CHATHAM, ON – Merlin’s Eren Vanderiviere became the first driver to clinch a points championship as his eighth feature win of the season on Lube Tech/Great Canadian Oil Change Night was enough to lock up his second straight Windride Transportation Sport Stocks crown at South Buxton Raceway.
Vanderiviere went into the night with a 130-point lead and his win, coupled with Tyler Lozon’s 11th-place feature finish, unofficially increases the advantage to 156 points. The maximum total a driver can win in a night is 102 points.
Vanderiviere won a spirited battle with Merlin’s Steve Shaw, including a green-checkered finish, setting the stage for what should be a classic championship race next Saturday.
And in another exciting green-checkered finish, Ridgetown’s Dale Glassford restarted second but passed Brandon Thirlby of Traverse City, Mich. coming out of turn two and went on to win his second Rick Haskell Memorial Race in the Glencoe Auto Recyclers UMP Late Models.
Thirlby, the UMP points leader for the Michigan-Wisconsin-Canada Region, took the lead midway through the 20-lapper and had a good-size lead on the white flag lap only to have a caution for Rob Ledingham’s spin set the stage for the one-lap showdown.
Chatham’s Brad Authier and Wallaceburg’s Mike Lewis also got by Thirlby on the final lap, dropping the M14 car to a fourth-place finish.
It was the Jones Show in the Tirecraft Comp 4s for the third week in a row – and this time it was Trevor Jones’ turn under the spotlight.
The 14-year-old Trevor Jones led all 15 laps to win his second feature of the season. He led the most laps the last two weeks but had to settle for second-place finishes both times behind his 20-year-old brother Shawn.
Leamington’s Joel Dick won his fifth Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modified feature of the year, taking the lead from Shrewsbury’s Jim Dale Jr. on lap eight in the caution-plagued race.
South Buxton had three special guests on hand for Saturday’s races.
Jason Hathaway, driver of the No. 3 Snap-On Tools/Rockstar/Vortex Brakes Dodge in the Canadian Tire NASCAR Series, drove Lozon’s second Sport Stock car with a special paint scheme to a fifth-place finish in his first experience racing on dirt.
And two special guests were in the VIP Tower with the Lube Tech/Great Canadian Oil Change staff – two-time NASCAR Cup champion Terry Labonte and his son, former Nationwide Series driver Justin Labonte.
From Michael Bennett / South Buxton Raceway
Discussion about this post