A hot summer night welcomed the Ontario Outlaw Super Late Model Series to Central Ontario, on Saturday, July 12th, for the group’s annual date at Peterborough Speedway.
With 50 laps of ground-pounding action to settle the score, former Peterborough race winner Brandon Passer and Dwayne Baker paced the starting field to the green flag. As quickly as things got rolling, the pace was slowed for a yellow flag incident that saw the No. 27 of Roy Passer make contact with the turn three wall. The driver was unhurt, but the car retired from the event after only seven laps.
After starting fourth, defending race champion J.R. Fitzpatrick took the lead on the restart and set off to dominate the show. With Brandon Passer, Baker, Brad Pearsall and TJ Edwards in tow, the driver of the No. 84 machine started to put backmarkers a lap down with only 10 circuits on the scoreboard. Fitzpatrick had built up as much as a 10-car advantage before the halfway point of the headliner.
With the race running without any additional caution flags, all eyes were on the dominating performance being turned in by the reigning series champion. As he had done a year earlier, Fitzpatrick worked through slower traffic to perfection and was closing on the sixth-place car when the crossed flags signaled the halfway mark.
One by one, the rest of the field watched as the leader put them a lap in arrears. By the close of business, he had put everyone but the second- and third-place runners of Brandon Passer and Dwayne Baker in his rearview mirror. Pearsall, Edwards, Dario Caprichio, Brad Stevenson, Rob Bickle, John Baker Jr. and Roy Passer completed the running order.
Ontario Outlaw Super Late Model Series notes:
- The No. 73 machine of Mike Miller didn’t make the starting line-up for the feature event after being involved in a heat race incident.
- The starting field was bolstered by OMRS SportsMod runners Brad Stevenson and John Baker Jr.
- J.R. Fitzpatrick picked up a pair of heat race wins, with Roy and Brandon Passer claiming the others.
- Next on the schedule for the Ontario Outlaw Super Late Model Series is a Saturday, July 19th date at Sauble Speedway.
