Draper, Power, Verne and a Trio of First-Time Winners Headline Brockville Speedway Action

COLUMN BY: Tim Baltz / BROCKVILLE ONTARIO SPEEDWAY – ONTARIO, CA  –  It was another double feature evening this past Saturday at the Brockville Ontario Speedway. Billings Automotive and a great crowd were on hand and witnessed some great racing in all divisions. The night also included a few first time winners on the year.

The night began with the held over Mini Stock 15 lap feature from June 20th and the man known as “The Captain” Pierre Picard led the race early with veteran Daryl Steele and Christopher Proulx right there with him. A 3 car tangle in turn three slowed the race for the first time on lap 2 bringing out thew caution flag. On the restart it was Picard and Proulx pulling away from the rest of the field with Hayden Brown moving to the number three spot. On lap 8 the great run for Proulx ended with heavy smoke from his car and the caution came back out. On the restart Pierre Picard would pull away to a big lead and would go unchallenged to secure his first win of the season. Hayden Brown, Carl Gorry, Maxx Steele and Jamie Larocque completed the top 5. In the regular scheduled feature Carl Gorry was the man in charge as he took the lead from Tyson Gregory and began to pull away. Gregory had a great car and was able to close back in on Gorry for the lead, while Maxx Steele, Jamie Larocque and Mike Saunders were looking to run them down. Gorry looked strong and appeared to be on his way to the win before the red flag flew for Kyle Gregory, who flipped in turn 1, ending his shot at a top 5 finish. Gregory was uninjured. On the final restart Tyson Gregory and Jamie Larocque gave all they had but Carl Gorry would hold on for his first career Mini Stock win. Tyson Gregory, Jamie Larocque, Dakota Boal and Hayden Brown completed the top 5.

Next up was the held over Novice Sportsman feature from June 13th and the race for the win featured the key players from last weeks event as Rhylan Poole led Garin Thompson and Landon Ryan at the start of the 12 lap event. Poole held a comfortable lead on the slick track but Thompson started to put the pressure on just past the halfway point. As the laps wound down Thompson would get to within two car lengths of the leader, but Rhylan Poole would not be denied, scoring his first career win with Garin Thompson and Landon Ryan completing the podium. In the night cap 12 lap event Landon Ryan was looking to do the same thing Rhylan Poole did in the opening feature, as he jumped out to a commanding lead with Garin Thompson and Rhylan Poole trying to close the gap. Ryan was strong in the final feature for the division and held a solid 4-5 car length lead. Without help of a late race caution Landon Ryan would also march on, unchallenged for his first career feature win. Thompson crossed in 2nd again with Rhylan Poole, Justin Lazore and Nick Cordingly.

The 20 lap Surprenant Truck Shop Crate Sprint Car feature saw defending track champion Josh Verne Jr. lead the way and set a fast pace early with Andrew Hennessy and Rick Wilson tying to stay with him. Verne was the driver to beat all race long and pulled away from the field as Hennessy and Wilson had their battle for second, while Liam and Lee Ladouceur completed the top 5. As the laps clicked off Verne seemed to get faster and not even lapped cars were a problem for the Theresa New York driver, as he continued to build up a big lead. In just his 2nd start of the year, Josh Verne Jr. was the dominant force scoring his first win of the season and 12th of his Brockville Crate Sprint Car career, the most all time. Andrew Hennessy crossed 2nd ahead of Rick Wilson, Liam Ladouceur and Lee Ladouceur.

Defending track champion Tristan Draper led the field to green in the 30 lap DIRTCar 358 Modified feature with Shane Stearns, Melcolm Banks, Chris Raabe and Bobby Herrington completing the early top 5. Draper was able to pull away from the field but the story in the early laps was Melcolm Banks. The second year Modified driver and youngest winner at the speedway at age 12, battled with Shane Stearns early in the event and would move to second and battled points leader Chris Raabe for several laps. Raabe was able to take the runner up spot away from Banks and began to run down the race leader. By lap 15 Draper and Raabe put a big gap between themselves and the rest of the field and a battle ensued, bringing the fans to their feet. Raabe and Draper threw slider after slider at each other at either end of the track. Traffic was just as exciting as they went three wide many times but Draper would somehow keep the lead. On lap 27 the race ended for Chris Raabe, as he clipped an infield tire, breaking the front suspension in turn 3. After a pair of late restarts Tristan Draper was able to fend off the challenges from Lucas Fuller and Lance Willix to secure his third win of the season. Bobby Herrington took over the points lead with a 4th place finish and Kevin Hamel finished a strong 5th.

It was a caution free 25 lap DIRTCar Sportsman feature and Madie Wallace was the car to beat early on as she took the lead from Chris Hale on lap 3. Wallace looked strong in the early laps but Domonick Merkley was on his way to the front, taking second by lap 10 with Jessica Power, Dylan Kirkland and Gavin Eisele completing the top 5. Wallace and Merkley were putting on a fantastic battle for the lead and swapped the top spot for several laps even in lapped traffic. Behind them Jessica Power was looking for room to go and made her way to the third spot. On lap 19 Domonick Merkley would grab the lead with Power charging to the runner up spot ahead of Wallace. At the checkered flag the top 5 crossed the line as Domonick Merkley, Jessica Power, Gavin Eisele, Madie Wallace and Dylan Kirkland. However, Merkley and Eisele were placed at the end of the finishing order for post-race technical infractions. The official top 5 finish on the night saw Jessica Power declared the winner with Madie Wallace, Dylan Kirkland, Shane Pecore and Sylvain Dupuis the top 5.

Next week it’s round 2 for the Ogilvie’s Triple Crown Series for the DIRTCar 358 Modified and DIRTCar Sportsman divisions. Also on the night the Surprenant Truck Shop Crate Sprints will be on the card along with the Street Stocks and Mini Stocks. Stay tuned to our social media and website at brockvillespeedway.com for start times and ticket prices.

To keep up with what’s going on at the speedway, head to our website at brockvillespeedway.com or keep up with us on Facebook, Instagram and “X”. If you can’t make it to the track every week, be sure to add us to your favorites and follow along on My Race Pass. 

DIRTcar 358 Modifieds

A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 17-Tristan Draper[2]; 2. 74-Lucas Fuller[6]; 3. 31-Lance Willix[12]; 4. 88Z-Bobby Herrington[7]; 5. 13-Kevin Hamel[3]; 6. 22S-Shane Stearns[4]; 7. 18-Kalen Draper[9]; 8. M75-Melcolm Banks[1]; 9. 124-Mario Clair[11]; 10. 701-Chris Raabe[5]; 11. 08-Chris Ferguson[8]; 12. 96-Kyle Dingwall[10]

Winged Crate Sprints

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 1V-Josh Verne Jr[1]; 2. 87-Andrew Hennessy[2]; 3. 42W-Rick Wilson[4]; 4. 77-Liam Ladouceur[3]; 5. 51-Lee Ladouceur[5]; 6. M52-Marc Surprenant[6]; 7. 15-April Wilson[8]; 8. 8-Kurtis Connell[7]; 9. 37X-Mark Grant[10]; 10. 92-Adam Turner[9]

Dirt Mini Stocks

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 48-Carl Gorry[2]; 2. 22-Tyson Gregory[1]; 3. 12A-Jamie Larocque[3]; 4. 73-Dakota Boal[7]; 5. 46-Hayden Brown[12]; 6. 30-Marc Dagenais[9]; 7. 64-Terry McClelland[10]; 8. 06J-Jarrod Galway[13]; 9. L29-Landen Slinger[14]; 10. 83-Eric Mallon[11]; 11. 07M-Charles Marchand[19]; 12. 68L-John Lamarche[17]; 13. 97-Dave Watchorn[15]; 14. 67-Maxx Steele[4]; 15. 97X-Kyle Gregory[8]; 16. M16-Mike Saunders[6]; 17. 37-Matt Boal[18]; 18. 86-Richard Bartholomew[21]; 19. 29-Tyson Slinger[20]; 20. (DNS) 24-Clayton Celovsky; 21. (DNS) 66P-Mark Packer; 22. (DNS) 25-Pierre Picard

Dirt Mini Stocks

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 48-Carl Gorry[2]; 2. 22-Tyson Gregory[1]; 3. 12A-Jamie Larocque[3]; 4. 73-Dakota Boal[7]; 5. 46-Hayden Brown[12]; 6. 30-Marc Dagenais[9]; 7. 64-Terry McClelland[10]; 8. 06J-Jarrod Galway[13]; 9. L29-Landen Slinger[14]; 10. 83-Eric Mallon[11]; 11. 07M-Charles Marchand[19]; 12. 68L-John Lamarche[17]; 13. 97-Dave Watchorn[15]; 14. 67-Maxx Steele[4]; 15. 97X-Kyle Gregory[8]; 16. M16-Mike Saunders[6]; 17. 37-Matt Boal[18]; 18. 86-Richard Bartholomew[21]; 19. 29-Tyson Slinger[20]; 20. (DNS) 24-Clayton Celovsky; 21. (DNS) 66P-Mark Packer; 22. (DNS) 25-Pierre Picard

DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds

DIRTcar Sportsman Feature (25 Laps): 1. 52-Jessica Power[7]; 2. 17M-Madie Wallace[1]; 3. 88K-Dylan Kirkland[6]; 4. 0-Shane Pecore[8]; 5. 48D-Sylvain Dupuis[5]; 6. 88L-Jeffrey Lapalme[12]; 7. 18-Jordan Wood[4]; 8. 79-Chris Hale[2]; 9. 28-Matt Mould[10]; 10. 18B-Blake Smith[13]; 11. 5R-Steve Roberts[14]; 12. 20-Nathan Lambert[15]; 13. 39-Cory Lambert[18]; 14. 12K-Patrick Kudrinko[19]; 15. 80D-Damien King[16]; 16. 07T-Tessa Riemersma[17]; 17. (DNS) 23-Michael Dillon; 18. (DQ) 98H-Domonick Merkley[3]; 19. (DQ) 18E-Gavin Eisele[9]

Novice Sportsman from June 13th

A Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 76-Rhylan Poole[2]; 2. 1-Garin Thompson[4]; 3. 17R-Landon Ryan[3]; 4. 99-Cody Washer[7]; 5. 11R-Shawn Reid[1]; 6. FN99-Drake Cartier[6]; 7. (DNS) 58J-Shaun Lafave; 8. (DQ) 8-Nick Cordingley[5]

Dirt Mini Stocks From June 20th

A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 25-Pierre Picard[2]; 2. 46-Hayden Brown[3]; 3. 48-Carl Gorry[10]; 4. 67-Maxx Steele[12]; 5. 12A-Jamie Larocque[11]; 6. 29-Tyson Slinger[8]; 7. 06J-Jarrod Galway[9]; 8. 30-Marc Dagenais[24]; 9. 24-Clayton Celovsky[5]; 10. L29-Landen Slinger[18]; 11. 68L-John Lamarche[23]; 12. 73-Dakota Boal[6]; 13. 76-Daryl Steele[1]; 14. M16-Mike Saunders[14]; 15. 86-Richard Bartholomew[17]; 16. 90-Christopher Proulx[4]; 17. 16R-Ryan Denique[19]; 18. 07M-Charles Marchand[20]; 19. 69-Mathis Larose[22]; 20. (DNS) C41-Valaire Lecuyer; 21. (DNS) 75-Emily Massy; 22. (DNS) 88K-Kathy Pommainville; 23. (DNS) 11S-Steven Quesnel; 24. (DNS) 22R-Eric Roy; 25. (DNS) 20-Cody Sager