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Mixing It Up At Caprara's Can-Am

Story By: JIM OLIN - LAFARGEVILLE, NY - Another action filled Saturday night of racing action kicked off at the historic half-mile putting some new faces out front in almost all divisions. The track didn’t cooperate with many of the driver’s set-ups, leaving some seasoned veterans looking for a line. The continuous breeze and sunshine made the track dry out quick in the heats, but come feature time, the corners got sticky down low, and everyone running the bottom and middle left little room to race up top.

HEAT RACES

NOVICE SPORTSMAN – One heat of 7 cars started out the action with the 621 of Trevor Gibbons and the 6 of Matt Brown out front. The green dropped with Brown taking an early shot to the front spot and maintaining the lead for the duration. Gibbons held down the runner up spot with Jamie Brown bringing the 15 home third.

PRO STREET STOCK – 13 cars made the call for 2 heats of Street Stock action. The first heat started with Ryan Shanahan and Jonathan Murphy on the front row. At the green, Rick Duskas brought the 3 car to runner up spot behind Shanahan’s 32. The battle for the top 3 spots raged on, but Duskas would grab the win, putting Shanahan in second, and Shawn Kirby third with the 3k.

The second heat rolled off with Dustin Bradley’s 83d and Sid Harmer Jr’s 14r out front. Harmer didn’t waste any time putting some space between his 14r and the rest of the pack. Sid Harmer Sr would wheel the 690 machine up to the runner up spot from fifth, and Burton Ward grabbed third with the 28 car.

358 MODIFIED – The Modifieds were 14 strong, divided up among 2 heats. The first heat had Nick Webb in the 27w and Luke Stewart’s 19 in the top spots. At the green, Webb was in control. Billy Dunn made short work of the field bringing his 9 car up to second from fifth, doing battle with the 93 of Ryan Bartlett along the way. Stewart would peddle hard to maintain his spot, but at the finish, it was Webb out front, Dunn second, and Stewart came home third.

The second heat started with Josh VanBrocklin and Rylee Gill leading the pack to the flag. Everyone fired, but the man on the move was Lance Willix, threading the needle and grabbing some early track position. VanBrocklin wheeled the 10 machine for all it was worth, but Willix would keep his position while Rylee Gill Had the lead. At the checkers, Gill crossed in front, Willix second, VanBrocklin third.

SPORTSMAN MODIFIED – A huge field of Sportsman cars made the show, 28 total. Three heats were slated. In the first heat, Derek Webb in the 66w and Andrew Wren in the 415 started the show. Wren hooked up and left the field in the dust on lap one. Jack Meeks brought the 1 car up from ninth to fourth quickly, and continued to work for positions. Wren would take the win, With Meeks coming across second, and Jackson Gill third.

Heat 2 found the 4x of Mike Gadbaw and the 34 or Eric Nier on the front row. The green dropped, and it looked like Stockman had the 57 ready to grab some spots. Kevin Root brought the 34r up to the runner up spot, but the 21 of Taylor Caprara came from the rear to battle for the lead. Nier managed to hang on for the win, Caprara settled for second and George Sanford brought the 25 home third.

The third heat put Rick McCready and Mike Mandigo in front. The green came out, and Mike Prentice made a power move, nearly grabbing second. The field battled for the top three spots as Brian Hudson worked hard to break the top five with his 621 car. In the end, McCready would take the win with Prentice bringing home second, and Mandigo third.

THUNDER STOCKS – Sixteen cars started out what would be a long night for a lot of drivers in this division. Heat one started with Jerry Rogers’ 61 and the 2s of Gary Sharlow out front. The excitement began when Trenton Passage rolled the 5t car in turn 4, bringing out the red. He walked away without a scratch. Another caution at lap two with Gary Sharlow stopping on the back stretch. Chuck Monica would come up from fifth to battle with Mike Greenfield for the lead. Monica would make a pass and take the win, with Greenfield second and Rogers third.

The second heat had A.J StMary and O.J. White out front. Phil Desormeau started outside the second row and quickly made a move for the lead. The 26m would lead the entire heat race, with the 60 of Justin Pope battling for the spot. At the flag, it was Desormeau with the win, Pope second and White third.

FEATURE RACES

NOVICE SPORTSMAN – Trevor Gibbons would set the pace as the field came around for the green. Matt Brown Started outside pole, and would jump to an early lead on lap one. Caution flew as the 57h of Remington Hamm took a ride over the bank in turn 2. When the action got going again, a tangle with the 621 and the 0 of Joe Wilcox brought the yellow out again at lap 10. Matt Brown would continue to open up space over the 76g of Greenfield. Jamie Brown brought the 15 car up to the runner up spot, but didn’t quite have enough to challenge for the lead. Contact between the 57h of Hamm and the 76g of Greenfield in turn 3 would end up with Hamm facing the wrong way, and the yellow flew on lap 14. The green dropped with one to go, and Brown hung on for the win. Jamie Brown brought the 15 home second, and Greenfield’s 76g crossed third.

PRO STREET STOCK – Ryan Shanahan and Sid Harmer Jr started the feature out front with Kenny Clark and Rick Duskas in the second row. The green flew and Harmer ran hard to turn one with the 14r, grabbing the lead early. Kenny Hartshorn, Rick Duskas and Shawn Kirby battled throughout the entire race for the runner up spot. One caution at lap 17 for the Clark 55 bunched the field up, but once again Harmer would put the power down and open up the lead. Hartshorn  would continue to swap spots with Duskas and Kirby. At the checkers, Sid Harmer Jr took the win with Kenny Hartshorn second, and Rick Duskas third.

358 MODIFIED – Nick Webb and Josh VanBrocklin lead the field to green with Luke Stewart and Rylee Gill close behind. The 10 car was hooked up and seemed unstoppable, leading the first 17 of the 25 lap feature. Watching the transponders, it was obvious that Dunn was getting faster every lap and was quickly making his way to the front. The R70 of Ryan Arbuthnot battled his way to the top 3 from tenth starting spot, following Lance Willix up through the pack. Arbuthnot would make a pass on Willix and hold third. Dunn worked his 9 machine up to the runner up spot and continued to close on VanBrocklin. Lap 18, Billy Dunn took the lead as VanBrocklin dropped back to second. At the line, Dunn took win number two for the season, with Josh VanBrocklin coming home second and Ryan Arbuthnot coming home third.

SPORTSMAN MODIFIED – A full field of Sportsman cars took the green with Mike Gadbaw and Rick McCready leading the pack. Andrew Wren had the 415 car figured out as he quickly took the lead on lap one. Haiden Burdick and Mike Prentice got together in turn 2 with Burdick’s mount ending up on top of the 72 of Prentice bringing out the yellow on lap two. When action resumed, Anthony Stockman brought the 57 car up front to battle for the lead, but a caution at lap 6 would hold him off. Justin Gadbaw would need to be towed off from turn 4. At the restart, Stockman grabbed the advantage and took the lead on lap 7. The caution came out again at lap 8 for the 2 of Chris Thurston, stopping in turn 3. Stockman’s night would end at lap 9 as the caution flew once again when the M1 of McCready spun in turn 4. The 57 car was pushed off with mechanical problems. Jack Meeks, who started in sixteenth position, had patiently picked off cars one at a time to the second spot. With Stockman out, Meeks would have the lead. At the green, the 1 car would lead the final laps. The caution was out at lap 17 when the 60 of Jackson Gill went over the bank at the bottom of turn 4. The final laps dragged out with a few cautions for various mechanical problems, sending the 25 of George Sanford, the 5 of Amy Holland, and the 30r of Dave Rogers to the pits. Meeks would take the win, with Kevin Root working his way up to the runner up spot, and a hard fought third for Taylor Caprara.

THUNDER STOCKS – Jerry Rogers and A.J. StMary started out the race with Gary Sharlow and O.J. White in the second row. The caution came out at lap 2 with Phil Desormaeu’s night coming to an end. Mechanical issues took the 26m to the pits for a second week in a row. Chuck Monica wheeled the 32 car up to the top spot with the 60 of Justin Pope tagging along. Monica spun out on lap 9 and ended up at the top side of turn 2. At the restart, Pope took the advantage as Monica worked his way up through the slower cars. There wasn’t quite enough laps for Monica to make his way to the front spot. Justin Pope would go on to take the win, Monica second and Mike Greenfield took third.

OFFICIAL RESULTS –

NOVICE SPORTSMAN – 1) 6 Matt Brown, 2) 15 Jamie Brown, 3) 76g Skylar Greenfield, 4) 18 Gavin Eisele, 5) 621 Trevor Gibbons, 6) 57h Remington Hamm 7) 0 Joe Wilcox

PRO STREET STOCK – 1) 14r Sid Harmer Jr, 2) 75 Kenny Hartshorn 3) 3 Rick Duskas 4) 3k Shawn Kirby, 5) 690 Sid Harmer Sr, 6) 1x Mike White, 7) 4 Mike Durham, 8) 32 Ryan Shanahan, 9) 55 Kenny Clark, 10) 62 Jonathan Murphy, 11) 28 Burton Ward DNF) 18 Remington Marquette, 83D Dustin Bradley.

358 MODIFIED – 1) 9 Billy Dunn, 2) 10 Josh VanBrocklin 3) r70 Ryan Arbuthnot, 4) 31 Lance Willix, 5) 57 Rylee Gill, 6) 93 Ryan Bartlett, 7) 19 Luke Stewart, 8) 27w Nick Webb, 9) 9j Jordan McCreadie, 10) 39 Tyler Bartlett, DNF) 28 Tyler Meeks, 51 Brady Gill, 24 Brandon Sweet, 2 Zach Aubertine.

SPORTSMAN MODIFIED – 1) 1 Jack Meeks, 2) 34r Kevin Root, 3) 21 Taylor Caprara, 4) 621 Brian Hudson, 5) 38 Zach Sabotka, 6) 415 Andrew Wren, 7) 99r Anthony Rasmussen, 8) 26, Mike Mandigo, 9) 24 Jordan Kelly, 10) 71 Delbert Legrow, 11) 45r Preston Forbes 12) M1 Rick MrCready, 13) 34 Eric Nier, 14) 22 Josh Verne 15) 29j Joel Hall, 16) 2 Chris Thurston, 17) 66w Derek Webb, 18) 5 Amy Holland 19) 30r Dave Rogers, 20) 4x Mike Gadbaw, 21) 60 Jackson Gill, 22) 25 George Sanford, 23) 91 Josh Reome, 24) 57 Anthony Stockman 25) 18 Justin Gadbaw, 26) 72 Mike Prentice, 27) 85 Haiden Burdick, DNS) 30 Hunter Schwander

THUNDER STOCK – 1) 60 Justin Pope, 2) Chuck Monica, 3) 17b Mike Greenfield, 4) 50 Zach Stone 5) 111j AJ St Mary, 6) 61 Jerry Rogers, 7) 4 Jesse Bender 8) 21x  9) 24, 10) 76g O.J. White, DNS) 2s, 5t, 5, 5b, 9

Racing action resumes June 10th at Can-Am with the Eastern Ontario Vintage Stock Car Club making their return to Lafargeville for the first time in the 2017 season. Grandstand opens at 4, racing at 6pm.

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