What. A. Night!

Saturday night the Young Driver's Canadian Vintage Modifieds headed out to Flamboro Speedway for night #3 of the 2022 season. The night got off pretty good with 11 teams making the haul this week to the 1/3 mile oval located just outside Hamilton Ontario. Connor Ross who sharing a ride with his dad Adam and their crew chief Rob Twitchett got his turn behind the wheel of the #44 this week for his first start of 2022 as well as John Karley making his 2022 debut after a long off season full of changes for the #19 machine.

The teams hit the track for practice to shake down their cars and with the warm weather the track was looking to to be quite slick as drivers were putting down quick times getting ready for the first feature of the night. Ricky Willigar topped first practice with a time 16.372 and T.J Marshall setting the pace in practice two with a 16.456. Problems happened early for the #42 of Steve Murdoch as he broke the right front tie rod and was able to get slowed down enough to not cause more damage and get it back to the pits to repair before the first feature.

For the first feature it was the #17 of Joe Arsenault leading the field to green with the #14 of Scott Tonelli starting to his outside. As they dove down into turn one the field got through cleanly as they all started fighting for the top spot in the first of two 25 lap races on the night. Once the dust settled the #8 of Ricky Willigar took the top spot away from Joe Arsenault. As the field continued to battle it wasn't long till the #15 of T.J Marshall made his way into second place then it was a race to see if Marshall could get to the back bumper of the #8 of Willigar. Behind them the field was still battling between Podd, Rutherford, Quintin Murdoch and Steve Murdoch to settle third through seven. When the checkered flag flew it was Ricky Willigar collecting his first victory with the club since August of 2020. T.J Marshall finished a very close second with Mike Podd rounding out the podium.

After the intermission the teams were getting prepared for the second feature of the night. This time it was the #42 of Steve Murdoch and Scott Tonelli starting on the front row for feature #2. On the start of the green flag the field got through turns one and two but disaster struck in turns three and four as Tonelli and Arsenault make contact spinning the #17 sideways with everyone checking up and avoiding the #8 of Willigar caught the tires of Arsenault sending him sliding making slight contact with the outside wall in turn four. Quintin Murdoch was the unfortunate soul as it appeared he got help from behind ending up breaking a left front brake line ending his night. We racked them once again and this time it was Steve Murdoch jumping out to an early lead but Rodney Rutherford was not letting him get away. Mike Podd joined the train up front with Scott Tonelli, T.J Marshall and Ricky Willigar in tow before Marshall made the pass on Tonelli to slide him back to fifth. In the closing laps Rutherford, Podd and Marshall had nothing for the elder Murdoch as Steve Murdoch collected his first career Young Driver's Canadian Vintage Modified Feature Win. Rodney Rutherford comes home with his best finish of the season and Mike Podd rounding out the top three.

Overall the night was a good one with lots of hard battles making it one of the best races of the season so far. Next week is an off week for the teams and drivers as we prepare to go into a four week stretch of racing. Our next race is June 11th at Flamboro Speedway. Gates open at 4:00pm, grandstands open at 5:00pm and racing getting underway at 6:30pm. It's going to be a great night of racing!

Feature #1 Finishing Order:

1) #8 Ricky Willigar

2) #15 T.J Marshall

3) #5 Mike Podd

4) #7 Quintin Murdoch

5) #24 Rodney Rutherford

6) #17 Joe Arseanult

7) #14 Scott Tonelli

8) #42 Steve Murdoch

9) #43 Jae Pepin

10) #19 John Karley

11) #44 Connor Ross

Feature #2 Finishing Order:

1) #42 Steve Murdoch

2) #24 Rodney Rutherford

3) #5 Mike Podd

4) #15 T.J Marshall

5) #14 Scott Tonelli

6) #8 Ricky Willigar

7) #44 Connor Ross

8) #43 Jae Pepin

9) #17 Joe Arsenault

10) #19 John Karley

11) #7 Quintin Murdoch