‘Mr. White Walls’ and ‘The Cheque Casher’ Show
Capacity Crowd
How It’s Done At SunsetBy
Spencer Lewis
Beautiful weather and a large crowd showed up
for Sunset Speedway’s first ever running of the OSCAAR Don Biederman
Memorial. The race itself was in its 11th year, and 20 of the
fastest Super Late Models in the province were on hand to compete.
Sunset Speedway’s own Mini Stock and Thunder Car
classes were also on hand, with near season high car counts in both
divisions.
The Mini Stocks were first on the bill for
feature action, and Holland Landing, ON’s Trevor Clubine wasted little time
in making his presence felt. Clubine’s Mitsubishi took its maiden voyage
only one week prior, but after starting on the front row, found itself with
a sizeable lead after only a handful of laps complete.
Due to Sunset Speedway’s inversion process, many
of the perennially dominant cars were forced to work their way through
traffic from the rear of the 30-car field. This group included highly-touted
prospect ‘Mr. White Walls’ Nick Brown (No. 48 Brown Brothers Roofing/Slimlite
Skylights Honda) and explosive rookie Paul Geniole Jr. (No. 81 Canadian
Tire of Port Perry/Priggen Automotive Honda).
As the pack jostled for position behind him,
Clubine worked feverishly to put more asphalt between himself and second
place Dan ‘The Bandit’ Britt of Midhurst, ON. In the meantime, Brown and
Geniole found themselves picking up positions, using the first and second
grooves of the speedway.
Just short of the half way mark it appeared luck
had run out for Clubine, as Nick Brown, who appeared to be the fastest car
on the speedway made his way past on the outside. Clubine would find himself
shoved outside of the top-5 within laps, as Britt, Geniole, Doug Butler and
Warren Paxton soon followed.
Brown would speed away, leading by as much as a
straightaway at times, while leaving a trail of lapped cars in his wake. The
top-3 at the finish were ‘Mr. White Walls’, Dan Britt and Paul Geniole Jr.
In victory lane, the rising star would admit
it’s taken quite a bit of work for him to get back to the same winning ways
he experienced in 2007. “We’ve had a hard time coming back. We got wrecked a
couple of times last week, and still haven’t really figured it out. I didn’t
really have a choice on where to pass there, [Trevor] wasn’t about to give
me the inside so I had to make it work up top.”
In 2008, Stroud, ON driver Herb Walters made
Sunset Speedway his own personal playground. One month into the 2009
schedule and it appears as though ‘The Cheque Casher’ is looking for a
repeat.
July 4th saw the 2008 Thunder Car
champion start mid-pack in the 20+ car field that included many cars
sporting various war wounds following a 7-car pileup in a heat race
qualifier.
Barrie, ON’s Joe Thurston was one of those
affected drivers, starting the 30-lap affair free of sheet metal from the
doors to the front bumper. Utilizing his pole starting position, the Sunset
veteran took the lead early on, leaving a litany of cars to trade paint and
vinyl for second.
Two drivers doing just that were Walters and
first-year Sunset Speedway driver Brian Murray of Alliston, ON. The two were
coming off of a spirited battle in their qualifier which saw Walters edge
Murray at the line for the win, with Murray now trying to even the score.
As the laps began to tick away, Thurston’s once
feverish pace waned, allowing for both Walters and Murray to slip by;
Continuing their crowd-pleasing, fender banging battle, now for the lead.
While Murray looked quick on the inside, Walters, a self-proclaimed “big
fan” of Sunset’s outer groove continued to gain speed using the lane less
travelled.
‘The Cheque Casher’ would use that lane to
finally clear Murray. Running the remainder of the feature unchallenged, en
route to picking up his 2nd feature win of the young 2009 season.
“The track was pretty good tonight. That outside
groove was good to me again. We didn’t really come in to 2009 looking for a
championship, but if things keep going our way, why not try to snag a second
one?” laughed the charismatic veteran. “It took a little patience in behind
that traffic. But we’ve seen what happens in recent weeks when you use your
bumper, and we really want no part of that. As long as you stay patient,
stay relaxed and run your line. You’ll be fine here”