RAIN PLAGUED NIGHT AS CHAMPIONS CROWNED AT BROCKVILLE
BROCKVILLE-It was a rain plagued Friday night at Brockville Ontario Speedway. The night picked up with the rest of the heat races delayed by weather two weeks ago. The weather wouldn’t let officials get all of those events let alone the full second program scheduled. Three features were completed with Novice and Sportsman now slated to run double features next Friday night.
This was the final points night of the 2001 season with Lee Gill managing to hold on for his second straight Modified track title. Randy Gaudet captured the Sportsman crown for the third time in the last four seasons. Randy Earl with an amazing 11 feature wins took Pro Stock honors. John Mulder was the Novice winner with the closest margin of all the classes just 20 points. Kees VanWinden becomes the first ever Brockville Rookie class title holder.
Todd Stewart captured his first win of the year in the 30 lap Modified feature. Stewart took the lead on a lap 10 restart and was able to pull out to full straightaway leads before cautions pulled things back tight again. On the final restart with 3 laps to go the rains began to come again and slicken the quarter mile oval but the Kingston driver held off a final lap challenge from Stephane LaFrance to claim victory. Rookie Gil Evoy put together his best run of the entire season to finish third followed by Paul Pekkonen and Ron Evoy.
The Pro Stock 15 lap event was a marathon with numerous cautions and a 48 minute rain delay. Randy Earl despite being involved in a couple of accidents and going to the pack of the field twice was able to pick up yet another feature win to put the exclamation point on a storybook season. He passed Mitchell Jock on the restart following the rain delay with 5 laps to go and went on to the victory lane. Jock was second with Greg Hale, Kurtis Lee and DJ Smith rounding out the fast five.
The Rookie feature went green to checkered. It looked like teenager Joseph Banks was going to score his first ever win as he led the first 9 laps. The youngster got loose in turn 4 on that 9th lap and Kees VanWinden took advantage going past and scoring the feature victory. Banks was second followed by Danielle Legault, Chris Tremblay and Don Hall.
Next Friday, September 7th, will be a full show in all five divisions with double features for the Sportsman and Novice. The green flag drops at 7:30.
MODIFIEDS 30 LAPS: 1. TODD STEWART 2. Stephane LaFrance 3. Gil Evoy 4. Paul Pekkonen 5. Ron Evoy 6. Mark Hitchcock 7. Chico Dingwall 8. Jason Barney 9. Ben Tucker 10. Ernie Perrin
PRO STOCKS 15 LAPS: 1. RANDY EARL 2. Mitchell Jock 3. Greg Hale 4. Kurtis Lee 5. DJ Smith
ROOKIE STOCK 10 LAPS: 1. KEES VANWINDEN 2. Joseph Banks 3. Danielle Legault 4. Chris Tremblay 5. Don Hal