Williamson Repeats, Kirkland Breaks Through in Brighton Applefest Night Two

By: Tim Baltz

Night two for the Applefest Shootout at the Brighton Speedway brought another day of intense racing and plenty of action. The DIRTcar 358 Modifieds welcomed 22 drivers for their 75 lap event, while the DIRTcar Sportsman saw another field of 38 drivers looking for a spot in the field Saturday. Also the ROC DIRT Sportsman title was on the line.

Brad Rouse and Lucas Fuller brought the field of 22 DIRTcar 358 Modifieds to green for the 17th running of the Applefest Shootout. Fuller and Rouse battled side by side in the opening 8 laps before Rouse took over the top spot leaving Fuller to battle with former Applefest champions Gary Lindberg and Mat Williamson. Rouse started to stretch the lead out and had a great car but Mat Williamson was on the move. The defending race winner made his way to second and put the pressure on Rouse for the lead. On lap 16 Williamson took control with Lindberg charging to second, leading to a spirited battle for the top spot for the rest of the night. Several mid race restarts allowed Lindberg to pull even with Williamson several times with Lucas Fuller in the mix all night long. Several late race cautions for minor spins brought several other contenders into the mix. 2005 Applefest winner Kyle Dingwall made his way to the top 5 with Tristan Draper closing quickly. As the laps clicked off Gary Lindberg put the pressure on Williamson as the field enter lapped traffic, eventually getting to within 3 car lengths of the leader. However it was not meant to be as Mat Williamson would march on to his 3rd Applefest Shootout win and his 2nd in a row. Gary Lindberg’s run at a second Applefest crown resulted in a runner up finish. Lucas Fuller’s event debut saw him finish third, ahead of Kyle Dingwall and Tristan Draper.

The 35 lap ROC DIRT Sportsman Series title was on the line. Points leader and Friday night’s Apple’s Eve winner Cody McPherson would have to come from the 9th starting spot. In the early laps it was Akwesasne New York’s Fire Swamp showing the way with Cornwall’s Justin Desrosiers and Dylan Kirkland right there with him. These three drivers put on a great show for the fans as they battled for the top spot with Swamp remaining in control. Behind the leaders some of the heavy favorites were on the move as Cody McPherson, Bobby Herrington and Brennan Moore made their way towards the top 5 with McPherson moving to 4th by lap 20, but still had work to do to catch the top 3. On lap 24 the lead battle was intense as Kirkland finally found the way by Swamp with McPherson moving into third. Kirkland started to pull away as McPherson and Herrington tried to keep pace. On lap 32 Dylan Kirkland had his hands full with the 9 time Applefest winner McPherson, but the yellow would wave for an infield tire that had found it’s way to the middle of the track. This led to a total for three more restarts and each time McPherson had a look at the lead, even getting by Kirkland on one occasion. However with no laps complete in any restart, Kirkland reassumed the lead. On the final restart Dylan Kirkland timed it perfect, getting away from McPherson and Herrington by three car lengths. On the final lap Kirkland went to the bottom as McPherson let it all hang out on the top side. Coming to the checkered flag it was Dylan Kirkland grabbing an emotional win, his first Applefest Shootout victory. McPherson’s runner up finish locked up the 2025 ROC DIRT Sportsman title. Bobby Herrington, Fire Swamp and Brennan Moore rounded out the top 5.

DIRTcar 358 Modifieds

A Feature 1 (75 Laps): 1. 6-Mat Williamson[4]; 2. 37S-Gary Lindberg[6]; 3. 74-Lucas Fuller[2]; 4. 66-Kyle Dingwall[11]; 5. 17-Tristan Draper[8]; 6. 18R-Brad Rouse[1]; 7. 151KB-Brian McDonald[5]; 8. 18-Kalen Draper[10]; 9. 74X-David Flannigan[12]; 10. 53-Darrell Farraway[19]; 11. 88J-Justin Cyr[9]; 12. 73-Dylan Davidson[18]; 13. M75-Melcolm Banks[15]; 14. 2COOL-Derek VanMil[20]; 15. 44-Johnathon Ferguson[3]; 16. 49-Bill Gill[21]; 17. 22S-Shane Stearns[16]; 18. 15B-Brianna Ladouceur[13]; 19. 82-Ken Winfield[22]; 20. 72X-Tommy Flannigan[14]; 21. 2*-Cedric Gauvreau[7]; 22. 08-Chris Ferguson[17]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 6-Mat Williamson[1]; 2. 37S-Gary Lindberg[2]; 3. 44-Johnathon Ferguson[3]; 4. 18-Kalen Draper[4]; 5. 15B-Brianna Ladouceur[5]; 6. 22S-Shane Stearns[7]; 7. 53-Darrell Farraway[6]; 8. 82-Ken Winfield[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2*-Cedric Gauvreau[4]; 2. 18R-Brad Rouse[1]; 3. 17-Tristan Draper[2]; 4. 66-Kyle Dingwall[5]; 5. 72X-Tommy Flannigan[3]; 6. 08-Chris Ferguson[6]; 7. 2COOL-Derek VanMil[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 151KB-Brian McDonald[2]; 2. 74-Lucas Fuller[1]; 3. 88J-Justin Cyr[4]; 4. 74X-David Flannigan[5]; 5. M75-Melcolm Banks[6]; 6. 73-Dylan Davidson[3]; 7. 49-Bill Gill[7]

Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. 6-Mat Williamson, 00:13.996[6]; 2. 37S-Gary Lindberg, 00:14.016[1]; 3. 44-Johnathon Ferguson, 00:14.245[7]; 4. 18-Kalen Draper, 00:14.282[3]; 5. 15B-Brianna Ladouceur, 00:14.292[2]; 6. 53-Darrell Farraway, 00:14.296[4]; 7. 22S-Shane Stearns, 00:14.349[5]; 8. 82-Ken Winfield, 00:14.839[8]

Qualifying 2 (3 Laps): 1. 18R-Brad Rouse, 00:14.320[2]; 2. 17-Tristan Draper, 00:14.342[5]; 3. 72X-Tommy Flannigan, 00:14.349[3]; 4. 2*-Cedric Gauvreau, 00:14.458[7]; 5. 66-Kyle Dingwall, 00:14.573[1]; 6. 08-Chris Ferguson, 00:14.808[4]; 7. 2COOL-Derek VanMil, 00:14.886[6]

Qualifying 3 (3 Laps): 1. 74-Lucas Fuller, 00:14.406[7]; 2. 151KB-Brian McDonald, 00:14.436[3]; 3. 73-Dylan Davidson, 00:14.564[2]; 4. 88J-Justin Cyr, 00:14.580[4]; 5. 74X-David Flannigan, 00:14.803[6]; 6. M75-Melcolm Banks, 00:14.983[1]; 7. 49-Bill Gill, 00:15.088[5]

DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds

Applefest Shootout 35 (35 Laps): 1. 88K-Dylan Kirkland[2]; 2. 7-Cody McPherson[9]; 3. 88Z-Bobby Herrington[6]; 4. 88-Fire Swamp[1]; 5. 35B-Brennan Moore[10]; 6. 91-Kraig Handley[7]; 7. 16-Matt Barbour[12]; 8. 29D-Justin Desrosiers[3]; 9. 78JR-Nigel Pendykoski[18]; 10. 11-Dan Ferguson[8]; 11. 185-Tyler Puchalski[4]; 12. 35D-Dylan Moore[23]; 13. 66P-Jeff Panunte[26]; 14. 4B-Brad Overbeeke[15]; 15. 99PJR-Matteo Panunte[22]; 16. 98-David Andre[21]; 17. 23-Michael Dillon[20]; 18. 37-Marc Olivier McCarthy[17]; 19. 18R-Brad Rouse[5]; 20. 79-Chris Hale[16]; 21. 98H-Domonick Merkley[14]; 22. 48D-Sylvain Dupuis[13]; 23. 707-Greg Brinklow[11]; 24. 3D-Noah Mamo[19]; 25. 68-Curtis Friesen[25]; 26. 17-Madie Wallace[24]

B-Main 1 (8 Laps): 1. 98-David Andre[1]; 2. 35D-Dylan Moore[4]; 3. 68-Curtis Friesen[8]; 4. 24-Doug Walsh[2]; 5. 18B-Blake Smith[5]; 6. 58J-Shaun Lafave[7]; 7. 12K-Kyle Kudrinko[6]; 8. 35P-Patrick Kudrinko[9]; 9. 20-Nathan Lambert[3]

B-Main 2 (8 Laps): 1. 99PJR-Matteo Panunte[4]; 2. 17-Madie Wallace[1]; 3. 66P-Jeff Panunte[5]; 4. 12C-Jacob Chevalier[2]; 5. 13M-Dan Mckay[6]; 6. 28-Matt Mould[3]; 7. 80D-Damien King[9]; 8. 39-Cory Lambert[8]; 9. (DNS) 07T-Tessa Riemersma

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Cody McPherson[1]; 2. 88-Fire Swamp[3]; 3. 707-Greg Brinklow[6]; 4. 79-Chris Hale[2]; 5. 98-David Andre[5]; 6. 28-Matt Mould[8]; 7. 12K-Kyle Kudrinko[4]; 8. 39-Cory Lambert[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 185-Tyler Puchalski[1]; 2. 88Z-Bobby Herrington[2]; 3. 16-Matt Barbour[3]; 4. 37-Marc Olivier McCarthy[7]; 5. 17-Madie Wallace[4]; 6. 35D-Dylan Moore[6]; 7. 13M-Dan Mckay[5]; 8. 35P-Patrick Kudrinko[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 91-Kraig Handley[2]; 2. 29D-Justin Desrosiers[3]; 3. 48D-Sylvain Dupuis[5]; 4. 78JR-Nigel Pendykoski[4]; 5. 24-Doug Walsh[1]; 6. 99PJR-Matteo Panunte[6]; 7. 58J-Shaun Lafave[7]; 8. 80D-Damien King[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Dan Ferguson[1]; 2. 88K-Dylan Kirkland[3]; 3. 98H-Domonick Merkley[2]; 4. 3D-Noah Mamo[4]; 5. 12C-Jacob Chevalier[5]; 6. 18B-Blake Smith[6]; 7. 07T-Tessa Riemersma[7]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 18R-Brad Rouse[1]; 2. 35B-Brennan Moore[2]; 3. 4B-Brad Overbeeke[3]; 4. 23-Michael Dillon[5]; 5. 20-Nathan Lambert[4]; 6. 66P-Jeff Panunte[6]; 7. (DNS) 68-Curtis Friesen

Timed Hot Laps 1 (2 Laps): 1. 7-Cody McPherson, 00:14.623[7]; 2. 79-Chris Hale, 00:14.692[5]; 3. 88-Fire Swamp, 00:14.693[8]; 4. 12K-Kyle Kudrinko, 00:14.696[4]; 5. 98-David Andre, 00:14.879[6]; 6. 707-Greg Brinklow, 00:14.935[2]; 7. 39-Cory Lambert, 00:14.979[1]; 8. 28-Matt Mould, 00:15.106[3]

Timed Hot Laps 2 (2 Laps): 1. 185-Tyler Puchalski, 00:14.603[1]; 2. 88Z-Bobby Herrington, 00:14.713[3]; 3. 16-Matt Barbour, 00:14.847[4]; 4. 17-Madie Wallace, 00:14.866[2]; 5. 13M-Dan Mckay, 00:15.004[5]; 6. 35D-Dylan Moore, 00:15.140[7]; 7. (DNS) 37-Marc Olivier McCarthy; 8. (DNS) 35P-Patrick Kudrinko


Timed Hot Laps 3 (2 Laps): 1. 24-Doug Walsh, 00:14.633[5]; 2. 91-Kraig Handley, 00:14.851[8]; 3. 29D-Justin Desrosiers, 00:14.934[7]; 4. 78JR-Nigel Pendykoski, 00:14.958[1]; 5. 48D-Sylvain Dupuis, 00:14.991[4]; 6. 99PJR-Matteo Panunte, 00:15.227[6]; 7. 58J-Shaun Lafave, 00:15.531[2]; 8. (DNS) 80D-Damien King

Timed Hot Laps 4 (2 Laps): 1. 11-Dan Ferguson, 00:14.807[6]; 2. 98H-Domonick Merkley, 00:14.855[4]; 3. 88K-Dylan Kirkland, 00:14.941[5]; 4. 3D-Noah Mamo, 00:15.072[3]; 5. 12C-Jacob Chevalier, 00:15.130[1]; 6. 18B-Blake Smith, 00:15.631[2]; 7. 07T-Tessa Riemersma, 00:16.151[7]

Timed Hot Laps 5 (2 Laps): 1. 18R-Brad Rouse, 00:14.725[4]; 2. 35B-Brennan Moore, 00:14.938[1]; 3. 4B-Brad Overbeeke, 00:15.002[6]; 4. 20-Nathan Lambert, 00:15.055[2]; 5. 23-Michael Dillon, 00:15.079[5]; 6. 66P-Jeff Panunte, 00:15.091[7]; 7. 68-Curtis Friesen, 00:15.315[3]

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