South Buxton Raceway- There are certain race nights that drivers circle when the schedule is released at the start of the season. Dale Glassford added a check mark through the circle he made around Saturday, July 20.
The Ridgetown driver continued his torrid streak with his fourth straight feature win in the Lube Tech/Great Canadian Oil Change UMP Late Models on Saturday at South Buxton.
But more importantly, it was Glassford’s second straight win in the Don Hendricks memorial race.
“When we look at the schedule, these are the special nights that I’ll do whatever I think it takes to win,” Glassford said.
“This is always a special race to win,” he said of keeping the Hendricks trophy in his race shop for a second year in a row.
And Glassford has also circled this coming Saturday on his calendar as the Late Models will race in the first Gord DeWael memorial race.
“It means a lot to all of us drivers to have the Hendricks family out here because we grew up watching Don and Gord (DeWael),” Glassford said of the former track champions who raced at South Buxton and the former Ridge Raceway in the 1970s and ’80s.
“It’s special to win a memorial race because you remember as fans watching them race for a lot of years.”
Glassford started in the second row of the 15-lap feature and moved took the lead after a restart following a lap-five caution, motoring around the outside of turn two to pass Wallaceburg’s Mike Lewis and never looked back.
Chatham’s Brent Colby won the mad dash for second, beating Lewis by inches at the line. Points leader Gregg Haskell of Chatham was right behind in fourth.
“No, nothing like this,” Glassford answered when asked if he has ever had a four-feature win streak in his career.
“I lost four in row at the start of the season when everything kept breaking … I couldn’t even finish a race,” he said with a laugh.
“So now to win four in a row … I don’t know what I’m doing right but I’m going to keep trying to do it this week.
“I’m using up a lot of my good luck lately, so we’re going to go over the car extra hard this week, because next week’s going to be a special night too,” Glassford said, looking ahead to this Saturday’s DeWael feature.
Several additional drivers, including Blenheim’s Andrew Reaume and Charing Cross’s Chris Ross, are expected to be in the field, which will certainly threaten Glassford’s winning streak.
“There’s a handful of guys out here who, if they can get in the spot, can win,” Glassford said of the South Buxton regulars.
“But when you get guys like Chris and Andrew coming in, they have great cars and they’re very serious about their racing.
“When you win against cars like that, you’re doing really good,” Glassford said.
Earlier in the night, Glassford won the dash and was second to Haskell in the dash.
Glassford leads the division with 10 checkered flags and is second in the standings, 104 points behind Haskell. Glassford missed two race nights earlier in the season.
When Darryl Hoekstra won his first career race at South Buxton Raceway last July, his father Eugene was in Ohio watching sprint cars.
Father had a much better view of son’s second career feature win.
“It feels great to win one for the HR race team … and Dad finished third, so that’s great,” said Darryl, who led 22 of the 25 laps in the Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modified feature on Saturday night.
“I think I should win the hard charger award tonight.” Eugene quipped, as he started 12th and finished a season-high third in his return to racing after retiring in the mid-90s.
“My goal is to win one of these and be the oldest feature winner here,” said Hoekstra, who recently celebrated his 57th birthday.
Darryl Hoekstra started on the pole with Shrewsbury’s Jim Dale Jr., the two-time reigning series champion, on the outside and they ran one-two for the entire 25 laps.
Hoekstra led the first two laps and the final 20 after Dale Jr. led three laps.
“The funny thing is we actually won on the top, because we normally run the bottom,” Hoekstra said.
“There were some ruts down low, and we’ve finished second on the bottom … what, four times … so I thought it was time for a change, went up to the top and it worked,” Hoekstra said.
The 31-year-old Hoekstra posted four second-place finishes in the first nine features this season before finally earning his first win since the 2012 mid-season championship.
He moved atop the division standings after last week’s races and padded his lead to 57 points over Chatham’s Brian Speelman, who finished 18th.
“My dad’s won, what seven of them?” he asked about Eugene’s track championships.
“It would be nice to win at least one,” he said with a smile.
“This car has been fast all year, we’ve just been having some bad luck and we feel like we’ve given a couple away … so it’s nice to finally win one,” Hoekstra said.
“This win was big for the whole team,” he continued. “The crew works so hard, we had the bent race car earlier in the season and some motors issues, but the boys work hard, it’s all about the team.”
Saturday was the first time Eugene has raced since the end of May when he gave up his car to his son to run for points after Darryl’s car was severely damaged in a wreck.
Cottam’s Denis DeSerrano won his fifth Tirecraft Mini-Mods feature while Merlin’s Steve Shaw picked up his fourth feature win in the Windride Transportation Sport Stocks.
Dylan Bonner won his second straight and third feature of the year in the Bombers.
South Buxton will host three other memorial races this Saturday – the Brian Outhouse Modified, Cory Schives Mini-Mod and Len Bryden Sport Stocks.
Special reduced admission rates are in effect for memorial night, which has already been rained out twice.
Racing starts at 7 p.m.
Tractor Pull/Sprints Weekend
South Buxton Raceway will be busy on the Civic holiday weekend with two major events.
The Southwestern Ontario Tractor Pullers Association returns for South Buxton’s fifth annual Tractor and Truck Pull on Friday, Aug. 2.
Modified and super modified tractors will be joined by two classes of pickup trucks, competing on the infield strip.
There will be a beverage garden on the infield. Admission is $10 for ages 13 and over, $5 children 6-12 and kids 5-under are free.
The following night, the stock cars return to the three-eighth mile ‘D’ dirt oval.
The Southern Ontario Sprints return to South Buxton for the first time since 2009, highlighting the night’s racing action.
All five of South Buxton’s regular classes will also be in action.
The grandstand opens at 5:30 p.m. with competition starting at 7 p.m. both nights.
From: Mike Bennett
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