LAURENT LADOUCEUR CLAIM EDELWEISS CHECKER IN A NAIL BITTER
Laurent Ladouceur registered his fourth modified feature win of the season in a nail biting finish Friday night at Edelweiss Speedway.
Leaving from post seven on the starting grid, the Alexandria driver was sitting right behind pace setter Brian ‘’Slim’’ McDonald through the first 20 laps when he took over the lead on a restart and seemed well on his way to complete his 65th career win from then on but McDonald was not done yet. The Cornwall driver put the seventh restart to his advantage and grabbed back the lead only to fall to Ladouceur in the dying moments of the 50 lapper in a battle that thrilled the house from start to finish. ‘’It was quite a race.’’ admitted Ladouceur from the winners circle and when he was reminded that his victory increased his lead in the standing, he responded: ‘’It’s really something to be leading great guys like ‘’Slim’’ and Dave (Heaslip) in the drivers standing.’’
Kingston’s Mark Hitchcock completed the podium while sophomore Eric Gauvreau who seemed to be in an awful mood chasing the officials all night was fourth. Second generation driver Lee Ladouceur rounded out the top five. McDonald and Heaslip were the qualifying heat winners.
Alain Coursol broke a winless drought in the Pro Stocks by capturing his first feature win this season. The Mont-Laurier driver did it in class by leading from start to finish with Denis Gauvreau in tow along the 20 lapper. Gauvreau held on for runner up spot while Cornwall Motor Speedway promoter Ron Morin completed the winning trio. ‘’It’s about time for us, we experienced a long drought but we made major improvements on the race car and it paid off.’’ said a very happy and well relieved young chauffeur after claiming his first checkered flag of the year. Michel Dupuis in fourth and Todd Raabe in fifth place rounded out the top five. Coursol and Gauvreau won the qualifiers.
It was a nail bitting photo finish in the Semi Pros when Dominic Gauvreau and Bruno Richard crossed the finish stripe wheel to wheel and hub to hub with Gauvreau getting the slight edge. Greg Ogilvie had to settle for third best while Pascal Lessard and Richard Brady in fourth and fifth respectively rounded out the fast five. Serge Lagace was the lone qualifier winner.
The four cylinders was again all Jack St-Arnaud capturing the feature over Gatineau’s Nico Leblanc as runner up and over last week’s winner Pat Legault as third best. Dany Larose and Wakefield’s Jarrid Foley were fourth and fifth respectively. St-Arnaud, Legault and Carl Soucy all won qualifying heats.
Next program of exciting races at Edelweiss Speedway is scheduled for Friday September 3 where a full and regular program including the Modifieds is on the slate plus a 50 lapper Syracuse qualifier in the Pro Stocks. An Enduro class feature with trailer itched to each car is also on the card. The green flag drops at 7:45.