Thursday, July 24, 2014

RevStar, Karts and Sparks: The Hottest Night of the Year Thus Far at CCS

Stittsville, ON – Wednesday, July 24, 2014 – Kirk Mulligan – Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better at Capital City Speedway (CCS), it did!  This past Wednesday was Whyte’s Maintenance and Stittsville Trailers night featuring the RevStar SRT Mini Sprints and the Dinardo’s Kart Series.  This week’s racing saw record car counts and record prizes!  The racing scene added new driver, Gilles Seguin.  This legend driver has come out of retirement to race the new Sparks Street Mall late model (car #86).  The addition of this new car to the Sparks Racing Team was made possible by generous sponsorship from Next Step Landscaping, Ottawa Metro Towing and Thompson Photography.  The late model class also saw the addition of Derek Behan (car #24) after a 2 year absence from racing.  The man from Alberta, Rob Fountain, was also back for a third week at CCS.  Many thanks go out to 4-For-Fun (4FF) driver Rob, as he graciously donated an additional $275 of his own money to increase the driver payouts for this class.  On the fan side of things, I want to thank Legend driver Steve Yendall (car #1) and Hunter McCaig of Rideau Auctions for donating, for a third week in a row, another brand new kids bicycle that was to be raffled off at intermission.  Congratulations to Brian Suomella for winning the bicycle!  I also want to give a second thanks to Steve as he also purchased and donated 4 tickets to this weekends Monster Madness event.  The tickets were raffled off at intermission and congratulations to sister’s Abby and Ally Gravelle for winning the tickets!  Lastly, CCS would like to thank 4FF drivers Malcolm “Pops” MacDonald (car #80) and Joann Blais (car #81) for letting fans autograph their cars at intermission.  I think they may have set some sort of Guinness World Record!











After an exciting set of heat races and an intermission full of prizes, it was time to let the sparks fly and go feature racing!  Diehard fans Kevin and Joanne from Kemptville said:  “This is some of the best racing of the season!”  This week fans were treated to four of the five weekly feature races of Late Model, Mini Stock, Thunder and 4FF divisions.  Legends had the night off, but the RevStar SRT Mini Sprints and Dinardo’s Kart Series were present to fill the void.  The Dinardo’s Kart Series was up first on the card with a 12 lap feature event.  The feature race included a total of 8 karts.  Frank Dinardo (kart #88) and Shane Billings (kart #844) started the race in the front row.  Dinardo took the lead in the early going.  Right behind Dinardo was a large cluster of karts battling for position.  In lap 5, someone had to give as the karts from positions 3 to 7 got into a mix-up.  The karts involved quickly resolved the situation and the race continued.  The mix-up proved costly as Dinardo and Shane Tremblay (kart #7) pulled away from the pack.  The two drivers, Dinardo and Tremblay, battled for the lead for the remaining 7 laps.  On lap 10, Tremblay took over the lead and managed to hang on to the top spot in this feature event.


The second feature race of the night was a 25 lap event for the other visiting class, the RevStar SRT Mini Sprints.  The field was made up of 11 cars.  Heat winners Maxime Plante (car #79) and Josianne Plante (car #97) started at the front.  Maxime took the lead on the first lap.  Nobody could catch the 79 machine as he had about a 6 car length lead on second place Josianne.  However, on lap 14 Eric Lequin (car #27) stalled bringing out the caution flag.  Maxime’s lead evaporated and the fans were expecting an 11 lap shootout between the night’s two heat winners!  Unfortunately, Maxime was too strong as he cruised to another feature win.  Josianne and Marc Andre Levesque finished second and third, respectively.

After the visitors were finished racing, it was time for the 4 local divisions to get revved up.  The Drummond’s Gas 20 lap Late Model feature began with Paul Dejong (car #88) and Chris Ferguson (car #08) in the pole positions.  Paul and Chris jumped out to an early lead after the green flag dropped.  Unfortunately, Chris was evenly matched with Paul’s car.  As a result, Chris got trapped on the outside of Paul.  The cars of Tim Kirby (car #10), Justin Holtom (car #17) and Steve Munro (car #00) in third through fifth positions lined up and passed Chris on the inside of turn 2 in lap 3.  The next site of excitement was in turn 4 of lap 6 where Kirby got slightly loose.  Unfortunately for Kirby it was enough for Holtom and Munro to slide by on the inside of the corner.    The caution flag was dropped in lap 7 as a fender brace appeared on the front straight of the track.  The piece of debris was removed and the race began again.  On the restart, Holtom and Dejong battled for the lead.  All of sudden, Munro spun out in turn 2.  The race was restarted again.  This time Dejong did not have a good restart.  By turn 3, Holtom had taken over the lead from Dejong.  Steve Munro used the remainder of the race to make up ground after spinning in lap 7.  However, Munro eventually ran out of laps as this day belonged to Justin Holtom.  Holtom sailed to a smooth victory. Justin Holtom remains the points leader in this division.

   

In the Stittsville Trailers 15 lap feature race, Derek Demont (car #7) and heat winner Dwayne Emon (car #72) paced the field.  Lurking in fourth position was the other heat winner of the night “Dentman” Dave Watchorn (car #97).  The green flag dropped and Emon followed by Watchorn blew by Demont.  After 3 laps were in the books, Emon had a 5 car length lead over Watchorn.  Points leader Jason Moss (car #12) and red hot driver Nolan Gould (car #28) were weaving their way through the field to catch the leader.   Unfortunately, these guys ran out of laps before they could make it interesting.  The two drivers, Gould and Moss had to settle for third and fourth positions, respectively.  Meanwhile, at the front of the pack, Emon cruised to victory.

The Autovation Thunder 15 lap feature race was missing a couple of cars again this week.  This did not stop the sparks from flying.  Similarly to last week, the smaller number of cars made the race one of the tightest races all night!  Chris MacDonald (car #03) and Jessica Pasinetti (car #56) made up the front row.  Pasinetti had another new paint scheme this week.  The design featured her traditional yellow and white colour scheme.  The scheme also possessed a sleek grey pin stripe that would intimidate any competitor.  Pasinetti began the race and took an early lead in lap 1.  In the first 12 laps, the top four drivers, Pasinetti, MacDonald, Neil Leblond (car #88) and Casey Cavanagh (car #49) appeared to be on a string.  The cars were in line bumper to bumper.  By lap 13, Leblond had had enough!  In turn 1 of lap 13, MacDonald came into the turn wide.  Leblond seized the opportunity and barreled his way in tight to pass MacDonald on the inside of the turn.  Cavanagh followed Leblond through turn 1 and out of turn 2.  Unfortunately, coming out of turn 2, MacDonald caught the rear quarter panel of Cavanagh’s car.  The minor contact was enough to send Cavanagh right into the wall on the back stretch.  The sparks flew!  Fortunately, Cavanagh was okay!   This incident left Pasinetti and Leblond to do battle in a green-white-checkers finale.  It must have been that new mean paint job as Pasinetti fended off all challenges from Leblond throughout the final 2 laps.  Pasinetti won her second feature race of the year!


The 4FF SFL Metal Works 10 lap feature race was the final race of the night.  The driver’s of this race were hungry to win as the race was loaded with extra payout money.  The race began with Andrew Thompson (car #5) and Rob Fountain (car #29) at the front of the pack.  Fountain and Thompson were looking for their first feature win of the season.  The two cars battled for the lead.  Thompson took the lead on lap 2 and never looked back.  Points leaders MacDonald and Mike Atwell (car #72) tried to catch Thompson.  However, Thompson was too strong as he went on to win this feature event. 


This coming week, Wednesday evening, July 30, 2014, is Dymon Self Storage night.  The race night will feature Late Models, Legends, Mini Stock, Thunder and 4-For-Fun divisions.  Also in town is the special feature Modified Sportsman division.  The races will start at 7:15 pm sharp!  Regular general admission is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, $10 for teens (13-16) and as always children 12 & under are free.

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