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We’re past half way in our 2001 season at Flamboro Speedway, and now we are starting to watch the point battles developing in all of our regular divisions. In the Street Stocks, “The Rocket” has soared to the top of the standings again, as last year’s champion Randy Rusnell leads Dave Bennett by less than 70 points. The team of Sean Warren and Gary Slama are is seated third, 133 points back; while the team of Brian Davis and Bill Barfoot is 58 points back of third. The top ten are spread out evenly, but with the new points system that was implemented this year, where only a driver’s best 20 races will count, the standings should tighten up as old finishes are replaced by newer and better ones. But to catch the leader the Street Stocks will have to stop the rocket, because you can’t do much better than a win, which is what Randy Rusnell collected last Saturday night in the Street Stock feature. #14 Jamie Hall finished second, followed by #20 Sean Warren, #95 Kevin Benish, and #11 Manfred Henkel.
In the Thunder Car division, the brother-in-law to Rusnell, and last year’s runner-up in the Street Stock points, Kevin Gallant tops the chart, 46 points ahead of veteran Ray Gowan. Randy Richard is in third, 67 points away from the lead, and the team of Dave Habel and Art Nicholas is still in contention only 99 points out. Rob Disher rounds out the top five, more than a hundred points back of first, but again, with the new system it is still possible for a big shakeup in the standings. Just ask the driver of the #38, Randy Rutherford (10th in points), who won his first feature on August 4th, beating #10 Ray Gowan and #91 Randy Richard to the line. Kevin Gallant finished fourth in the #31, and Jim Ball (8th in points) finished fifth.
Now the Mini Stock points are a little closer than the other classes, after first. Robert Allerellie, driver of the #85, tops the Go Four points by almost 400 points. In recent weeks #17 Jim Hill moved into second, only 21 points above John “Crash” Myers who is currently third. #26 Bryan Sweers 13 points back of Myers, and Ron Larkin Jr. has quickly climbed the ladder to fifth, now only 2 points back of Sweers. There is a 100 point drop to sixth place Bryn Rennie, and then an almost 400 point drop to the seventh place contender Harry Vandenboom. The cars who have raced the majority of the season, consistently finishing top ten, are the cars at the top, while the drop in drivers round out the bottom. As those drivers start to fill in their schedules, and they will if they continue racing consistently for the rest of the season, the gaps will get smaller, and the races tighter. But right now it seems unlikely that anyone will catch the dominant Allerellie, though in recent nights he hasn’t seemed as dominant. As an example, last Saturday the #73 of Ron Larkin Jr. seemed to be on rails as he flew around Flamboro Speedway, pulling away from Allerellie, and went on to win the feature race. Rob Allerellie was forced to be content with second, and #77 Bryn Rennie with third. Jim Hill finished back in fourth, and drop in driver #71 Barry Westman fifth. Bryan Sweers came home with a sixth, and Crash Myers ended his race in seventh. Six of the top seven in that race are in the top six in points, because of consistent finished like that.
In Flamboro King Of The Hill action, Glen Hils returned to defend his Canada Day crown, and once again put his 1988 Honda Prelude in victory lane, this time beating the blue Camaro of Willy Wauner out of corner four and to the line by a bumper.
Now subbing in for the Late Models, who return August
11th for Triple 25’s and whose point standings will be discussed after
that major event, were the Canadian Vintage Modifieds and the Action American
Race Trucks. The trucks, though few, put on a great display of close
racing action, door to door excitement, and proved that Flamboro Speedway
was more than a one groove race track. They ran two and three wide
and they’re the same size or larger than a Late Model. #36 John Nece
won followed by #18 Dave Swartz and #6 Shaun Bergdoll. In the Vintage
Modified feature #47 Nina Ruelens grabbed the lead early, holding on until
the halfway point when #37 David Elliott stole her thunder. Elliott
had been making his way to the front from the back quickly, and used the
high-line to get by Ruelens. A spin in corner one in the closing
laps of the race collected many cars, including #24 Ray Hughes and #7 Doc
Arnold Roper. After the caution the Vintage Mods got into a straight
line, behind Elliott, and finished the race in that formation. #37
David Elliott won the feature race, followed by #82 Rob Parker, #19 John
Karley, #36 Gary Elliott, who came from the rear of the pack, and #38 Doug
Hood rounded out the top five.
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