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Oh What a Season! Recap for Mike Parsons Memorial Weekend Aug 23-24, 2024

Recap for the 2024 Mike Parsons Memorial Weekend

On the evenings of Friday August 23 and Saturday August 24th, we held out final events of the 2024 season – our 25th anniversary season – at Laird International Raceway. Friday night was a regular racenight, and Saturday night was a special Mike Parson’s Memorial racenight featuring a 73 Lap Late Model race with a purse including $10,000 to win and substantial payouts for other participants.

Going into the weekend events, there were a couple of divisions that had drivers already declared season champions, and a couple of divisions where the champions would be decided during the final races of the season. Of course, there were also other drivers trying to gain higher standings in the points championship too. All in all, it made for some exciting races to watch, with fans cheering on their favourite drivers.

In the announcer’s booth we once again were privileged to have veteran announcers Greg Brazeau and Oval Reving – two of the best in the business. We had Annette Bouchard out both nights to give another great rendition of the American and Canadian national anthems. On Saturday evening, right after the anthems we had a two plane flyover by local pilots John Kauk and Terry Mortimore, performing a “missing man” maneuver, as a memorial to Mike Parson’s.

Here is a run down of the weekend activities by division and race night:

Service Rentals and Sales Super Late Models:

Going into the weekend events #77 Chase Wilson was on top of the standings with a 28 point lead over 2nd place holder #51 Jeremy Vanhoek. Just three points behind Vanhoek was #61 Dustin Jackson. About the only way that Wilson could lose the season championship was by being a “no show” for the weekend, and of course that didn’t happen.

We had a great car count in the division for the weekend, with visiting drivers from Southern Ontario joining in, and almost all our local favourites. Visitors included drivers that have attended the Mike Parson’s Memorial weekend in the previous two years. These drivers were #03 Dario Capirchio from Gilford On. – who won the $10,000 first place purse in the 2022 Memorial race; #73 Mike Miller from Caledonia; #51x Ethan Courneyea and #17 Brandon Passer, both from Innisfil. The fifth visitor was a special treat for fans; #84 J.R. Fitzpatrick a well known top Canadian driver. Local driver Mike Hearty invited J.R. to the weekend event and J.R. obliged.

Friday Aug 23

On Friday night there were 18 Super Late Models out to qualify. Fast qualifier for the night was Chase Wilson with a time of 14.291 seconds. For the night’s racing in the division officials broke the cars into two groups according to qualifying times – a faster and a slower group. Each group had a 10 lap heat and a 20 lap feature during the night.

For the faster group, consisting of 10 drivers, the heat ran caution free, we saw #51x Ethan Courneyea lead all laps from the front, except the one that counts. #61 Dustin Jackson made a great last lap pass on Courneyea down the backstretch to steal the checkers. Courneyea 2nd, #47 Jordan Sims 3rd, #84 J.R. Fitpatrick 4th, and #77 Chase Wilson 5th.

In the heat for the slower cars, there were 8 cars on track, with the race running caution free. #90 Jay Palumbo started up front and led the first 9 laps, then lost the lead and the win to #33 Jordan Rocchetta on the final lap. #51 Jeremy Vanhoek also made a last lap pass on the final lap to finish 3rd. #73 Mike Miller was 4th, #17 Brandon Passer 5th.

In the first 20 lap feature, for the faster group, 10 cars were on track, but before the green parade lap got underway #61x driven by Brad Bibeau left the track. On the first lap of the race caution was out after #21K Kevin Errington spun at the back of the pack alone. Not sure what happened, but that was the last we saw of that car for the weekend. Saturday night Errington piloted the #94 car of Donnie Varcoe.

The 8 remaining cars restarted and then ran their 20 laps caution free. #51x Ethan Courneyea led them off and maintained the lead until getting passed on lap 9 by #47 Jordan Sims. Sims had started 3rd row. Sims went on to take the checkered flag, #77 Chase Wilson worked his way to 2nd but was unable to get beside Sims to challenge. #84 JR Fitzpatrick was 3rd, Courneyea 4th, #01 John Ross 5th, and #20 Mike Hearty 6th. #21M Cody Maclean left after 17 laps, and #61 Dustin Jackson after 14 laps complete.

The feature for the slower group included 8 cars to start. The group was led off by #73 Mike Miller, and #90 Jay Palumbo. On the first lap Miller led but was running high on the track, allowing #33 Jordan Rocchetta to make an inside pass for the lead. Rocchetta took advantage of that and began to open a lead on the field. He was about ¼ lap ahead of the others by lap 13, looking like he was on his way for his first career feature win (Rocchetta is a rookie) but it was not to be. Coming out of corner 4 his car lost power and he coasted to a stop on the infield near corner 1, bringing out the caution. Rocchetta left the track.

The race restarted with Miller up front and #17 Brandon Passer and Palumbo behind. On the restart lap Passer got ahead of Miller then caution flew again, when #826 Jordan Parniak failed to turn into corner 1 and ran up and over the left rear quarter of #05 Tyler Praysner. They were running at the rear at the time. Parniak was done for the race, Praysner was able to restart.

Miller got to restart up front again and led a couple laps until Passer made another successful pass on the inside for the lead. Caution flew again though, this time it was Miller that got knocked into a spin by #51 Jeremy Vanhoek on corner 2. Vanhoek got sent to the back for the restart, and Miller got to start up front one more time. During the caution Roccetta came back out on track, now scored 2 laps down.

Miller held the lead for two laps after the final restart, running high, then was passed on the inside once again by Passer. This time the pass stuck as no caution flew. Passer went on to take the checkers about 1.7 seconds ahead of Miller. #90 Jay Palumbo 3rd, #29 John Carter 4th, #51 Jeremy Vanhoek 5th and #05 Tyler Praysner 6th. #33 Jordan Roccetta finished 7th, 2 laps down.

Saturday Aug 24th.

In the Service Rentals and Sales Super Late Model division, we had 18 cars out during the qualifying session with Chase Wilson clocking fast time again at 14.287 seconds. Of the 18 qualifiers, 17 of them were within 0.6 seconds of each other – fastest to slowest. There were no heats for the division during the evening and the feature was a 73 lap event with $10K to win; The Mike Parsons Memorial Race

A pill draw was held after qualifying which inverted the top 11 qualifiers for the start of the feature, with positions 12 through 18 starting at the rear. This put #03 Dario Capirchio on the pole with #61 Dustin Jackson outside. The 18 contenders got off to a great clean start. Capirchio maintained the front position, with Jackson running second for the first 15 laps of the race, then Jackson took over the lead. #94 Kevin Errington was running a solid 3rd to this point in the race. Once passed by Jackson, Capirchio started to lose a few positions. The race ran another 10 laps with Jackson in the lead and eventually #84 JR Fitzpatrick on his tail. The leaders came up against lap traffic on lap 26 and Jackson subsequently lost the lead to Fitzpatrick. Less than a lap later though caution flew when #29 John Carter was tagged and spun in corner 2 by #21M Cody Maclean. Maclean was sent to the back on the restart.

With the caution, Jackson had the front position back for the restart, with Fitzpatrick and #47 Jordan Sims right behind. Jackson and Sims had a great restart, Fitzpatrick spun his wheels a bit coming out of corner 4 and fell back to third. Caution flew again though, before a lap was complete. Capirchio running 5th had something break, sending his car right and into the tires and trees at the end of the backstretch. Further back there was a collision between a few other cars. #51x Ethan Corneyea rolled to a stop at the exit to the pits. #61x Brad Bibeau was also done on the same caution. #20 Mike Hearty had left the race with 21 complete. Cars were shown the red flag and stopped on the front stretch while crews cleaned up the track. There were now 14 cars for the restart.

Jackson had the lead on the restart with Fitzpatrick inside and Sims outside row 2. Jackson went a bit high on the backstretch on the restart lap allowing Fitzpatrick to move inside for a pass and the lead. By lap 42 Fitzpatrick had a quarter lap lead on 2nd place runner Sims. #77 Chase Wilson was running close behind Sims in third, and a few car lengths back Jackson was running 4th. Caution flew on lap 42 when Jackson got spun in corner 2 when #826 Jordan Parniak, running a lap down cut down on Jackson.

The caution served to bring the field back together. The leaders all got off to a good start. Further back in the field though disaster struck involving 4 cars. It looked like #33 Jordan Rocchetta, running inside of #21M Cody Maclean went a bit high out of corner 2, possibly into Maclean. That caused Maclean to slow. #73 Mike Miller, was running behind Maclean and nudged Maclean into a slide and spin down in front of #29 John Carter, which then sent Carter into a turn into the guardrail near the end of the backstretch. Drivers were all ok, but It took track crews some time to clean up the mess. Both Carter and Maclean were done for the night. This left 12 to restart.

Fitzpatrick was out front for the restart, with Sims inside, and Wilson outside row 2. On the restart lap Wilson got into the rear of Sims entering the backstretch, bringing out the caution. Wilson was sent to the back for the restart. Caution flew right away on the restart with #01 John Ross slowing and stopping at the bottom of the exit of corner 2. Ross was done for the night. The race got going again for a few laps then caution flew on lap 47 when Rocchetta slowed and stopped on the infield at the beginning of the front stretch. This left 10 cars. A restart and a few laps later caution flew again when Wilson tagged #94 Kevin Errington into a spin at the beginning of the backstretch. Once again Wilson was sent to the back.

Another restart and the front drivers quickly were running single file again, Fitzpatrick out front, Sims right behind, #94 Kevin Errington 3rd, and #61 Dustin Jackson 4th. Caution then flew again on lap 56 with a spin at the back by #73 Mike Miller by himself rounding corner 3 and 4. That would be the final caution of the race. #84 JR Fitzpatrick led those final laps, to take the win. #47 Jordan Sims was keeping up but didn’t get an opportunity to make a pass on Fitzpatrick and finished 2nd. #94 Kevin Errington finished 3rd, 3 seconds behind the leader. #61 Dustin Jackson battled with #17 Brandon Passer for 4th with Passer taking the spot for a few laps, then Jackson gaining it back before the end to finish 4th, Passer 5th. #51 Jeremy Vanhoek 6th, #77 Chase Wilson 7th, #90 Jay Palumbo 8th, #73 Mike Miller 9th, & #826 Jordan Parniak 10th. The rest of the field had “DNF’s – did not finish”.

In the season points championship, Chase Wilson took first place with 251 Points, Jeremy Vanhoek 2nd, 32 points behind Wilson with 219, and Dustin Jackson a close 3rd, just 2 points behind Vanhoek, with 217.

Lakeway Automotive Factory Stock Division:

Racing during the weekend in the Factory Stock division was exciting; it has been all season. It’s a very competitive division. Going into the weekend #08 Daniel Bibeau had the points lead in the championship by 25 points over #12 Owen Brown. With that gap it would be unlikely that Brown could overtake Bibeau, short of Bibeau not running in a couple of races.
Here is how it shook out in the division over the weekend:

Friday Aug 23

On Friday night there were 11 Lakeway Automotive Factory Stocks out for qualifying. Fast qualifier was Owen Brown with a time of 16.178 seconds. There were two 10 lap heats and a 20 lap feature during the night.

In the first heat there were 11 cars out to start, but #33 Cody Champagne left the track as they were coming around to the green. The race ran caution free. #77 Ed Lapish started at the front outside of #57 Rick Ellis and led all laps for the win. #29 Xavier Carter started 3rd row and passed a few cars to get to 2nd place at the end. #80 Brad Bibeau was 3rd, #08 Daniel Bibeau 4th, #12 Owen Brown 5th and #67 Jarritt Varcoe 6th.

In their second heat all 11 were back out, but caution came out again on the green flag lap, as Champagne failed to get moving and rolled to a stop through corner 3 & 4. Cody has not had a good season, struggling to get the car running right; he was pushed off track. The race got started with a full restart. Rick Ellis and Ed Lapish occupied front row at the start. As they were coming to the start line #08 Daniel Bibeau jumped inside of Ellis and made it three wide and completed the pass up the front stretch. Bibeau then went on to lead all laps for the win. Lapish finished a close 2nd, #4 Dale Tucker 3rd, #51 Jamie Fox 4th, #12 Owen Brown 5th and #29 Xavier Carter 6th.

Ten cars took part in the 20 lap feature event late in the evening. Missing was Cody Champagne. Lapish started the race from the rear, leaving the front row occupied by Ellis and Daniel Bibeau. On the first lap Bibeau took the lead with #29 Xavier Carter following. Down the backstretch and into corner 3 Carter was half a car inside Bibeau and they made contact through the corner and spun in front of the rest of the field in corner 4. Bibeau left the track for a tire change and came back out before the green and restarted at the rear.

Front row was now occupied by Ellis and Carter. As the start lap was being completed #15 Andrew Givens went out of control a bit coming out of corner four and along the front stretch. A few drops of rain were falling at the time, perhaps the track was slippery? Givens went up the track at the entrance of corner 1, plowing into the side of #4 Dale Tucker and sending Tucker off the end of the track; Givens came to rest in the grass at the bottom of corner 2. Givens was done for the night, Tucker was able to continue.

When the race got underway on the third attempt Carter led the first lap then was overtaken by #80 Brad Bibeau. Caution flew again on lap 5 when Rick Ellis and Ed Lapish touched on the backstretch and Ellis spun. All were able to restart. The race restarted ok and ran with no further cautions. Brad Bibeau took the win, Xavier Carter 2nd, about 5 seconds back, #4 Dale Tucker 3rd right behind Carter, #51 Jamie Fox 4th, Daniel Bibeau 5th and Ed Lapish 6th.

Saturday Aug 24th.

Thirteen Factory Stocks were out to race on Saturday night. Fast qualifier was #67 Jarritt Varcoe with a time of 15.938 seconds. There were two heats and a 30 lap feature in the division for the night.

There were 11 cars out for heat 1. The race ran caution free. #77x Ed Lapish led them off and led the first 7 laps until he got passed by #80 Brad Bibeau. On the last lap of the race #29 Xavier Carter got by Bibeau to take the checkers. Lapish finished 2nd, Brad Bibeau 3rd, #91 Jay Palumber 4th, and #08 Daniel Bibeau 5th.

Heat 2 included 10 cars. Caution flew on the start lap with #12 Owen Brown running up into #08 Daniel Bibeau as they entered the first corner of the race. During the caution #05 Tyler Praysner left the track, his car was smoking badly. The race had a complete restart, with caution flying again with a lap complete; as Owen Brown tapped Rick Ellis into a spin at the bottom of corner 2. Brown left the track.

#77x Ed Lapish led the first 5 laps of the race from his front row start; then over the next couple laps traded that position with #80 Brad Bibeau who was running alongside. Bibeau won out and took the checkered flag. Lapish was 2nd right behind. #4 Dale Tucker 3rd, #29 Xavier Carter 4th, #08 Daniel Bibeau 5th and #91 Jay Palumbo 6th.

In the 30 lap Factory Stock feature there were 10 cars to start. Front row was occupied by #77x Ed Lapish inside, and #12 Owen Brown outside. The pair raced side by side for the first couple laps with Brown leading by a nose. #08 Daniel Bibeau was right behind. Brown moved up and took over the lead decisively but was shown the black flag for the ¼ second ruleand was DQ’ed. With Brown exiting the track Lapish had the lead with #67 Jarritt Varcoe challenging. Varcoe had started row 4 and gained the lead on lap 18.

Caution flew on lap 20 as #91 Jay Palumbo pushed up the track on corner 4 and spun. At this point in the race there were 6 cars left running for the restart. Ellis had exited with 7 complete, #33 Cody Champagne exited with 14 complete and #08 Daniel Bibeau left with 18 complete.

Varcoe had the front position on the restart and the remaining 10 laps ran caution free with Varcoe leading all of them to take the win. #80 Brad Bibeau was 2nd, about a half second behind. #29 Xavier Carter 3rd, #77x Ed Lapish 4th, #91 Jay Palumbo 5th, and #4 Dale Tucker 6th.

The points championship in the division went to Daniel Bibeau with 303 points. Ed Lapish moved up from 4th to 2nd during the weekend events completing the season 38 points behind Bibeau with 265. Dale Tucker secured 3rd in the division, just 2 points behind Lapish. Owen Brown who started out the weekend in 2nd place in the points championship fell down to 4th, 47 points back of the leader – the DQ in the final feature was the biggest part of that drop in standings.

NAPA Reyco Automotive Modified Division:

Going into the weekend events in the modified division there was a pretty short gap between 1st place points runner #78 Jason Herrington and 2nd place #84 Mark Laakso with a separation of just 15 points. The weekend was important for both.

Friday Aug 23

The Modified division had 7 cars out for the qualifying session on Friday evening. Fast qualifier was #97 clocked with a 15.401 seconds around the track. We had two 10 lap heats and a 20 lap feature in the division for the night.

For the first heat there were 8 cars that started, including rookie #721 Tehden McBride out for his first run in a modified, having moved up from the Enduro division. Starting up front was #01 Jerry Ross and #78 Jason Herrington. Caution was out right away as they were coming to the green with McBride looping his car out of corner 4. The complete restart went better. McBride was running quite slow and by lap 5 the leaders Ross and Herrington were going past him on the backstretch. McBride might have been headed off the track at the time. Ross went low, and Herrington tried to go above and got knocked into a spin brining out the caution. McBride left the track, Herrington was able to resume and restarted at the back. #20 Matt Lewis also left the track during the caution.

Jerry Ross had the lead on the restart with #28 Mark Porpealia inside and #84 Mark Laakso outside in row 2. Ross quickly found Laakso challenging on the outside for the lead. Ross was able to hold the lead for a couple laps then Laakso took over and went on for the win; Ross finished 2nd. Porpealia 3rd, Herrington 4th and #36 Jesse Bailey 5th. #97 Michael Gold was credited with 6th and had left the track with one lap to go.

In the second modified heat 7 cars came out. Missing was McBride, he’ll likely want to get some hot laps in during some practice sessions to get comfortable with the car before next season begins. Ross and Herrington led the group off. The race ran caution free and fast. Ross held the lead for the first 7 laps before being overtaken by Laakso, while Herrington fell backwards off the pace. Laakso led the remaining laps for the win, Ross 2nd, #28 Mark Porpealia 3rd, #97 Michael Gold 4th, #20 Matt Lewis 5th, Herrington 6th and #36 Jesse Baiiley 7th.

The modified feature later in the night was a 20 lap event that had 8 cars taking part, including Jamie Fox driving the #21 normally driven by Jake Irwin. Leading them off was Ross inside, and Porpealia outside. The race ran caution free. Ross had the better start and led the first 6 laps before being passed by #97 Michael Gold. Ross held 2nd place for a couple more laps before being passed by Laakso, then a bit later Herrington. Gold had Laakso to contend with but managed to keep the lead for the win. Laakso placed 2nd, just 2/10’s behind. Herrington captured 3rd, having started at the back. Ross 4th, Lewis 5th, Porpealia 6th, Fox 7th leaving the track a lap before the end, and Bailey 8th, a lap down.

Saturday Aug 24th

Nine Modifieds were out for qualifying on Saturday evening. Fast qualifier was #97 Michael Gold with a time of 15.206 seconds around the 1/3 mile oval. We held 2 heats and a 30 lap feature in the division during the night.

In the first modified heat there were 8 cars up on track. Starting them off on the front row was #01 Jerry Ross and #84 Mark Laakso. Caution flew on the start lap after #36 Jesse Bailey looped it around in corner 4 at the back of the field. The complete restart was good and Ross took the lead while Lewis fell back a bit. Caution flew on lap 5 after #28 Mark Porpealia and Laakso made contact on the backstretch. Porpealia rolled to a stop in the grass at the bottom of the backstretch just before corner 3, forcing the caution. Officials sent Porpealia to the pits.

Ross had the pole on the restart with #21 Jake Irwin and #97 Michael Gold behind him. On the restart lap Irwin took over the lead and moved on to the win. Laakso took over 2nd from Ross on lap 7, Ross finished 3rd, Gold 4th, Herrington 5th.

In the second modified heat 7 cars took part. The heat ran caution free with Jerry Ross and Jason Herrington leading the group at the green. Ross held the lead for the first 9 laps then got passed by Irwin on the final lap. Irwin had captured his 2nd win of the night. Ross 2nd, Porpealia 3rd, Laakso 4th, Gold 5th.

The modified feature for the night was a 30 lap event, with 8 cars to start. #01 Jerry Ross and #20 Matt Lewis had the front row at the green. Immediately on the start Lewis was off the pace and fell backwards while Ross led. On lap 3, with Ross still leading caution came out when #78 Jason Herrington and #84 Mark Laakso made contact coming out of corner 2, sending both into a spin. Herrington had to leave the track to get tires, so restarted at the back and Laakso was sent to the back as well. That was the only caution during the race.

Ross restarted up front and held the top spot for the first 5 laps until he got passed by #21 Jake Irwin. Irwin took the lead and ran with it. Ross maintained 2nd spot until lap 12 when he got passed by #97 Michael Gold. Ross got moved into 4th place when he got passed by #28 Mark Porpealia on lap 16. The laps wound down with cars spaced out around the track. Gold couldn’t get near Irwin to attempt a pass. Irwin captured his third checkered flag of the night. Gold finished 2nd, nearly 4 seconds behind; Porpealia 3rd, nearly 12 seconds back of the leader; Ross 4th, Herrington 5th, Laakso 6th – a lap down. #36 Jesse Bailey was credited with 7th – leaving the track with 17 laps complete and Lewis 8th with 13 laps complete.

The season championship went right down to the wire. Going into the weekend the division was led by Herrington with 245 points, 15 points ahead of Laakso with 230. Herrington had a rough weekend while Laakso ran well. At the end, Herrington, the defending champion had his 2nd track championship in the Modified Division by a single point over Laakso. Herrington had 304 points, Laakso had 303. Can’t get much closer than that! Matt Lewis finished the season third in the division with 245 points, 59 behind the leader.

Northland Autobody Factory Fours

In the Factory Four division the points leader going into the weekend was #22 Shanna Harten with a slim lead of just 7 points over #16 Dyllen Sherrard. Every position in every race would be important for both. Third and fourth place contenders Gianni and Christopher Viotto were also within striking distance for the championship 11 and 21 points behind Harten respectively.

Friday Aug 23rd

During the Friday night qualifying session there were 16 cars on track. Fast qualifier was #16 Dyllen Sherrard with a time of 17.356 seconds. The group was split in two groups for the heat races, a faster and a slower group according to qualifying times, and each group ran two heats. The entire field was grouped back together for a single feature later.

The slower group were out first for their first heat right after opening ceremonies. Seven cars were on track. Wayne Devon in the #6 Mini Cooper led the first 3 laps then was overtaken by #94 Seth Ralph. Caution flew on lap 6 when 4 of the 7 got into an incident in corner 1. #166 Wyatt Dubois ended up taking a little flight in his truck. The damage took a few minutes to clean up and officials called the race with 6 laps complete (10 minute timeout). #94 Seth Ralph took the checkered, #6 Wayne Devon 2nd, #166 Wyatt Dubois 3rd, #8 Alex Lapensee 4th, #22x Lucas Crosato 5th, #22+ Adam Lapensee 6th, and #77 Meghan Hayes 7th.

Later in the 2nd heat for the slower group, there were just 5 cars out. Caution came out right away with a spin in corner 1 by #22+ Adam Lapensee. Adam left the track leaving 4. All laps were lead by #94 Seth Ralph to take the win, #22x Lucas Crosato 2nd, #166 Wyatt Dubois 3rd, #77 Meghan Hayes 4th.
The faster group of qualifiers the first heat saw 7 cars on track for a 10 lapper. The race ran caution free. The #7 car was being driven by Brent Fewchuk for the night instead of Gianni Viotto. Leading the group off was #21 Daryl Whitmel and #4 Kaleigh Tucker. Whitmel maintained the lead through lap 7 then #7 Brent Fewchuk took over for just a lap until he was in turn passed by #24 Christopher Viotto. Viotto took the win, Fewchuk 2nd, #51 Kenn Schwarz 3rd, Tucker 4th, Whitmel 5th, #16 Dyllen Sherrard 6th and #22 Shanna Harten 7th.

The second heat for the faster group ran with no cautions. This time Viotto took over top spot from Whitmel and Tucker by the end of the first lap and held it to the end to take his 2nd win of the night. Harten pulled up 2nd, almost a second behind; Schwarz 3rd, Fewchuk 4th, Sherrard 5th, Whitmel 6th and Tucker 7th.

The Factory Four feature for the night had 13 cars out to run. Pole sitters were #166 Wyatt Dubois and #22+ Adam Lapensee. Caution flew right away requiring a full restart. #22 Shanna Harten got nudged around by #4 Kayleigh Tucker at the beginning of the backstretch. Harten was able to restart.

Dubois led the first lap then Schwarz took over. Cars began to spread out around the track. By the half way point Viotto had worked his way to 2nd, Harten 3rd. Caution flew on lap 10 when #22+ Adam Lapensee slowed and rolled to a stop on corner 1, He left the track with 9 complete. The final laps of the race didn’t see any lead changes. #13 Logan Lavoy left with 15 complete, #94 Seth Ralph left a lap later. At the end Schwarz had the checkered flag in hand. Viotto was 2nd, about 1/3 of a second behind. Harten finished 3rd, Sherrard 4th, #38F Dylan Couturier 5th, #7 Brent Fewchuk 6th.

Saturday Aug 24th

Saturday night racing in the Factory Four division consisted of two heats and a feature. There were 11 cars out for the qualifying session, with #16 Dyllen Sherrard being the fast qualifier with a time of 17.116 seconds.

During the first 10 lap heat there were 12 cars out to run. #94 Seth Ralph led the first lap then was overtaken by #24 Christopher Viotto. #38F Dylan Couturier was running 2nd. Caution flew on lap 7 when #22 Shanna Harten, running 4th at the time, spun through corner 1. Harten restarted at the back with 3 laps remaining. The race restarted and 3 laps later Viotto had the checkered flag. Couturier 2nd, #16 Dyllen Sherrard 3rd, #51 Kenn Schwarz 4th, and Harten had worked her way back to finish 5th.

The second 10 lap heat saw Viotto lead the first couple laps from his 2nd row start position until Couturier took over top spot. The white flag came out and as the leaders were going down the backstretch on their final lap, #166 Wyatt Dubois came out of corner 4, not realizing that #4 Kayleigh Tucker was outside of him and spun off Tucker’s nose and hit the guardrail hard, just before the leaders came to the checkered. Couturier had the win, Schwarz 2nd, Harten 3rd, Viotto 4th and Sherrard 5th.

The final feature race of the season for the Factory Fours was a 30 lap event with 12 drivers. The pole sitters were #22+ Adam Lapensee inside and #166 Wyatt Dubois outside. Before the green flag flew, #7 Gianni Viotto exited the track with car problems. After the green, #94 Seth Ralph left the track with no laps complete. Dubois held the lead with Lapensee beside for the first two laps then the pair got passed by #24 Christopher Viotto. Viotto had started inside row 4. A lap later and Viotto had #22 Shanna Harten running behind him, then a lap after that #16 Dyllen Sherrard got past the pole sitters to take up 3rd. A few laps later the three were running nose to tail. Harten made a few attempts to get past Viotto on the outside; she seemed to move up on the stretches then fall back again on the corners. On lap 16 the leaders began to pass lap traffic. On lap 22 caution came out when Harten got pinched between lap cars out of corner 4, then spun up the front stretch to stop just before the start/finish line. #22x Lucas Crosato departed during the caution, leaving 9 cars for the final 10 laps.

The restart lineup was Viotto out front; Sherrard inside, and #38F Dylan Couturier outside of row 2. Harten restarted outside of row 3, with #51 Kenn Schwarz inside. The running order was Viotto, Sherrard, Couturier, and Harten for the next few laps. Caution flew again during lap 27 when Viotto slowed and came to a stop on the track. Possibly a tire down, Viotto went to the pits then came back out for the restart. He had to restart towards the back in front of the lapped cars.

The final restart had Sherrard up front; with Couturier inside, Harten outside row 2 for a 3 lap shootout. Sherrard got a good start and kept his lead, while Harten worked to get past Couturier on the outside. On the last lap of the race sparks were flying from underneath Sherrard’s car but he kept it going to take the win. Couturier was 2nd a couple car lengths behind, with Harten 3rd, right beside. #51 Kenn Schwarz pulled up 4th, #24 Christopher Viotto 5th, #21 Daryl Whitmel 6th, #4 Kayleigh Tucker 7th, a lap down, #166 Wyatt Dubois 8th, and #22+ Adam Lapensee 9th.

Sherrard took his victory lap with the checkered being pushed by the Laird Towing wrecker. Can’t remember seeing that before!

The points championship went to Shanna Harten with 285 points accumulated through the season. Dyllen Sherrard was 2nd with 278 points, 7 points back of Harten – the same difference the pair had going into the weekend. It was a hard fought season for both of them. Third place in the standings was Christopher Viotto, finishing 15 points behind with 270. Going into the weekend Gianni Viotto was holding 3rd place 11 points back of Harten but his absence on Friday night, and his breakdown before the feature cost him dearly, bouncing him down to a 6th place finish in the season points championship behind 4th place Kenn Schwarz and 5th place Kayleigh Tucker.

AIM Recycling Enduro Division:

The points setup for the Enduro Division is slightly different than Laird’s other divisions. Maximum points for a competitor is 5 points for a win, dropping by a point per position to a minimum of 1 point for anyone finishing 5th or back. The division is not set up to be competitive, rather it is a division where people can give stock car racing a whirl, at low cost. More for fun than for competition. Despite the simplified setup that would give all competitors a chance at a championship, we had some clear leaders in the division through the season.

The Friday night Aim Recycling Enduro race was 15 laps, the last race of the night, involving 14 drivers. As always there was some banging, crashing and spinning. After 15 laps #86 Dylan Connolly crossed the finish line first, with #44 Eric Sylvestre 2nd, about 4/10ths of a second behind. 3rd place went to #4 Madison Tucker, 17.3 seconds behind the leader; 4th to #21+ Drew Dowding, 18.4 seconds back, 5th to #83 Jon Hill, 18.9 seconds back; and 6th to #16 Dyllen Sherrard 21.1 seconds back (nearly a lap).

The Saturday night Enduro race was also 15 laps, there were 12 cars on track but only 10 of them were being scored – 2 either didn’t have a transponder, or their transponder was not located on the car properly. More spins, more bumps, and a couple crashes through the race yielded a clear winner with #44 Eric Sylvestre crossing the line first, #4 Madison Tucker was 2nd, 4 seconds behind; #86 Dylan Connolly 3rd, 5.8 seconds behind the leader (about a ¼ lap). #17 Chris Pinder 4th, #21+ Drew Dowding 5th and #07 Tannis Wirth 6th.

The points championship in the Enduro division went to Dylan Connolly, winning 4 out of 9 races, and always in the top 5, with 47 points accumulated. Second place went to Eric Sylvestre just 6 points behind the leader. Sylvestre actually had 5 wins, one more than Connolly, but missed the top 5 in a couple of races. Between the two, they had all the feature wins.

Third place in the Enduro points championship was Madison Tucker. The young lady ran all 9 races and finished in the top 5 in 4 of them. Good work Madison!

Intermission and Other Activities:

During intermission on both weekend race nights fans were treated to a Lawnmower Race, courtesy of the Algoma Lawnmower Racing Association (ALMRA). The race winner was Chuck Sidall on both nights, amazing considering that Chuck was running with a cast on a broken wrist he sustained in a lawnmower race at Laird just a few weeks ago. Announcer Greg Brazeau interviewed some of the lawnmower racers on the infield post race, and a short awards ceremony was held. For information about ALMRA visit their facebook group page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/101494564073784

On Friday night during intermission we held our final School Bus Race of the season. Four buses took part, with the winner being Kirstin Armstrong. Keirsten had never driven a school bus before. Announcer Greg Brazeau presented her with a pink Canada ball cap, and a $100 Visa Gift card from our evening sponsor Possamai Construction. As Braz was finishing his interview, to our surprise, Oval Reving emerged from one of the busses as well. Oval had snuck away fron the announcer booth during the earlier activities, went to the pits and climbed aboard one of the buses for a ride with the driver!

Intermission on Saturday night included a meet and greet behind the grandstands. A dozen or more of our Laird drivers brought there cars back there along with some race flags, posters, race cards, and candy treats to give to our young race fans. One driver, Mike Hearty even had some coolers with some wonderful candy apples he brought along from his business – Millies Mini Mart. Some of the kids made quite a haul.

Behind the grandstand in the field there was also a display set up by organizers of the I-500 Snowmobile Race, some pontoon boats, and some new vehicles.
Thanks goes out to SaultSports.com and Rogers for arranging to video record the races on Saturday night. The recording will be available to view on Roger’s cable community channel, and via the SaultSports.com website.

Photos from the night and other race-nights through the season can be found on our website under the “media” menu item - https://www.lairdraceway.com/gallery/ There you will find racenight action shots, photos of drivers, cars, and more. Check it out!

**Our 25th Anniversary Race season has now come to an end. What a great season it was too! We had record fan counts that makes larger tracks, near larger population centre’s envious. It’s all thanks to you, our fans for making it possible, and of course our drivers and sponsors. Preparation for the 2025 race season will begin almost immediately and we hope make things even more fun and exciting! During the off season, make sure you stay tuned to our Facebook page for the latest news and updates. **

See Ya Next Year!

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