By: OSCAAR Racing
July 20 2018
Taking the lead with just 10 laps on the board, Gary McLean led the rest of the way en route to scoring the OSCAAR Modified feature victory at Kawartha Speedway.
Mark Gordon won the first heat ahead of Luke Gignac, Jeff Showler, Gary Elliott, Duane Cinnamon, Jason Keen, David Balych, Bob Franks, and Rob Di Venanzo.
The second heat featured a quick caution when Josh Gruntz spun off of turn four, backing the car in the wall. Cory Horner took the win ahead of Anthony DiBello, David Balych, Chris Milwain, Chad Strawn, John Baker Jr., Mike Hearty, and Nick Markwell.
The third heat also had a quick caution when Raymond Anthony spun in turn two on Lap 1. Gary McLean picked up the win ahead of Kelly Balson, John Harper, A.J. Emms, Jason Bowden, John Baker Jr., Dan Price, Wally Wilson, and Anthony. Notably, Emms blew his motor as he crossed the finish line.
Come feature time, Anthony DiBello started pole ahead of Jeff Showler, Kelly Balson, John Harper, Dale Reinhart, Mark Gordon, Luke Gignac, Gary McLean, Cory Horner, Gary Elliott, Chris Milwain, John Baker Jr., Jason Bowden, Duane Cinnamon, Chad Strawn, Jason Keen, Jase Cornell, David Balych, Dan Price, Mike Hearty, Bob Franks, Josh Gruntz, Wally Wilson, and Raymond Anthony.
DiBello grabbed the early lead ahead of Balson and Harper, but the caution flew on Lap 1 for Dan Price making contact with the turn two inside wall, ending his feature early. The first attempt at a restart produced the second caution when Di Venanzo spun, collecting Markwell in the process.
The second restart was clean with DiBello and Balson side-by-side for the lead, with Balson grabbing the top spot on Lap 3 as the caution came out. The restart produced the fourth caution, with Mark Gordon and Chris Milwain getting tangled up together in turn three. With 37 laps to go, Balson led DiBello, Showler, Harper, McLean, Reinhart, Harper, Gignac, Bowden, Elliott, Strawn, Baker Jr., Keen, Cinnamon, Balych, and Hearty.
The second attempt at a restart brought forth the fifth caution as Showler spun DiBello in turn four, collecting Bowden and Horner in the process, as Di Venanzo also went for a spin. From this point on, the race officials elected to go with single-file restarts.
Harper got a good restart to take the lead as Balson and McLean battled for second ahead of Reinhart, Gignac, Elliott, and Strawn. The sixth caution then came out on lap 6 for Anthony going around.
Harper got another good restart as McLean moved into second ahead of Balson, Reinhart, Gignac, and Elliott. McLean then got alongside Harper for the lead, taking the top spot on Lap 10. Harper now ran second ahead of Balson, Reinhart, Gignac, Elliott, and Strawn as Baker Jr. and Hearty went side-by-side for eighth. Hearty got the spot on Lap 12, bringing Horner through with him.
The shifting of positions continued as Strawn would pass Elliott on Lap 14 to move up into sixth, bumping Elliott back to seventh ahead of Harper, Hearty, Baker Jr., Showler, Cornell, Keen, Gruntz, and Di Venanzo. Keen would get alongside Cornell for 12th at Lap 19, as both Harper and Hearty got by Elliott a lap later.
The rest of the race saw the leaders run single-file for the most part as they navigated lap traffic with Gary McLean picking up the win ahead of John Harper, Kelly Balson, Dale Reinhart, Luke Gignac, Chad Strawn, Jase Cornell, Cory Horner, Mike Hearty, Gary Elliott, Jeff Showler, John Baker Jr., Rob Di Venanzo, Jason Keen, David Balych, Raymond Anthony, Wally Wilson, Josh Gruntz, Duane Cinnamon, Bob Franks, Anthony DiBello, Jason Bowden, Chris Milwain, Mark Gordon, Nick Markwell, Dan Price, and A.J. Emms.
The next race for the OSCAAR Modifieds is at Flamboro Speedway on July 28.
Fans are encouraged to check out the OSCAAR website at http://www.oscaar.ca, while following the series across social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.