Walters and Butler Make It Two In As Many Weeks

by Spencer Lewis  

Some call it a repeat. Some call it a deuce. Some just call it good. Call it what you will, but on Saturday night, two drivers pulled it off.

In the Dominos Pizza Thunder Cars, 'The Cheque Casher' Herb Walters has been the man to beat as of late. Walters had claimed two feature wins in a row, including the $1000 to win Thunder Car Invitational just 7 nights earlier. On this night, his Matt's Rentals #88 was starting on the 5th row, with stout competition in front and behind him. The story within the story of this night, was the early dominance of rookie driver Steve Hart; The Vinyl Kreationz sponsored #98 started pole and held a commanding lead for nearly 25 laps. Hart skated through lapped traffic with ease, however the defensive driving slowed his momentum with each lap, allowing Walters and the #69 of 'The Rockstar' Rob Skyler to pull to his rear bumper. With 5 laps to go, Hart's car began to loosen up, Walters saw the opening created by Hart's poor cornering and motored into the lead down the backstretch with Skyler following suit. From there, it was a battle for second as Hart made every attempt to regain the spot from the #69. At the finish, it was Walters followed by Skyler and Hart. In victory lane, 'The Cheque Casher' attributed his third straight win to setup; 'We had the same setup that we used to win last week.  We bolted on 4 fresh tires, but other than that it was the same. I was hoping to expand my points lead with Mark [ Adams ] taking two weeks off, this is definitely the way to do it. We're here for the championship, and if we can get a couple more wins along the way I'll be happy." Walters went on to thank his crew as well as his family and girlfriend for all their support.

They say good things come to those who wait; Don't believe it? Just ask Doug Butler. The New Lowell ( Ontario ) native waited an entire season to notch his first feature win, and hasn't looked back since. Saturday August 23rd saw Butler 's Nissan 240sx roll off mid pack, a far cry from the inside pole start that Butler used to pick up a win just one week prior. Though Butler found himself wading through slower cars to get to the front, his saving grace remained the same, patience. Meanwhile, pole sitter and defending champion 'Hollywood' Matt Henderson, had used the traffic behind him to jump out to a half straightaway lead before the 1st caution. It was on that restart that Henderson's nagging motor problems may have gotten the better of him; Butler's #10 and the #78 of Jason Martin went to either side of the road runner powerhouse, creating a thrilling 3-wide battle for the top spot. When the dust cleared, it was Martin's Innisfil Overhead Doors sponsored Honda Civic in the lead, with Butler and Henderson following. The turning point of the race came when the leaders came up on the lapped car of perennial contender Bill Gallant; Gallant had spun earlier in the race and joined up at the tail end of the field without a caution being thrown. This placed him in the crosshairs of the leaders. Butler used Martin's inability to put Gallant a lap down to his advantage, passing the leader and going on to grab his third win of the 2008 season. In his post-race interview, Butler admitted he didn't even know he was racing for the lead; "I didn't realize we were battling for first. I saw [Bill Gallant]'s car and thought he was the leader. After we passed him, I just drove as hard as I could. We'll try to follow this up next week with our third win in a row and keep working towards the championship".

Unfortunately for the HF Smith Home Hardware Late Models and Fox's Bakery Four Funs, the skies opened at the conclusion of the Road Runner feature; This forced an early stoppage to our race night, which in turn guaranteed double features for the Late Models and Four Funs this coming Saturday Aug. 30th.