Category: Other Series Racing

[media-credit id=4 align=”alignright” width=”266″][/media-credit]In the second ever event for the OSCAAR Modifieds, Gary McLean made it clear that he is going to be the one to beat this year as he scored his second straight feature win, pulling off the first series hat trick.

The night didn’t start without incident as there’d be a wreck in the first heat with Adam Adams spinning Larry Mackenzie and Dave Terry spinning behind them. In the end, Gary McLean would come home with the win, followed by John Gruntz, Chris Burrows, Mackenzie and Rob Fennema.

In the second heat, there’d be another incident as Bill Burrows would spin, collecting Tim Burke while Dave Burrows spun after, trying to avoid them. It’d be a McLean sweep of the opening heats as Brent McLean would take the win, followed by Steve Smith, Matt Barton, Dave Burrows, Brandon Crumbie and Bill Burrows.

In the third heat, there’d be problems right off the bat as Chris Burrows would run into mechanical problems. Then on lap three, Dean Scott would get into the turn four wall. Gary McLean would get his second win of the night, followed by Mackenzie, Terry, Gruntz, Adams and Fennema.

In the fourth and final heat, there’d be one incident as Smith would spin while racing with Brent McLean. Barton would go on for the win, followed by Brent McLean, Burke, Smith, Dave Burrows, Crumbie and Bill Burrows.

In the feature, Gary McLean would start on the pole virtue of his pair of heat wins, followed by Brent McLean, Larry Mackenzie, Steve Smith, Dave Burrows and Matt Barton.

There’d be trouble right away as Dave Burrows would run into problems and while trying to get to pit road, he caused a chain reaction collision that collected John Gruntz, Chris Burrows, Brandon Crumbie, Adam Adams and Bill Burrows. They’d be all be able to continue, now at the back of the field.

The second caution would come out on lap 10 for the lap down car of Rob Fennema making contact with Smith, collecting Brent McLean. At this point a third of the way through, Gary McLean led, followed by Barton and Mackenzie. Gruntz and Crumbie had made their way back to fourth and fifth after their lap one incident. There’d be a lengthy red flag at this point due to a medical emergency in the pits, pausing the race for 45 minutes. With the problem cleared, the race started back up.

The rest of the race wouldn’t go problem free as with eight laps to go, Burke would spin Terry and Terry would get hit hard by Bill Burrows. Both drivers would be okay, but unable to continue for the rest of the event. At this point, Gary McLean still led over Barton while Crumbie and Gruntz had both made their way around Mackenzie.

Gary McLean would lead the final eight laps on the way to the first ever hat trick in OSCAAR Modified history and his second straight feature win. Crumbie would finish second after having to change the transmission in practice and after being involved in the first lap incident for his second straight top five. Gruntz would finish third for his second straight top 10 finish. Smith and Burke rounded out the top five.

Barton fell back to sixth, followed by Mackenzie, Adams, Dave Burrows and Chris Burrows.

The next race for the OSCAAR Modifieds is June 30^th at Sunset Speedway in Innisfil, Ontario.

On Saturday night at Barrie Speedway, it marked the sixth night for the Wahta Springs Late Models with their 10^th and 11^th features of the season. The drivers were looking for the best finishes possible as they try to improve their ranking in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series standings. Coming into the night, two drivers – Dwayne Baker and Keith McLeod – sat within the top 100 with Baker sitting the highest at 69^th.

However, with other tracks in the U.S having more races under their belt, once they get to 18 features and just count the top ones, both drivers have a shot at making improvements.  In nine features so far, Baker has six features wins, eight top fives and nine top 10s. However, one of them was DQ’d by the track, though is not noted in NASCAR’s standings.  Meanwhile, McLeod has one win, eight top fives and nine top 10s in nine features.

Meanwhile, on the track standings coming into the night, McLeod sat in the lead, eight points ahead of Ron Quesnelle and Baker.

[media-credit id=4 align=”alignright” width=”266″][/media-credit]The starting order for the first feature of the night was set based on the finishing order from the feature the previous week, putting Dave Lewis on the pole. Lewis finished 12^th the week before while Dwayne Baker went on to the victory. Randy Bull started second, followed by Thayne Hallyburton, Gord Shepherd and Al Inglis.

The first caution would come out on lap our when Ron Lethbridge spun. At this point, Lewis still led while Thayne Hallyburton had made his way past Bull for second. Inglis, meanwhile, had made his way up to third, followed by Keith McLeod with Bull now fifth.

At the midway point, Baker had worked his way up to fifth after starting ninth while Inglis has passed Hallyburton for second. A battle then ensured between him and Thayne Hallyburton for position and on lap 19 of the 30 lap feature, Baker would send Hallyburton for the spin. As a result, both Hallyburton and Baker would be sent to the back of the field while Lewis now led over Inglis. Shepherd, meanwhile, ran solidly in third followed by defending track champion Ron Quesnelle and McLeod.

On the restart, Inglis would stay alongside Lewis as they battled for the lead. They’d battle side-by-side all the way till a caution with five laps to go for Bull spinning while trying to pass McLeod. Track officials would deem McLeod involved, putting him to the rear of the field. Baker and Hallyburton had both worked their way through the field after their incident, now running fourth and fifth, behind Lewis, Inglis and Shepherd.

On the final restart, Inglis would be able to get around Lewis and go on to win his second feature of the season.

Inglis would say after the race that he had to work hard at it, but it was a lot of fun. It was also noted in victory lane that one of the big differences was Inglis discovered a problem that they were having with the left front shock and was able to fix it so they could get the handling better.

Lewis would finish second for his second top five and best finish of the season while Shepherd would finish third for his eighth top five of 2012. Baker would come home fourth with Hallyburton in fifth. Glenn Lloyd finished sixth, followed by Roy Manary, Quesnelle, Mike Langley and Bull.

[media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”266″][/media-credit]After having issues in the first feature, Shawn Murray would start pole in the second feature with Keith McLeod to his outside. Randy Bull would start third, followed by Ron Quesnelle and Roy Manary. Murray would only lead the two opening laps, before he was passed by McLeod for the lead on lap three.

The first caution would come out on the same lap, three, as Ron Lethbridge got into the turn four wall. By the third lap, Quesnelle had passed Bull for third while Gord Shepherd had made his way up to fifth after starting eighth.

Shepherd would also make his way around Bull and engage himself in a battle for third with Quesnelle. The battle wouldn’t end well as Shepherd would send Quesnelle for a spin on lap 11. This would allow Bull to make his way back up to third, while Al Inglis now ran fourth with Dwayne Baker fifth.

Inglis would make his way past both Bull and Murray to move up to the second position, behind McLeod. They’d engage in a battle for first as Inglis looked for his second straight win. However, it wouldn’t be meant to be as contact between the two on lap 24 would send McLeod for the spin. Both cars would be put the rear as being involved, handing the lead to Baker, who had also gotten by both Bull and Murray. Murray moved his way past Bull to run second with Bull third, followed by Thayne Hallyburton and Shepherd, who was making his climb back up through the field.

On the restart, Murray would suffer heartbreak in his quest for his first feature win as he’d have a mechanical failure while Mike Langley got into the wall. This moved Bull up to second behind Baker, followed by Hallyburton, Shepherd and Dave Lewis.

Baker would lead the final six laps for his sixth feature win of the season. Shepherd finished second for his ninth top five of 2012 while Bull finished third for his second top five of 2012. Hallyburton and Lewis rounded out the top five. Quesnelle finished sixth, followed by Inglis, Lethbridge, McLeod and Manary.

“I don’t know if I’m slowing down or those guys are catching up a bit, but I had to work for it,” Baker said.

When asked if he had expected to be this successful this season making his return to Barrie, Baker said he didn’t and that it was all due to how good the car was.

The Wahta Springs Late Models return to action once again next weekend at Barrie Speedway as they will run two features on Saturday June 23 as regularly scheduled, and two features on Saturday June 24 to make up for the rain out on June 2^nd.

[media-credit name=”IndyCar.com” align=”alignright” width=”333″][/media-credit]After practice, most people weren’t counting Dario Franchitti as a contender for the pole as he was 18th in final practice. However, the defending race winner proved that you can never count him out as he won the pole for the second consecutive year for the Milwaukee IndyFest Presented by XYQ.

“I am very pleased as much as I am surprised,” Franchitti says. “That’s quite a turnaround from practice. Practice is one thing, qualifying is another and then there is the race. For as warm as it it people are fighting the car and everyone wants the same line. I expect (the race) is going to be tough, especially at the end of a full stint on those Firestone tires.”

He recorded a two-lap average speed of 168.737 mph in his No. 10 Cottoneel car for his 27th career pole, tying him with Al Unser in seventh on the all-time pole list.

“It’s going to be a long, exciting day and hopefully the Cottonelle car will be up front at the end of the afternoon,” Franchitti adds. “This is always an interesting track and we’ll see if we can get it done.”

With Franchitti coming into Milwaukee sitting sixth in points, 44 points out of the lead, he could make significant points up this weekend. This weekend, the top two in points, Will Power and Franchitti’s teammate Scott Dixon, will incur a 10-grid spot penalty for unapproved engine changes. Power qualified fourth while Dixon qualified 11th; they’ll start the race 14th and 21st, respectively.

Power and Dixon are just two of the seven drivers affected by the rule as one of the other drivers affected was last week’s race winner Justin Wilson, who scored his first oval victory at Texas Motor Speedway. He qualified second, though will now start 12th.

As a result, Ryan Hunter-Reay who qualified third, will get to move up to second, alongside Franchitti. Hunter-Reay laid down a lap of 167.911 mph behind the wheel of his No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car.

“The guys did a great job on the car. We were all over the sixth-gear limiter on our last lap or I think we would have been quick enough for pole,” Hunter-Reay says. “We couldn’t have predicted we would be that quick though; it’s the quickest we’ve been all weekend. It’s tough for the crew, especially the engineers, trying to pick which gears to go with. It’s like shooting with a blindfold on sometimes.”

Ruben Barrichello, who is making his debut at Milwaukee, will start fourth with Helio Castroneves in fifth. E.J. Viso will start sixth followed by Tony Kanaan in seventh.

While rookie Josef Newgarden was the quickest in the final practice session, he was only seventh quickest in qualifying, however will start 17th as a result of an unapproved engine change. Takuma Sato, Ryan Briscoe and Mike Conway were also effected by the rule.

“Knowing that we had the penalty coming here wasn’t too bad because it’s been a cycle this year,” Newgarden comments. “Everyone’s had to go through it at some point and it’s just our turn. That’s the whole thing with engine manufacturer competition coming back to the series. I think it’s great that we have that competition because that’s what racing is really about. We want to see them duking it out with each other, and I’m really proud to be backed by Honda power.”

[media-credit name=”ARCA Racing Network” align=”alignright” width=”175″][/media-credit]After scoring six victories on the short tracks in the span of two years, Chris Buescher led the final 14 laps on his way to his first speedway victory in the RainEater Wiper Blades 200 at Michigan International Speedway.

Green flag as Joey Coulter and Brennan Poole run side-by-side down the backstretch. Poole pulls to the lead coming out of turn four.

Lap 2 Poole leads Coulter, Kevin Swindell, Alex Bowman, Ryan Reed, Justin Lofton and Kyle Larson.

Caution Lap 3 Nelson Canache spins and both Tom Hessert & Larry Barford Jr. hit him afterwards.

“It’s definitely unfortunate with us. looks like the 35 car just got into the corner on lap two and spun out. Definatley gives us a tough hit in the points. but it’s a long race so who knows whats going to happen. theres also a lot of races left this year.” Hessert

Lap 6 Chad Hackenbracht is slow on the apron – problem was with the fuel pump with it breaking.

Restart lap 11

Lap 12 Poole leads Coulter, Swindell, Bowman, Reed, Lofton, Larson, Chris Buescher, rank Kimmel and Blankenship.

Caution lap 12 as Jared Marks goes for a spin while running underneath Brandon Newberry.

Restart Lap 16 – Poole leads Swindell, Coulter, Bowman, Reed, Lofton, Larson, Buescher, Kimmel and Blakenship

Lap 17 Kimmel passes Buescher for eighth

Lap 18 Gallagher passes Blakenship while Buescher passes Kimmel for eighth

Lap 19 Kyle Larson has smoke coming off the right side of the car after getting into the outside wall.

Lap 20 Poole leads Swindell, Coulter, Bowman, Reed, Lofton, Buescher, Kimmel, Gallagher, Blankenship

Lap 22 Buescher, Lofton and Kimmell pass Reed for position

Lap 25 Competition caution. Field comes down pit road……Poole leads Buescher, Bowman and Coulter

Restart lap 35 and Poole leads

Lap 38 Poole leads Coulter, Swindell, Buescher, Lofton and Bowman

Caution Lap 40 Aleks Gregory gets into the wall; Buster Graham gets the lucky dog…..Some stay out, some head down pit road. Poole and Coulter both stayed out. Swindell the first to pit out of third.

Restart Lap 48

Lap 50 Poole leads Coulter, Lofton, Buescher and Reed.

Lap 51 Poole, Coulter, Lofton, Buescher, Reed, Davis, Swindell, Bowman, Kimmel and Gallagher

Lap 53 Lofton passes Coulter for second

Lap 55 Swindell and Bowman pass Davis

Lap 61 Poole and Coulter both pit for right sides, Lofton now to the lead

Lap 62 Reed pits for right sides

Lap 64 Poole pits once again, now for left side tires. Coulter also in for left side tires. Reed also pits for left side tires

Lap 65 Swindell pits for four tires

Lap 66 Lofton leads Buescher, Bowman, Davis, Kimmel, Gallgher, Newberry, Blankenship, Blum and Graham

Lap 71 Lofton leads Bowman, Buescher, Davis, Kimmel, Gallagher, Newberry, Blankenship, Pl um and Graham

Lap 73 Gallagher pits

Lap 75 Lofton leads Bowman, Buescher, Davis, Kimmel, Newberry, Blankenship, Pl um, Swindell and Graham; Lofton pits, handing the lead over to Bowman; Buescher pits

24 to go Davis pits

19 to go Poole pits

Caution 15 to go Swindell gets into the wall. Some pit, some stay out. Buescher gets the lead

Restart 9 to go

Buescher holds Bowman off at the line

[media-credit name=”IndyCar.com” align=”alignright” width=”333″][/media-credit]In his second ever oval track start, Tristan Vautier scored his first ever oval track pole. It marked the 51st pole for Sam Schdmit Motorsports (SSM). Vautier won the pole with a two-lap average speed of 146.884 mph.

Vautier started his first ever Indy Lights race from the pole at St. Petersburg earlier this year.

“It feels so good to be on pole for this track because it’s a tough track,” Vautier says. “Our car was awesome this morning. I felt a lot of pressure going into qualifying because I knew we could do it, and I just had to do the job. But there are 100 laps, pole is one point and the race is worth 50 points, so we have a lot of work ahead of us still.”

Currently, Vautier sits second in the series standings to teammate Esteban Guerrieri following five races.

If the 2011 Star Mazda Champion is able to drive his No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/SSM with Curb Agajanian car to a win tonight, it’ll mark the 50th Indy Lights win for SSM.

Victor Carbone qualified second with a speed of 146.429 mph, followed by Sebastian Saavedra and Carlos Munoz.

There was a 30-minute practice immediately following qualifying, which saw Munoz post the top speed at 140.623 mph. Vautier was second, 0.1857 seconds behind.

The 100-lap race is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. (ET), with real-time Timing & Scoring and the IMS Radio Network broadcast on www.indycar.com.

[media-credit name=”Indycar.com” align=”alignright” width=”333″][/media-credit]In the initial practice for the IZOD IndyCar Series at the Milwaukee Mile, rookie Josef Newgarden topped the charts with a quick lap o 22.0232 seconds in his No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing car.

“Milwaukee is a very difficult track physically because you’re constantly turning at a very short radius,” Newgarden said earlier in the week. “There’s a lot of load put on the driver because of how much downforce we run. There’s also no banking at Milwaukee so setting up the car will be difficult to master because it’s unlike any other oval we go to.”

Helio Castroneves was second at 22.1095 seconds while E.J. Viso was third at 22.2776 seconds. The top 21 cars were separated by less than a second.

In the second practice, last week’s race winner Justin Wilson was quickest with a lap of 22.1744 seconds. Newgarden was second at 22.2438 seconds while Castroneves was third. Rubens Barichello, who enters his rookie season in IndyCar after racing Formula 1, was sixth quickest.

Defending race winner Dario Franchitti was 11th in the morning session and 18th in the afternoon session. He won the race last year after starting on the pole.

“With all the problems, it looked like we weren’t going to be coming back to Milwaukee,” Franchitti says. “But we’re back here because of what the IndyCar Series and Michael Andretti and his team did to put this together. It’s great to be back at Milwaukee and this track is one we all love. There’s so much history.

“In order to get Indy car racing back to where it needs to be, we need to be at these places. There are so many things going on for the fans and I think Michael and his team have done a good job and it should be a good event.”

Points leaders Will Power and Scott Dixon both changed motors, therefore suffering a 10-grid starting spot penalty for Sunday’s race. Power was 19h and 13th in the two sessions while Dixon was 10th and ninth.