Pat O Brien celebrates Canada Day in style at Brockville Ontario Speedway
BROCKVILLE-It never hurts to be driving a red and white car on Canada Day. That extra karma would be needed as Pat O Brien wheeled to his second feature win of the season in the 358 Modified feature on Friday night at Brockville Ontario Speedway. It was an unusually fast track as O Brien turned laps in the low 14 throughout the evening after officials hustled to work the track back in action after a downpour around 6:30 pm that delayed the program for about an hour and a half.
The Modified main featured the Kingston connection, Pat and brother Danny O Brien and Mark Hitchcock. Hitchcock put on his best showing of the season leading until lap 24 when Pat put a patented slide job on him coming through turn 4 to grab the lead. The three diced through traffic and Hitchcock almost got alongside just after the final restart with 2 laps remaining but Pat O Brien prevailed, Hitchcock settled for second with points leader Danny O Brien finishing third. Chris Jones and Kyle Dingwall rounded out the top five.
Marcel Pecore continued his blitz towards the Sportsman track title. Pecore scored his fifth win of the year scorching his way through the pack in the early laps from his 8th starting spot to take the lead and never look back. Jason Riddell was an impressive second followed by Kees VanWinden, Brad Kirkland and Jeremy Lasalle.
It was survival of the fittest in the 20 lap Street Stock race. One of the few cars not caught up in some kind of incident, or with some kind of problem was Jack Code. Code took the lead when the two leaders crashed on the back straight with 5 laps to go and cruised the rest of the way for his first win. Jason Power was second followed by newcomer Don Ranchuk, who scored a podium finish first time out. Kevin Campbell and Peter Stapper were fourth and fifth respectively.
It was a perfect night for Joe Banks. The Portland driver took the qualifying heat and the 12 lap Rookie feature for a clean sweep of the evening. Steve Smith pressured Banks from start to finish and got alongside coming down the front straight twice but had to settle for second spot. Jesse Perrin, JJ Kane and Kevin Amey made up the rest of the fast five.
Brockville Ontario Speedway returns to action, next Friday night, July 8th with a full race program plus the first of two visits by the Patriot Sprint Group. The PSG is headlined by local favorites Rickey Wilson and Kyle Wilson of Joyceville and their powerful 360 Sprint Cars. The green flag drops at 7:30.
Modifieds 30 laps: Pat O Brien, Mark Hitchcock, Danny O Brien, Chris Jones, Kyle Dingwall, John Mulder, Billy Cook, Andy Lloyd, Paul Pekkonen, Steve Bilow, Adam Moore, Jim Lazore, Bryan Rogers, John Lazore, Cole Dingwall-DNS
Sportsman 20 laps: Marcel Pecore, Jason Riddell, Kees VanWinden, Brad Kirkland, Jeremy Lasalle, Jim Peters, Ryan Poole, Bobby Herrington, Tim VanBrocklin, Sheldon Hoogwerf, Bob Albright, Brett Horner, Dan Ferguson-DNS
Street Stock 20 laps: Jack Code, Jason Power, Don Ranchuk, Kevin Campbell, Peter Stapper
Rookies 12 laps: Joe Banks, Steve Smith, Jesse Perrin, JJ Kane, Kevin Amey