Classic Confrontations Friday for CARSTAR Night

As mean as the forecast had been to us, the racing action is quickly ramping up with some major events coming up at Scotia Speedworld.

First of all, how cool was it to see a big crowd last Friday night at Fanfest?! We had a big crowd to celebrate the summer weather and our great sport. Hopefully the fans enjoyed themselves and we see them back through our championship stretch, because as mentioned, we have some big races coming up from now until the middle of September.

The fans saw a really good card of racing to boot. We had three “first” winners while one driver won for the first time in his career at his home track.

Let’s start with Mark Williams. Mark has been racing with us for nearly 20 years between Thunder cars and a stint in the Legend ranks. While he has other endeavors in the racing world to tend to this season, he has made a home at Scotia Speedworld with his #23 Racing Trader Civic. He started off the year on Opening Day with his first podium finish of his career and then put it in victory lane on Friday night, holding off Nic Baker, who knows what it feels like to get that first career win, and two-time champion Dave Matthews. Like myself and many others, Mark bleeds passion for this sport and it is great to see his hard work pay off in a feature win.

It has also created a log jam at second in the point standings. While Dave has a big point lead of 28 points after six races, second back to sixth is only an 11 point gap. Not to mention, you have a nice mix of drivers in there, led by leading Tim Hortons at the Airport Rookie contender Neil Miousse. You have the veteran Mark Williams, who has more years in racing experience than likely the other four drivers in the battle combined. Chris Hatcher, who is the second most seasoned driver in the battle, sits fifth and is looking for that first feature win of the year. Baker is fourth and is having a breakout season in 2017 after his first win back in June. Then you have the former Valley Raceway dirt track champion in Jesse Deveau who is beginning to turn the wick up and getting a handle of this asphalt racing.

The Strictly Hydraulics Legend division played nicely, for the most part, last week and it was two drivers who have had their share of ups and downs that finally got to put it behind them. Braden Langille turned 16 last week and was finally able to get out to the track in a big car. He wasted little time getting to the front and cruising away for his first win of the season and second win for the car at Scotia after Riley Halverson took home the win in the #51 on Opening Day. Behind him, Adam Meehan, who got tangled up in Turn One in the final lap of the last time we race Legend cars.

Paul Goulden, who has been on every CARSTAR Weekly Racing Series podium in the Strictly Hydraulics Legends division but one this year, was third during Fanfest. Each of those drivers had running room between them and seemingly comfortably cruised to their positions.

Behind them, Waylon Farrell held off a determined Cory Hall for the fourth place spot. The two would continue their battle the next day in the Maritime League of Legends Tour race in River Glade, seemingly giving us another pair to watch should they cross paths on the track again.
Goulden is the point leader as the former Canadian Masters champion looks for his first track championship but has Hall only eight points back. Adam Meehan finds himself 14 points back of Hall, Danny Harvey is only eight points off Meehan while Adam’s sister Emily is only six points off the mark of Harvey in the top five in the standings.

The numbers have been quite impressive in the class with feature fields hovering around the 20 car mark each week. We’ll see who shows up this week to battle for the win and who will join Halverson, Langille, Hall and Harvey as feature winners so far in the Strictly Hydraulics Legends ranks for 2017.

The Hydraulics Plus Bandoleros are back this week and all three divisions have themselves distinctive championship battles. Josh Langille, who had Ben Israel in the car the last time we raced on July 14th, has now a three point lead over reigning Outlaw champion Sam Rogers with Austin MacDonald four points off Rogers after four races this year. All three are hungry and will be looking for a big win on Friday.

In the Bandit division, Nathan Langille has a seemingly comfortable 12 point lead over Owen Mahar, but as we saw the last time the Bandoleros raced, it could change within a blink of an eye. While Langille took his first career overall win, Nate Singer impressed by being right alongside Langille. Singer closed in to nine points off of Colton Noble, who has also impressed this year with a feature win in class on June 16th.

It’s a 13 point gap between Brooke Dowe and Tim Hortons at the Airport Rookie Dawson Noble in the Beginner Bandolero division. Dylan MacMillan has had quite the season as well and sits 20 points back of the lead. Keep in mind, this is a growing division and one slip could see those 13 or 20 point gaps evaporate with an average of 10 cars in the field a week. Eyes will be on Matthew Rushton to see if he can win a third feature in four races this Friday night.

We get to the Affordable Fuels Sportsman division that will run two races on Friday and we have a battle between Jordan Veinotte and Travis Roma in the standings. These two battled for a while last season with Pete Miller for the championship, so that is not surprising, but if anyone wants to step up and challenge them for the division crown, this will be a pivotal night.
Hats off to Matt Vaughan on scoring his first Affordable Fuels Sportsman win last Friday night. The kid is as cool as a cucumber behind the wheel and while a battle with a lapped car almost took Vaughan’s chances at victory away, he persevered and held off Veinotte for the big win. He sits fourth in the standings, 23 points out of the lead and five points out of Alex Johnson in third. On the opposite side, he has Chris Dingle three points back, Alex Painting ten points behind and Brentley Pirri 17 points out of his fourth place position.

Here’s something good for Vaughan, he will have some track position in the first feature of the night. With the Shriners Classic field already set from July 7th, Vaughan will start second on the outside of Aaron Boutilier. Boutilier finished third last week in a tune up for the race, but admitted in victory lane he didn’t have enough for the #08 or the #11.

Veinotte will start seventh in what could be up to 17 cars on Friday’s first feature. Travis Roma will start fourth and was Vaughan’s top competition last Friday before a leak in the rear end caused Roma to pit from the lead with eight laps left.

Oh, and by the way, Russell Smith Jr., Jeff Dillman, Phil Barkhouse Jr, Josh Collins, Pete Miller and Colby Smith, among others, are qualified to run on Friday too. So this Shriners Classic is sure to be a barnburner.

Not to mention, all those drivers, plus whoever may also be around, can stick around for a second feature for 38 laps to end the night. If you like the Late Models, you will want to be out here Friday.

Tip of the cap to Jeffrey Breen for making the trek down from Antigonish last week. Breen cut his teeth in racing with the Toursec Lightning division, racing a former Dan Michaud Jr car. It was great to see he, his brother Corey and “The Silver Fox” Eddie Rector in the pits and racing with our Sportsman division during Fanfest. To make the haul worth it, they came home with a fifth place trophy. If you know anyone looking to sponsor a  car, Breen would be a perfect one to back as they would love to come back down for the Affordable Fuels 150 in a couple weeks!
It is going to be a big night of racing - and I hope you can join us for some great fun! If you want to check out the Shriners Classic starting lineup, we have it for you below. Be sure to come out early as we will be doing introductions of the drivers in the 23rd Annual Shriners Classic at 6:45pm with the green flag going in the air at 7pm!

Until Friday, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track!

Starting Lineup - 23rd Annual Shriners Classic for Sportsman