Saturday night the OSCAAR Outlaw Super Late Model Series were back in action making their second appearance of the season at Peterborough Speedway. The extended length 75 lap feature was action packed as is typical at the tough 1/3 mile bullring, and at the end of the night it was John Fletcher who was first to take the checkered flag in his third feature victory of the year.
This race contained a bit of everything. There was trouble and controversy at the front. There were different tire strategies. There was another impressive rookie story. And there was a scary accident. Polesitter Stu Robinson Jr led the field to the green and paced the field until a lap six spin involving him and Rob Clarke as they battled for the lead. That handed the lead over to Pee Wee Evans who had the measure of the field until lap 65 when he received a black flag from officials who had been keeping an eye on a small fire underneath the car. That handed the lead over to Fletcher who held of a hard charging Al Shepstone, and then Rob Clarke, both who were on much fresher rubber.
The JNE Consulting #61 of John Fletcher started the feature from outside the third row. Through some hard charging in the starting laps and the spin that took out the first and second place cars, by lap six Fletcher found himself sitting in second place. He maintained that position until the #90 of Evans ran into his difficulty. For the final 10 laps he sealed the deal by clocking laps in the 13.9 second bracket as the cars with fresh rubber were banging at the door. “I feel bad for Peewee, this was really his race.”, said Fletcher in victory lane, “He was fast and didn’t make any mistakes. I couldn’t have got by him without spinning him”.
Coming home second was the London Mechanical Plumbing and Heating/JBM Leasing #49 of Rob Clarke. With the trouble early in the race that sent him to the back, Clarke had worked his way back up to the top 5 only to run into more trouble on lap 57. He and Al Shepstone were racing hard for position in lapped traffic when Shepstone made a move that ended up making it 3 wide going into turn one and resulted in a multi-car spin. Being at the back of the pack again, both Clarke and Shepstone pitted along with a host of others for fresh right side rubber. The fresh rubber and some timely cautions definitely helped as ten laps later the #49 machine was up to second place and knocking on Fletchers door.
Clarke applied the pressure for the remaining laps but at Peterborough, catching someone is one thing, passing them is another, and he had to settle for second as the laps had run out. When asked about having to come through the field twice, Clarke was quick to take blame for one of them. “I hated that for Stu there at the beginning of the race. We’ve always raced good together, and I didn’t mean to get into him like that. The second one, I just got pitched on the front straight”.
Taking third was the Shepstone Haulage #15 of Al Shepstone. The #15 car ran up front for most of the night as well, even though it had to come from the back again after the incident with Clarke. The fresh rubber late in the race made for a quick charge back towards the front, and Shepstone brought it home for his fifth podium finish of the season. “I messed up with Rob there, that was my mistake” said Shepstone after the race. “The car was good. I have to thank my crew, and Shepstone Haulage, and I spent quite a bit of time this afternoon with the guy from the #70 car and that helped, so I have to thank him too.”
Rounding out the top five was the Race2way.ca/Rival Office Solutions #22 of Glenn Watson bringing home a fourth place finish after having to come from the back of the field on the lap 57 restart. Fifth place went to the Choko Motorsports/Fast Eddie Racewear #68 of Stu Robinson Jr. who battled from the back of the field twice during the race.
The hardest of all hard luck stories this night had to go to the 7T driver Jeff Dunford who ended up hard on his roof in the middle of turns 1 and 2. Luckily he escaped injury, but no doubt will be sore for a few days. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the 7T machine itself as it appeared to have sustained heavy damage.
Congratulations have to go out to the driver of the #50 car, Tom Cuzzilla Jr. who had driven hard and clean and was up to second place with 10 laps to go. Unfortunately he had to pull off several laps later with apparent mechanical difficulty. The team that had the most work to do on this night was the #99 team of Tim Watson. The #99 machine went hard into the turn one wall in an earlier heat race, but the car was back together for the feature race and was up to speed too, taking home 6th place.
Heat races went to the #20 of Shawn Chenoweth, #22 of Glenn Watson, #49 of Rob Clarke, and #61 of John Fletcher.
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