South Buxton Raceway: August 23, 2008 Report

From Mike Bennett // South Buxton Raceway

SOUTH BUXTON – Chatham's Eric Vanderiviere smoked the field while Rutherford's Chris Van De Wiele smoked the fans as both drivers won their first feature races of the season on Saturday at South Buxton Raceway. Vanderiviere swept all three races, including his first feature win in five years, in the Lube Tech Sport Stocks.

Van De Wiele, meanwhile, treated the cheering fans to a burnout following his first Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modified feature win since last year's season championship race victory.
Blenheim's Andrew Reaume continued his late season dominance with his fourth straight and fifth feature win in the Castrol UMP Late Models while Nate McNally of Charing Cross drove to Victory Lane for the fourth time in the Garage Restaurant Comp 4s.
Vanderiviere started on the outside pole and led the entire 20 laps, but he had his hands full the last half of the race with points leader Louis Clements on his back bumper. "He raced me hard, but he raced me clean," Vanderiviere said of his friend's challenge. It was fun racing with him, that's the way it's supposed to be in this class," he added.

A late caution gave Clements one last chance to take the lead but Vanderiviere kept the door closed the final three laps, including a frantic finish around a lapped car. "I knew I had to protect the bottom, so I actually had to slow down in the corners so I could go faster to hold him off," Vanderiviere said. Clements said he had a couple of opportunities to attempt a pass but decided to play it safe.

"He left the door open a couple of times but I didn't want to push the issue and ruin both our nights," Clements said. "If he had given me a bigger window, I might have tried (to make a pass). "But don't take anything away from Eric … he had a great night, he deserved to win," he said of his Taylor Avenue neighbour, as the two drivers help each other with their cars.

Clements will take a 26-point lead over Vanderiviere into this Saturday's championship night while Chatham's Todd Wellman, who finished third, slipped to third in the standings, 43 points off the lead. It took Van De Wiele almost an entire year to get back to Victory Lane after last year's championship win.
"It's been a tough year," Van De Wiele said. "We've had what, 10 race nights, and we've had four seconds (in features) and five DNFs. We've had broken axels, dead batteries, all kinds of stuff out of our control."

Van De Wiele started in the sixth row and took advantage of some early cautions to move into the top five by lap five. He took the lead with an inside pass of Merlin's Brad McLeod on the seventh lap and led the final 13 circuits.

"We were having a problem with the pickup on restarts, so the cautions were hurting us, but once we got rolling, we were fine," said Van De Wiele, who held off a late challenge from Leamington's Curtis Coulter to end his feature drought. He treated the fans to a burnout, putting the Cornstalk car`s nose against the wall to stir up the dust.

It was actually his second 'dust-up' of the night, as he and Leamington's Paul DeGoey had an interesting post-race battle after the pursuit that almost led to their disqualification. After DeGoey made the winning pass, Van De Wiele tagged the winner, as the two continued to bang into each other for several minutes, much to the crowd's delight.

"It was all in fun, we were in the cars just howling," DeGoey said, as the two had to convince track officials the incident was not in malice. We're always messing with each other," Van De Wiele admitted.  "Did you see the way the fans were screaming? They loved it!"

DeGoey wasn't in such a jovial mood after the feature, however, as he was involved in a four-car pileup on the first lap that ended his night. DeGoey was credited with a 14-place finish as coupled with Coulter's second-place finish, his points lead was reduced from 22 points to five. Reaume said he had to work as hard for Saturday's feature win as he did the previous week when he had to come from the back of the field twice.

He started eighth in Saturday's Rick Haskell Memorial race and was still running mid-pack at the halfway mark. As Chatham's Joe Field and Thamesville's Dale Glassford went door-to-door for the lead, Reaume worked his way up to third on lap 14.  After getting by Glassford, he blew past Field around the 'D' on lap 17 and never looked back.

"I kept getting held up and held up and held up in traffic," Reaume said of his early woes. "I tried to be patient but it wasn't working … it was time to go."

Reaume, who earned his third sweep in the last four weeks, said defending his championship next Saturday is important, "but I want the Shootout, that's still the goal," he said, looking ahead to the Castrol Canadian UMP Late Model Shootout on Sept. 27. Glassford, still looking for his first feature win of the season, settled for his fifth second-place finish of the season, padding his points lead to 40 over Chatham's Brad Authier. Reaume is 59 points off the lead. Chatham's Kirk Hooker finished third, while Authier and Blenheim's Brett Reaume rounded out the top five.

Jason Haskell finished seventh and Greg Haskell 12th in the race named in honour of their father Rick Haskell, a former track worker who passed away in March, 2007, at the age of 52. It only took McNally two laps to move into the top five from his fifth row starting spot, and four laps later he was on the back bumper of leader Denis DeSerrano.

The two traded the lead for four laps before McNally picked up a big break on lap 10. DeSerrano had just taken the lead coming out of turn two when the caution came out, but McNally, who was the leader on the last completed lap, was put back in front and held on for the final five laps. Blenheim's Clinton Van Dyk was third, with Leamington's Brandon Windsor and Kingsville's Norm DeSerrano rounding out the top five.

Points leader Rob Quick saw his bid for a third straight feature win end with mechanical problems. The Cottam driver's misfortune allowed McNally to move to within nine points of the leader with Denis DeSerrano another three points back in third.

South Buxton Raceway
Saturday, Aug. 23 Results
(Includes car number in brackets and driver's hometown)

Castrol UMP Late Models

Rick Haskell Memorial Feature (25 laps)
1. Andrew Reaume (88) Blenheim
2. Dale Glassford (60) Thamesville
3. Kirk Hooker (38) Chatham
4. Brad Authier (1A) Chatham
5. Brett Reaume (77) Blenheim
6. Jim Dale Jr. (00) Shrewsbury
7. Jason Haskell (94) Chatham
8. Mark Glassford (90) Goderich
9. Joe Field (4) Chatham
10. Tom Hazlett (44) Blenheim
11. John Vanderlinden (13X) Chatham
12. Greg Haskell (21) Chatham
13. Don Gordon (33) Chatham
14. Jim Jones (34) Chatham
15. Paul Rivait (11) Tilbury
16. Tim Mackenzie (81) Chatham
17. Gerald Giroux (99) Pain Court

First Heat: 1. A. Reaume; 2. Field; 3. Jones; 4. D. Glassford; 5. Hooker; 6. B. Reaume; 7. Mackenzie; 8. Rivait; 9. Hazlett.
Second Heat: 1. Giroux; 2. Dale Jr.; 3. J. Haskell; 4. Authier; 5. G. Haskell; 6. Vanderlinden; 7. M. Glassford; 8. Gordon.
Heuvelmans/Blenheim Chevrolet Dash For Cash: 1. A. Reaume; 2. Field; 3. D. Glassford; 4. Giroux; 5. Jones; 6. Authier; 7. Dale Jr.; 8. J. Haskell.

Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds

ProMedia Print Feature (20 laps)
1. Chris Van De Wiele (0) Rutherford
2. Curtis Coulter (5) Leamington
3. Jim Dale Jr. (00) Shrewsbury
4. Brad McLeod (43) Merlin
5. Clayton Smith (55) Woodslee
6. Mario Toniolo (25M) Belle River
7. C.J. Field (4) Chatham
8. Dan McIntyre (77) Windsor
9. Brian Speelman (22S) Wyoming
10. Justin Coulter (5C) Leamington
11. Barry Hoffman (50) Ridgetown
12. Mike Demars (75) LaSalle
13. Brian Pfaff (75X) Blenheim
14. Paul DeGoey (1D) Leamington
15. Abe Unger (45) Leamington

First Heat: 1. DeGoey; 2. Dale Jr.; 3. Speelman; 4. Smith; 5. McIntyre; 6. Unger; 7. C. Coulter; 8. Toniolo.
Second Heat: 1. Van De Wiele; 2. McLeod; 3. Field; 4. Hoffman; 5. J. Coulter; 6. Demars; 7. Pfaff.
Pursuit: 1. DeGoey; 2. Van De Wiele; 3. Unger; 4. Dale Jr.; 5. C. Coulter; 6. Smith; 7. Speelman; 8. McIntyre; 9. Demars; 10. Toniolo.

Lube Tech Sport Stocks

Simpson's Fence Feature (20 laps)
1. Eric Vanderiviere (93) Chatham
2. Louis Clements (3) Chatham
3. Todd Wellman (25) Chatham
4. Tiffany Ellis (88) Kingsville
5. Eren Vanderiviere (29) Merlin
6. Chris Sherrah (17S) South Buxton
7. Doris Lajeunesse (38) Essex
8. Gerald Martin (43) Essex
9. Joel Dick (9) Leamington
10. Jim Ellis (32) Kingsville
11. Bob Chapman (5) Leamington
12. Randy McKinlay (14) Chatham
13. Todd Van Hall (06) Merlin
14. Dave Small (48) Windsor
DQ ‑  Paul Gossman (92) Wheatley
DNS ‑ Gary Vyse (99) Wallaceburg
DNS ‑ Rob Young (23) Kingsville

First Heat: 1. Eric Vanderiviere; 2. Dick; 3. Martin; 4. Eren Vanderiviere; 5. Vyse; 6. Wellman; 7. Clements; 8. Lajeunesse; 9. Young.
Second Heat: 1. McKinlay; 2. Chapman; 3. B. Ellis; 4. Sherrah; 5. Van Hall; 6. T. Ellis; 7. Small
Pursuit: 1. Eric Vanderiviere; 2. Clements; 3. B. Ellis; 4. Dick; 5. Eren Vanderiviere; 6. Lajeunesse; 7. Small; 8. T. Ellis; 9. Martin; 10. Wellman.

Garage Restaurant Comp 4s

Garage Restaurant Feature (15 laps)
1. Nate McNally (8) Charing Cross
2. Denis DeSerrano (69) Cottam
3. Clinton Van Dyk (44) Blenheim
4. Brandon Windsor (70) Leamington
5. Norm DeSerrano (96) Kingsville
6. Mechell Van Dyk (88) Blenheim
7. Steve Bastien (99) Harrow
8. Gerry Rivait Jr. (17) Tilbury
9. Shawn Nelson (20) Windsor
10. Kyle Hope (93) Blenheim
11. Shawn Jones (27) Blenheim
12. Rob Quick (18) Cottam
13. Dan Sheehan (52) Tilbury
14. Chris Holman (13) Blenheim
DQ ‑  Jordan Arnel (33) Chatham
DNS ‑ Reid Fenton (737) Blenheim

First Heat: 1. McNally; 2. Quick; 3. D. DeSerrano; 4. Holman; 5. N. DeSerrano; 6. Bastien; 7. Windsor; 8. C. Van Dyk.
Second Heat: 1. Jones; 2. Hope; 3. Nelson; 4. M. Van Dyk; 5. Sheehan; 6. Fenton; 7. Rivait Jr.
Pursuit: 1. Hope; 2. Quick; 3. N. DeSerrano; 4. McNally; 5. C. Van Dyk; 6. Rivait Jr.; 7. Bastien; 8.Windsor; 9. M. Van Dyk