Doubling up for a Big Weekend

This is a big weekend for many reasons at Scotia Speedworld.

First of all, it is a double header weekend. The Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour will be in town on Saturday for the Nova Truck Centres Make A Wish 150 and the MJS and Prime Lift East Coast Mini Stock Tour are here for their inaugural race at Scotia Speedworld, the Passione Flooring and Interiors 50. These two features will be fantastic and I’m looking forward to the Mini Stock feature as much, if not more, than the Pro Stock feature on Saturday.

Drew MacEachern, Mark Williams and their Board of Directors has done an amazing job putting together a Series that will bring around 24 Hondas to Scotia Speedworld. Some of those visiting drivers, like Matt Watson, Jamie Cummings, Cody Byrne, Tyler Larkin and Chris Garnett are super talented and will give our local Thunder guys a run for their money.

The Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour point picture kind of ties in nicely to where we are with the CARSTAR Weekly Racing Series action you’ll see on Friday night. The Tour enters their fourth race of the year on Saturday and has a defined leader in Cole Butcher. The race is a make or break for some teams that want to establish themselves at or near the front of the pack. While we will preview all that Pro Stock racing on MaritimeProStockTour.com, much can be said of the same for the four divisions that will race Friday night.

Let’s start with the Strictly Hydraulics Legends division because they have the most races under their belt of any class so far because of the way the schedule laid out this year. Heading into the fifth race of the year, the Legend division has a distinct pack of championship contenders forming. I don’t think anyone is surprised to hear us talking about Paul Goulden, Shelby Baker or Danny Harvey in the title chase conversation because they were there last year. Emily Meehan, Andrew Lively and Tylor Hawes might be a bit more of a surprise but they are great drivers and have had strong starts to 2018.

Emily Meehan will have her brother Adam behind the wheel of her No. 75 car as she is away on business. Adam will enter the car as the point leader, a position he fought for last year in the No. 6 car so it’s familiar territory. Goulden is five points behind Meehan with Baker eight points out of the lead.

Andrew Lively has had a solid start to 2018 and sits 14 points out of the lead and one point up on Danny Harvey after four races. Lively is starting out the season like he did a few years ago when he gave Dave and Stevie a run for the Thunder championship, kind of laying in the weeds, quietly going about his business and most importantly being there at the end of the night when the pay window opens.

Tylor Hawes is also due for a breakout season. With a new car, Hawes is doing much like Lively is. Hawes is finishing races and finding his way to the front at the end. He scored his first top five run last week and much as it might sound miniscule, he has three top three finishes in heats out of four weeks. Heats pay points and when a championship comes down to a single digit margin, a position or four in a heat could end up being the difference.
I know, I know, point talk this early? Sure, there are more races after our mid-season break than before it. Think of it this way though, you can't win a race on Lap One, but you can certainly lose it. While you cannot win a championship in the first four races, you can surely find a way to lose it.

The gap from sixth to seventh in the Legend division is 42 points. I’m not saying they are out of championship contention, we could see the front runners in a pileup that brings them back to the field, but as above, the drivers outside the top seven have created a hole they may not be able to dig out of as the season goes on.

The Affordable Fuels Sportsman and Toursec Lightning enter their fourth race of 2018 on Friday and have two different point pictures heading into AMP Energy Night.

Unlike their Legend counterparts who have one more race in, we’re not really seeing a gap separating the field that has run each of the three races yet. Sure, some have experienced bad luck compared to others but nobody is running away with this yet.

Kirk Ryan, Jordan Veinotte and Matt Vaughan have each won features in the first three races. Aaron Boutilier has finished second, third and fourth and has yet to win a feature. Fifth in points is Tim Hortons at the Airport Rookie Megan Parrott, who has impressed with two straight top fives and a worst finish of seventh in her first three Late Model races. The top five has former champion Pete Miller, Alex Johnson and Brentley Pirri all outside looking in right now, then add in guys like Darren Wallage and others that stop in from time to time and not only do you have quantity in this division you also have quality.

As a sidenote, next Friday night is the 24th Annual Shriners Classic. Will we see any of those big race chasers, the likes of Dylan Blenkhorn or Phil Barkhouse Jr make the trek this Friday to shake down their cars for the 50-lap feature on June 29th? Stay tuned…

Steve Matthews is laying a whoppin’ on the Toursec Lightning division thus far in 2018. In three races, he has two wins. Richard Drake sits second in the standings and yes, he won the Toursec 50, but he hasn’t been as lights out as he was last year.

It was great seeing Mike Jollimore and Marshall Bezanson on the podium last week. Bezanson and crew have struggled with keeping cars together across their team between Garth and Karson, to see Marshall put together a solid 25-laps was great to see. The Jollimores are a great group of guys and girls to have at the track and it’s wonderful to see David and Mike scoring podiums early in the year.

Chevy MacDonald. Wow. What a start to the year for Chevy. He was one spot away from a podium finish last week. As Jason Fenton said last week, with Chevy in deep with the Neon products on the track, that effort is all driver.

How cool was it to see Gage Gilby win his first Hydraulics Plus Beginner Bandolero race last Friday? These kids are talented and might have the most potential out of any rookie class in recent years. Emily Chisholm is going to win herself a race or two and I think Emma MacMillan will be right there too with seat time, so will Miles Mackenzie. While they have some cautions in their race, these drivers, for the most part, are inexperienced and will take some time to get accustomed to their cars. Once they do, watch out, they will put on some of the best shows of the year.

The Hydraulics Plus Bandoleros Bandit and Outlaw features are as thrilling as they come. Owen Mahar holding off three hungry Outlaws in Josh Langille, Sam Rogers and Nate Singer was excellent to watch. Nate Singer. There is a name that has stepped it up over the offseason. If he keeps up what he was able to do last Friday, he will win some features this year.

The racing has been exciting to open up the Speedworld season and Friday’s AMP Energy Night should only continue to raise the bar! Hopefully you can join us this weekend for some fantastic short track racing!

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