@NewHumberstone • ST. CATHARINES, ON – The Humberstone Speedway celebrated the 2015 season with the Night of Champions Awards Banquet, held at the Holiday Inn & Suites Parkside Conference Centre in St. Catharines, Ontario.
For the third consecutive year, Ridgeway, Ontario’s Gary Lindberg was crowned the track champion in the PC Works DIRTcar Sportsman. Lindberg picked up six victories on his drive for three in a row. Chad Chevalier, James Michael Friesen, Cody McPherson and Brad Rouse also picked up checkered flags throughout the season. Brad Rouse had the Best Appearing Car while “young gun” Tyler Puchalski was named Most Improved. The Hard Luck Award went to Joey Mastrioanni and 2015 titlist Gary Lindberg was named Hard Charger. Veteran Gord McIntosh received the Sportsmanship Award.
Dennis Lunger Jr made the long tow from Albion, Pennsylvania to compete weekly at Humberstone and was awarded the divisional title for the Pinty’s RUSH Late Models. Lunger picked up 11 victories this season. Rob Pietz, John Waters, Colton Ledingham, Jason Knowles and past divisional champion Paul Grigsby also went to victory lane. Divisional titlist Dennis Lunger was named the Hard Charger. Rob Pietz had the Best Appearing Car and Sam Pennacchio was named Most Improved. Jeff Dayman was the recipient of the Hard Luck Award and Ken Winfield picked up the Sportsmanship award.
Port Colborne, Ontario’s Jason Fontaine earned his fourth JC Auto Street Stock championship in the last six seasons. Fontaine scored seven wins in 2015 in route to the title. Chris Crawford, Jim Lampman, Bill Bleich Jr, Dave Bailey, and Justin Ramsay also visited victory lane. Kyle Pelrine picked up both the Sportsmanship award as well as the Best Appearing Car. Chris Crawford was named Most Improved while Jim Lampman was named the Hard Charger. Mike Greene was the recipient of the Hard Luck award.
Rob Goulding from Port Colborne, Ontario was on top of the heap at season’s end for the Cosco Haulage Mini Stocks. It was Goulding’s third track title and first since going back-to-back in 2005-2006. Goulding’s three wins and consistent finishes propelled him to the track title. Kyle Rothwell, Jason Coutu, Brandon Iudiciani, Tyler Lafantaisie, Evan Curtis and Garnet Wilson all scored victories this season. Brandon Iudiciani had the Best Appearing Car while Jason Coutu was named Most Improved. Kyle Rothwell received the Hard Luck Award while TMR teammate Tyler Lafantaisie received the Sportsmanship award. Divisional Champion Rob Goulding was named Hard Charger.
Mike Toovey from St. Catharines, Ontario was crowned track champion for the third time in the last four seasons in the Mike Knapp Ford Pro 4 Trucks. Toovey dominated the season, winning a track high 12 feature races. Frank Perry and Dylan Llord each scored their first career feature wins and veteran Danny Wurster also graced victory lane. Dylan Llord had the Best Appearing truck throughout the season. Jamie Ayers was named Most Improved. Titlist Mike Toovey was the Hard Charger while Craig Vlasic was the recipient of the Hard Luck award. Danny Wurster received the Sportsmanship award.
The Rookie of the Year Award was handed out to John McIntire in the Sportsman, Colton Ledingham in the Late Models, Teeple in the Mini Stocks and Dylan Llord in the Pro 4 Trucks. Bill Toovey received the Jim Simpson Crew Chief of the Year Award. Bill helped his son Mike win his third Pro 4 Truck championship in the last four seasons.
The Pete Cosco Dedication to Auto Racing Award was presented to Sam and Mattaya Hamer while was Mike Toovey named the Trevor Wilkens Driver of the Year. Chris Dama was the overall champion at the 2015 edition of the Eve of Destruction.
The region’s biggest tours came to Humberstone and competed on the historic oval throughout the 2015 campaign. Erick Rudolph picked up the victory in the inaugural Pete Cosco Memorial featuring the 358 Modifieds in late August. Cody McPherson won the annual Safecracker 100 for the Sportsman while the Trevor Wilkens Memorial fell to Mother Nature. Parker Price-Miller won the John Puhl Memorial for the Southern Ontario Sprints. In the SOS’s second visit of the season, “The Ohsweken Flyer” Glenn Styres scored his 50th career A-Main victory as he scored the win. Southern Tier NY racing standouts John Waters and Jason Knowles scored wins in the RUSH Late Model Tour Canadian Nationals and the Go Nuclear! Late Model Challenge Series respectively. Jamie Gilbert won the lone visit of the season by the TUSA Mod Lites. The Vintage Cars had their biggest race of the season as part of the All-Canadian Championships, running in memory of Pete Cosco and Harvey Hainer Sr. Over 40 Vintage racers came out for this event that saw Rob Casti, Kevin Mahoney and Paul Billings grace victory lane. Mark Shadwell and Rick St. Pierre picked up Vintage wins throughout the season as well.
It was announced that the 2016 season will officially begin on Sunday April 24th with the running of the Dawn of Destruction. “Most of the events scheduled for the Dawn of Destruction are designed to take place in the infield” stated Director of Race Night Operations Clinton Geoffrey. The 2016 racing season opener will take place on Sunday May 1st.
The New Humberstone Speedway would like to thank all the new and returning Weekly Series Sponsors: PC Works (DIRTcar Sportsman), Pinty’s Delicious Foods (RUSH Late Models), J.C. Auto (Street Stocks), Mike Knapp Ford (Pro 4 Trucks), and the Cosco Haulage (Mini Stocks).
The New Humberstone Speedway is located just two miles East of Port Colborne on Highway 3, just 17 miles west of the US/Canadian Border at the Peace Bridge (Buffalo/Fort Erie). For more information, please visit us on the World Wide Web at www.humberstonespeedway.com as well as follow us on Twitter @NewHumberstone and like us on Facebook. Don’t forget to bring your portable FM radios and listen to all the action on 90.3FM. You can also call the speedway at (905) 834-4002 or the speedway office at Cosco Haulage (905) 935-2886.
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