DRAGWAY: Their next big race is the ONDR Hot Rod Reunion this weekend.
TORONTO MOTORSPORT PARK: Their next big race is the Canada Heads Up Shootout Series this weekend.
NASCAR CUP SERIES: Joey Logano (Ford) got the pole Sunday night at Darlington ahead of Christopher Bell (Toyota) and William Byron (Chev).
Rain came at lap 6 and slowed things for 11 laps. Then it returned again on lap 36 for 4 laps. With two to go in Stage 1, Chase Briscoe and Chase Elliott spun with Chase breaking a toe link. He was unable to continue.
On lap 181 Todd Gilliland spun bringing out a caution. On lap 192 Kyle Larson got into the wall. On lap 219 Cody Ware spun. On lap 277 Kevin Harvick’s car caught fire knocking him out of the race. On lap 341 Ware hit the wall again.
In the closing laps Martin Truex blew up and dropped out. A couple of laps later his teammate Kyle Busch also blew up and ‘the crowd went wild’!!
Byron won Stage 1 and Busch won Stage 2.
At the flag it was Erik Jones ahead of Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Logano and Bell.
Logano leads the points by 6 ahead of Byron and by 8 on Hamlin.
Their next race, Kansas, is Sunday at 3 P.M. on TSN 2.
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: Brandon Jones (Toyota) got the pole for Saturday’s race at Darlington. Noah Gragson was second followed by Sheldon Creed, both in Chevs.
It was very cloudy and overcast at the start but things went smoothly until lap 57 when Kris Wright got into the wall and collected Riley Herbst and Myatt Snyder. Only Snyder was able to continue.
On lap 65 the red came out for rain and the delay was just over two and a half hours. Everything was good after the green until lap 89 JJ Yeley’s car caught fire.
With 19 laps to go in the race, Brandon Jones spun and came down across the track. On the last lap, Creed and Kyle Larson banged together with Creed finishing second to Gragson followed by AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier and Larson. Gragson won Stage 1 while Allgaier won Stage 2.
‘Dinger leads Ty Gibbs by 51 and Allgaier by 66 in the championship points with two races to go before the playoffs.
Their next race, Kansas, is Saturday at 3 P.M. on TSN 5.
NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCKS: Their next race, Kansas, is Friday night at 7.30 P.M. on Fox Sports Racing.
FORMULA ONE: The F1 travelling circus dropped into the Zandvoort Circuit on the weekend for the Dutch Grand Prix.
Being right beside the ocean makes the track tricky with lots of humidity and blowing sand. But the circuit makes up for that by having, wait for it, banking!! Yes, banking on an F1 track and that made for some great camera shots.
Max Verstappen continued his dominance this year by grabbing the pole and the race win. The two Ferraris qualified 2nd and 3rd. But, sadly, as has been the case lately, the team shot itself in the foot during the race. For example, the tires weren’t ready for one of the pit stops!! Really?!
On the second lap, Kevin Magnussen scraped the wall but kept going. For the first time this year, Hamilton and Russell ran ‘one, two’ at the front but it wasn’t to last.
Max got the lead back on lap 60 and cruised to the win ahead of Russell, Leclerc and Hamilton. Lance Stroll started a strong 10th and finished in the same spot.
As Kenny Schrader would say when he finished in the same spot he started ‘I ran all race and didn’t pass anybody’!! LOL Nicholas Latifi started 20th and finished 18th.
Max has a 109-point lead over Leclerc and Red Bull teammate Perez in the Driver’s Championship. Red Bull leads Ferrari by 135 and Mercedes by 165 in the Manufacturers Championship.
Their next race, Italy, is Sunday at 8.55 A.M. on TSN 4 & 5.
NHRA: It’s hard to believe but it has been 62 years since I saw my first U.S. Nationals at Detroit Dragway (1960)!! And it has been 54 years since I last worked for NHRA at the Indy version!!
For the first time in many years there were 25 Top Fuel entries!! Brittany Force qualified number 1 again and went right to the final to be taken out by Antron Brown.
Ron Capps qualified number 1 in Funny Car and went to the final taking out Robert Hight. Capps took out John Force in the semis. And for the first time in a very long time, there were no upsets where the lower qualified car won.
Kris Thorne grabbed the top spot in Pro Mod but lost to Lyle Barnett in the final.
In Pro Stock, Greg Anderson qualified number 1 and took the win to get his 100th Wally!! Awesome record. He beat Dallas Glenn in the final.
Angelle Sampey got the top spot in Pro Stock Bike but lost in the first round. Matt Smith came out of the number 2 spot to take out Karen Stoffer in the final.
The fast-growing Factory Stock Showdown class had David Barton winning over Aaron Stanfield. To show how consistent Barton was, he ran 7.773, 7.784, 7.790 and 7.786, killer bracket times!!
Their next race is the Maple Grove, September 16 – 18 on Fox Sports Racing.
INDYCAR: Scott McLaughlin qualified number one at Portland Sunday and also picked up the checker flag!! Will Power started second followed by Christian Lundgaard.
I thought, for a while, that the race would go ‘green to checker’ with no yellows. Alas, with 26 laps to go Jimmie Johnson got body slammed into the retaining wall by Rinus VeeKay taking ‘Seven Time’ out of the race with a damaged car.
Following McLaughlin at the flag were Power, Scott Dixon, Pato O’Ward and Graham Rahal.
Will Power has a 20-point lead over Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon who are tied for 2nd.
Their next race, the season finale, is Laguna Seca, Sunday at 3 P.M. on SportsNet 360.
IMSA: Their next race is Petit LeMans, Road Atlanta, Saturday, October 1.
MY ‘VIEW’: Apparently, McLaren won the battle against Alpine for driver Oscar Piastri. The FIA’s Contract Recognition Board released the decision last week.
NASCAR has extended their Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP – how appropriate is that considering how many vehicles get damaged on the Don Valley Parkway!!) from 6 minutes to 10 minutes. My question is why have the policy in the first place? The more cars on the track the better the competition?
Until next week!!
– Dave Mathers
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