James Gray Takes No Prisoners At The Beach

For the second race in a row James Gray #82 charged to the front to win the Lucas Can-Am feature at Sauble Beach Speedway.  It was picture perfect weather, a Chamber of Commerce dream forecast.  There was a bonus six race series at the beach sponsored by Grant Slater ’s GRANT IT company for the Midgets only. It is currently being led by Mackereth #43 with one race left .  In the Lucas Oil championship, at this point there are only 18 points between leader Todd Cresswell #3 and Rob Neely #74.

Heat #1

Colin Turnbull #01 has been having problems with his innovative new car. As a result it was slow to go at the green and Balych #12 had to slow up to avoid him and Lucas Smith #94 hit and spun the #12 in corner 2. They both went to the back.  On the restart, Daniel Bois #20 led Rob Neely #74, Darren Barr #00, Craig Mackereth #43 and Lucas Smith #94. Lap 5 Neely passed Daniel Bois and Barr together taking the trio 3 wide going into corner 3.  Lap 8, with Neely still in the lead Lucas Smith got past both Bois #20 and Barr #10 for 2^nd place. Balych had worked his way back to 5^th from 9^th and Dave McIntosh , driving the #40 car was 6^th.

Heat #2

Past champion Craig Mackereth started pole with Alison Macleod #4 2^nd, James Gray #82, third.  Lap 5 Mackereth still led with Gray 2^nd. Darren McLennan #48 and Alison Macleod were running side by side, wheel to wheel, lap after lap. Todd Cresswell #3 and Dan May #7 were coming from the back.  Lap 8 Jeff Riberdy #1 got to 2^nd ahead of Gray and McLennan.

B Feature

The B consisted of a few cars that do not normally need to get into the show from the B. Dan May # 7, Adam Walsh #49, Alison Macleod #4 were among those cars, just proving how competitive this club is.  Dan May #7 ran from the pole to win with Dave McIntosh 2^nd. Lap 4, Earl Caine #69 and Chris Bauman #22 tangled in corner 2.  Bauman joined the upside down club for the first time.  No injuries.

May maintained a big lead with McIntosh and Macleod so close a blanket could cover them.

A Main

Craig Mackereth #43 and Daniel Bois #20 led the pack for the start of 25 laps pf pure racing.  Lap 3, Dan May #7 got pushed up by traffic he was lapping.  As a result he spun in the marbles into the path of former champion #49 who had struggles all night in his state of the art new car.  Neither could continue the race.  On the lap 4 restart, it was Mackereth #43, Bois #20, Balych #12, Neely #74, McLennan #48, Gray #82 and Cresswell #3.  Gray advanced to 3^rd then to 2^nd the next lap.  Gray completed his quest for the lead on lap 12. By lap 16 he was in a different time zone.  Lucas Smith raced to 5th by lap 20.  Lap 24 Jeff Riberdy passed Balych #12, who was having a good strong run, for 3^rd.  Gray took the checkers for the first race of a double header weekend with Craig Mackereth 2^nd, adding to his lead in the GRANT IT sub-series.  Rob Neely and points leader Cresswell were 6^th and 7^th respectively, with Neely gaining only 3 points on Cresswell.