Four Cylinders Take
Centre Stage on Friday

This Friday night is big for our Lumbermart Thunder and Lightning divisions.

The Lumbermart Twin 50’s are the staple events for the divisions. Happening twice a year, the 50’s are a time to for drivers to showcase their talents outside the boundaries of a regular distance race. As with every other race this season, the 50’s will count for championship points meaning that drivers could potentially make big gains or post substantial losses should something go wrong with their race cars.

The 50’s also put us at the “unofficial” halfway mark of the season. For those who need to right the ship when it comes to points, this is the perfect opportunity to do so. The contenders are beginning to separate themselves from the rest of the field but that doesn’t mean we are any closer to crowning champions than we were at the start of the season.

LUMBERMART LIGHTNING – SMITH BROTHERS RACING TRYING TO LOCK UP TITLE

After race one of the season, Nick Hurshman was an even fifty points behind feature winner Jorden Smith in 22nd place in points. When the checkered flag dropped on event five last Friday night, Hurshman found himself third in points. The difference? He only gained six points on Smith in those five races. Smith has a 44 point lead on teammate Hurshman heading into competition on Friday night but keep in mind, Hurshman is the defending titlist of the first leg of the Lumbermart Twin 50’s for Lightning.

Second in points after five races is Windsor’s “Crazy” Craig Cordeau. Cordeau sits just two dozen points out of the lead spot at the halfway mark and with the big fields of Lightning cars we’ve been seeing recently, it could only take one small mistake from the #144 for Cordeau to kick the door right off its hinges when it comes to the top spot in points. Look at Cody Singer last week, after he experienced mechanical problems with his new car he plummeted from second to fifth in the standings and into a hornet’s nest that sees fourth to thirteenth only separated by 49 points. Any mistakes by those sitting within that pack will be magnified big time when it comes to their final placement in the standings looking back when we sit in Truro during the winter at the banquet.

Within that pack we find veterans like Jamie Dillman (4th), Singer (5th), John Poan (7th) and JR Lawson (13th) who’ve been at this racing gig for a while now. You have Marc MacMillan (6th) who returned to racing last season who ran Hobby Stock for many years. Then you have guys like Harry Breimer Jr (8th), Tyler Hallahan (9th), BJ Nicholson (10th), Jonathan Conrad (11th) and Mark Campbell (12th) who are in their second or third years of racing and are fighting to establish themselves as a top dog in the division. Each of them will be looking to make a statement this Friday.

LUMBERMART THUNDER – SIX PACK BEGINS TO SEPARATE

Like we saw last year at this time, the top few drivers in the Thunder class are beginning to distance themselves from the rest of the field. Like last year, both Warren brothers, Stevie Lively and Tylor Hawes are apart of the breakaway with Dave Matthews and Joey Lawson joining the “six-pack” at the halfway mark of the season.

Matthews and Matthew Warren have the best seats in the house right now at the top of the division. Matthews has a one point lead on Warren and 20 points between he and third place driver Joey Lawson. Lawson, in turn has an eight point gap between the #27 and the #85 of sophomore Andrew Warren. Hawes and Lively, who finished second and first last season sit fifth and sixth at this point of the summer. Hawes is one point out of Andrew Warren in fourth while Lively still has some work to do as he is a dozen markers out of Hawes for fifth.

Those six have broken away from Kyle MacMillan in seventh. MacMillan, who won the fall leg of the Twin 50’s for Thunders in 2010 has the #98 team owned by Kyle Gammon breathing down his neck in eighth – just four points out. The #98 has had three different drivers in as many weeks with Gammon, Justin MacNeill and Tim Tanner at the helm the last three race dates. MacMillan’s brother and leading rookie Kirk Mullane sits 14 points off the #5 car with Jon Bonin continuing his impressive season in tenth, just six points behind Mullane and three up on his cousin Troy Bonin.

We saw with Troy last week though that there are many points that can be lost in a feature. After a subpar night for the #44, Troy fell from seventh to eleventh in points. With a good race and some luck, that move could be reversed this Friday. It just goes to show how tight these Weekly Racing Series divisions really are.

The Hydraulics Plus Bandoleros and Truck classes each have very close battles as well. It is just a single point between JP Arsenault and Dan Smith heading into a 25-lap feature on Friday while Cole Butcher leads his brother Jarrett by just two points in the Bandolero ranks heading into combat.

It will be a night you will not want to miss this Friday at Scotia Speedworld. Who will be on top of the four cylinder world after 50 laps of racing? Find out at 7pm on Friday night!

Until then, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track.