9-29 Page 5 | ATD Racing News

Sabraski, Deragon and VandeKamp top night one action at Thunder City’s annual Dirt Track Nationals

THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO (September 25) - Shane Sabraski, Matt Deragon, and Jason VandeKamp were all first-night winners at Thunder City Speedway, as the Thunder Bay-area race track hosted its annual Dirt Track Nationals special Friday and Saturday, September 25-26.

Glen Brown and Michael Shalley brought the field of WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds to the green flag, with Brown the leader of the first lap. Shalley and Hunter Brink fought side by side for second, while Paul Ripley held fourth before Brady McGowan got by for the spot. Garrett Paul did the same to slide into fifth, and then took fourth from McGowan.

Out front the race for the lead became intense, as Shalley pressured Brown and drove by into the top spot with about X laps scored. Farther back, 10th-starter Shane Sabraski and 13th-starter Jason VandeKamp were trying to work their way into the top five. Sabraski drove along the high side past Paull into third about lap X, and took second from Brown a lap later. Ripley and Brown were side by side for fourth, with VandeKamp sitting just outside the top-five in sixth.

Heavy lapped traffic was ahead of Shalley, with backmarkers parked in every lane before the yellow flew in turns three and four for a spun racer.

Shalley led the restart with Sabraski and Paull in hot pursuit. Paull moved to the inside of Shalley, and the duo were side by side for a couple laps as VandeKamp used the low side to drive into third. Sabraski and Vernon were also part of the top five before the caution flew again, this time for debris with seven laps to go.

VandeKamp used the restart to gain momentum along the high side, before tucking into the low lane and moving by Shalley into the lead. Sabraski was third, but putting heavy pressure on Shalley, while Vernon was fourth and Paull slid back to fifth. Another caution flew with three to go for a spun racer in turn four.

VandeKamp led the restart, with Sabraski and Shalley fighting side by side for second, and Vernon and Paull doing the same for fourth. VandeKamp held on in the waning two laps to take the win, while Sabraski used the final lap to secure second for himself. Shalley, Vernon and Paull completed the top five.

The WISSOTA Super Stocks were next on the track, led to the green by Shane Sabraski and Matt Deragon. Deragon immediately pulled away from Sabraski into the top spot, as Tim Johnson took second and Sabraski fell under pressure from Rick Simpson. Curt Myers was fifth. A caution fell for a spun competitor with three laps complete.

Deragon held the lead after feeling a bit of heat from Johnson after the restart. Sabraski was third, under pressure from Myers, who was using the high side. Their back-and-forth battle continued for several turns before Myers was scored in the spot with six complete.

Out front two laps later, Deragon’s lead was a slim .288 of a second. Johnson was second, under heavy pressure from Myers for the spot. Sabraski was fourth, and Rick Simpson was fifth, just ahead of a charging Cole Chernosky.

The top four had really closed in on one another and things were getting interesting before the yellow fell once again and slowed the action.

McFadden had Johnson and Myers breathing down his neck following the restart, with Johnson scoring the lead the next time by. Deragon returned the favor a lap later. Myers was third, with Simpson fourth and Chernosky fighting with Sabraski side by side for fifth.

As Deragon worked away from Myers and Johnson, Myers began to work Johnson to the outside, grabbing the spot with six laps to go. Johnson began to fall back through the field and a yellow fell with five laps to go.

Back under green, Deragon set sail and took the victory ahead of Myers, Simpson, Chernosky and Sabraski in the top five.

Jody Bellefeuille and Shane Sabraski, both in the hunt for the WISSOTA National Championship in the WISSOTA Modifieds, led the field to green for their 30-lapper. Bellefeuille jumped to the high side and grew his advantage the next lap by to .664 of a second ahead of Sabraski, who was using the low side of the track. A caution fell with just two laps complete.

Bellefeuille had a good restart and drove back out to a healthy advantage, with Sabraski second ahead of Danny Young in third. Vernon was fourth ahead of a side-by-side fight for fifth between Mike Anderson and David Simpson.

Out front Sabraski’s low lane moves reeled Bellefeuille back in, and the duo circled the track side by side for several laps before another caution fell and regrouped the field with just seven laps scored.

With the green back out over the track, Bellefeuille had a narrow advantage over a side-by-side battle for second between Sabraski and Vernon. Mike Anderson was fourth and David Simpson was fifth but another caution, this time for Brody Strachan, held the field at a stop-and-go pace.

With the field back underway, Bellefeuille got a bit too high in turn two and that allowed Sabraski by into the lead. Bellefeuille tried to fight back, but hit the rough patches along the low side in turns one and two and had to regroup.

Behind them, Vernon and Anderson raced back and forth for the third spot. With 15 laps completed, Ricky Weiss raced past Anderson into fourth and moved in on Vernon, who held third.

Sabraski began to stretch his lead in the final 10-lap dance to the finish. With seven laps to go the caution fell for Curtis Stieh, who was stalled up against the wall in turn four.

Following the restart Sabraski remained in the lead, ahead of Bellefeuille, Anderson, Vernon and Simpson in the top five. Weiss then drove by Simpson into fourth. Nick Oreskovich came to a stop in turn four after hitting the wall and the yellow came back out, as the field readied for a green-checkered finish.

Sabraski led the ensuing restart and narrowly held off Bellefeuille at the finish. Anderson, Weiss and Vernon completed the top five.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[2]; 2. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[1]; 3. 57-Mike Anderson[8]; 4. 7W-Ricky Weiss[11]; 5. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[3]; 6. 70-David Simpson[5]; 7. 73-Kaden Blaeser[10]; 8. 22S-Cole Spacek[13]; 9. 22-Brandon Copp[6]; 10. 9-Riley Matthews[20]; 11. 27-Scott McKinnon[16]; 12. 8X-Michael Shalley[7]; 13. 7X-Marcus Dunbar[18]; 14. 23T-John Toppozini[19]; 15. 37-Danny Young[4]; 16. 224-Cody Wolkowski[24]; 17. 3H-Keelan Hall[12]; 18. (DNF) 21F-Nick Oreskovich[21]; 19. (DNF) 33C-Cole Chernosky[17]; 20. (DNF) 32C-Curtis Stieh[15]; 21. (DNF) 2C-Dave Cain[23]; 22. (DNF) 4B-Brandon Rehill[14]; 23. (DNF) 95-Brody Strachan[9]; 24. (DNF) 621-Colin Chaschuk[22]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 70-David Simpson[1]; 2. 8X-Michael Shalley[3]; 3. 73-Kaden Blaeser[5]; 4. 2C-Dave Cain[4]; 5. 33C-Cole Chernosky[7]; 6. 9-Riley Matthews[9]; 7. 1-Greg Foglia[2]; 8. 97-Mark Earl[8]; 9. 25-Kathryn Stieh[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[2]; 2. 57-Mike Anderson[3]; 3. 3H-Keelan Hall[1]; 4. 7W-Ricky Weiss[7]; 5. 32C-Curtis Stieh[8]; 6. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[5]; 7. 16-Ryan Savoy[6]; 8. 85-Jeff Davis[4]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 22-Brandon Copp[1]; 2. 37-Danny Young[4]; 3. 4B-Brandon Rehill[3]; 4. 95-Brody Strachan[8]; 5. 12P-Brandon Pelepetz[2]; 6. 40-Tanner Henderson[5]; 7. 4A-Dawson Allen[6]; 8. (DQ) 23T-John Toppozini[7]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Jody Bellefeuille[6]; 2. 7A-Shane Sabraski[7]; 3. 22S-Cole Spacek[2]; 4. 7X-Marcus Dunbar[3]; 5. 27-Scott McKinnon[8]; 6. 621-Colin Chaschuk[4]; 7. 07-Jeremy Britten[1]; 8. 224-Cody Wolkowski[5]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 33C-Cole Chernosky[1]; 2. 23T-John Toppozini[9]; 3. 21F-Nick Oreskovich[4]; 4. 2C-Dave Cain[2]; 5. 16-Ryan Savoy[6]; 6. 07-Jeremy Britten[5]; 7. 12P-Brandon Pelepetz[3]; 8. 97-Mark Earl[8]; 9. (DNF) 85-Jeff Davis[7]

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 7X-Marcus Dunbar[1]; 2. 9-Riley Matthews[2]; 3. 621-Colin Chaschuk[3]; 4. 224-Cody Wolkowski[7]; 5. 40-Tanner Henderson[4]; 6. 25-Kathryn Stieh[8]; 7. 4A-Dawson Allen[6]; 8. (DNF) 1-Greg Foglia[5]

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 27-Matt Deragon[2]; 2. 2M-Curt Myers[4]; 3. 77-Rick Simpson[6]; 4. 33C-Cole Chernosky[8]; 5. 7A-Shane Sabraski[1]; 6. 1JR-Tim Johnson[3]; 7. 26-Kyle Copp[5]; 8. 22R-Nathan Roy[12]; 9. 37A-Danny Young[10]; 10. 25-Dylan Nelson[9]; 11. 12K-DJ Keeler[14]; 12. 33-Austin Niemeyer[11]; 13. 14X-Leslie Leu[19]; 14. 27MC-Scott McKinnon[16]; 15. 24-Joshua Oleksuk[13]; 16. 316-Shawn Polonoski[7]; 17. 19-Larry Both[15]; 18. 36-Tyler Kostecki[17]; 19. 498-Tanner House[21]; 20. 219-Ryan House[22]; 21. 0-Jeremy Britten[18]; 22. 51-Aaron Sacek[23]; 23. (DNF) 37J-John Garrity[20]; 24. (DNF) 207-T J Lynch[24]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 27-Matt Deragon[6]; 2. 77-Rick Simpson[5]; 3. 22R-Nathan Roy[2]; 4. 33C-Cole Chernosky[7]; 5. 19-Larry Both[1]; 6. 12K-DJ Keeler[8]; 7. 498-Tanner House[10]; 8. 207-T J Lynch[4]; 9. 24K-Ryan King[9]; 10. 518-Mike Plas[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 26-Kyle Copp[3]; 2. 1JR-Tim Johnson[7]; 3. 25-Dylan Nelson[4]; 4. 33-Austin Niemeyer[6]; 5. 37A-Danny Young[9]; 6. 14X-Leslie Leu[5]; 7. 0-Jeremy Britten[2]; 8. 219-Ryan House[1]; 9. (DNF) 11-Carrie Allen[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7A-Shane Sabraski[7]; 2. 316-Shawn Polonoski[4]; 3. 2M-Curt Myers[9]; 4. 24-Joshua Oleksuk[1]; 5. 27MC-Scott McKinnon[3]; 6. 36-Tyler Kostecki[5]; 7. 51-Aaron Sacek[8]; 8. (DNF) 37J-John Garrity[2]; 9. (DNF) 17-Don Mitchell[6]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 36-Tyler Kostecki[3]; 2. 0-Jeremy Britten[5]; 3. 14X-Leslie Leu[2]; 4. 37J-John Garrity[10]; 5. 498-Tanner House[1]; 6. 219-Ryan House[6]; 7. 51-Aaron Sacek[4]; 8. 207-T J Lynch[7]; 9. 17-Don Mitchell[11]; 10. 518-Mike Plas[9]; 11. 11-Carrie Allen[12]; 12. 24K-Ryan King[8]

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 16-Jason VandeKamp[13]; 2. 7A-Shane Sabraski[10]; 3. 8X-Michael Shalley[2]; 4. 41-Tyler Vernon[15]; 5. 16X-Garrett Paull[11]; 6. 85-Jamie Davis[9]; 7. 32C-Curtis Stieh[20]; 8. 28-Paul Ripley[4]; 9. 67-Glen Brown[1]; 10. 17M-Matthew Mitchell[6]; 11. 3D-Kevin Monteith[25]; 12. 16S-Ryan Savoy[8]; 13. 7X-Marcus Dunbar[24]; 14. 28J-Brodie Mcgowan[7]; 15. 18-Hunter Brink[3]; 16. 317-Austin Polonoski[21]; 17. 89-Kolby Reed[18]; 18. 6-Joel Macleod[5]; 19. 47-Don Craig[12]; 20. 44-Bryce Melanson[19]; 21. 3DJR-Kyle Monteith[17]; 22. 14C-Colby Petrunak[16]; 23. (DNF) 86EH-Tanner Ulakovic[23]; 24. (DNF) 66-Bill Speak[22]; 25. (DNF) 70-David Simpson[14]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 16-Jason VandeKamp[1]; 2. 41-Tyler Vernon[3]; 3. 86EH-Tanner Ulakovic[4]; 4. 3DJR-Kyle Monteith[7]; 5. 3D-Kevin Monteith[9]; 6. 54-Lance Relf[2]; 7. 723-Wayne deBruin[5]; 8. 5JR-William Milne Jr[8]; 9. 3-Lucas Lazzari[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 67-Glen Brown[7]; 2. 18-Hunter Brink[8]; 3. 2-Dan Tocheri[1]; 4. 47-Don Craig[9]; 5. 26-Paul Hari[5]; 6. 171-Madoc Mulholland[3]; 7. 267-Bill Jeffers[6]; 8. 46B-Addy Beerthuizen[4]; 9. (DNF) 007-Shawn Liddicoat[2]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 17M-Matthew Mitchell[3]; 2. 85-Jamie Davis[5]; 3. 6-Joel Macleod[9]; 4. 14C-Colby Petrunak[8]; 5. 11-Carrie Allen[4]; 6. 20M-Travis MacArthur[2]; 7. 99D-Ben DeFoy[7]; 8. 87E-Emerson Maxwell[1]; 9. (DNS) 99J-John Coppock

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 8X-Michael Shalley[6]; 2. 7A-Shane Sabraski[5]; 3. 16S-Ryan Savoy[8]; 4. 66-Bill Speak[3]; 5. 44X-Douglas Myers[4]; 6. (DNF) 10D-Patrick Davis[7]; 7. (DNF) 57JR-Robert Squitti[2]; 8. (DNF) 03-Jami Oshust[1]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 70-David Simpson[1]; 2. 16X-Garrett Paull[5]; 3. 7X-Marcus Dunbar[4]; 4. 89-Kolby Reed[7]; 5. 32C-Curtis Stieh[8]; 6. 89CH-Jeff Chuchmuch[3]; 7. 11A-Kevin Armstrong[6]; 8. 807-Martin Peck[2]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 28J-Brodie Mcgowan[3]; 2. 28-Paul Ripley[7]; 3. B13-Chris Bretting[4]; 4. 317-Austin Polonoski[5]; 5. 44-Bryce Melanson[2]; 6. 31J-Mike Jacques[1]; 7. 56-Keith LaPlante[6]; 8. (DNF) 27B-Dave DeVente[8]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 3DJR-Kyle Monteith[1]; 2. 317-Austin Polonoski[3]; 3. 87E-Emerson Maxwell[7]; 4. B13-Chris Bretting[2]; 5. 267-Bill Jeffers[6]; 6. 3-Lucas Lazzari[8]; 7. (DNF) 20M-Travis MacArthur[5]; 8. (DNF) 44X-Douglas Myers[4]; 9. (DNS) 27B-Dave DeVente

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 89-Kolby Reed[1]; 2. 66-Bill Speak[3]; 3. 3D-Kevin Monteith[2]; 4. 11A-Kevin Armstrong[6]; 5. 171-Madoc Mulholland[5]; 6. 26-Paul Hari[4]; 7. 807-Martin Peck[7]; 8. 007-Shawn Liddicoat[9]; 9. (DNS) 10D-Patrick Davis

B Feature 3 (12 Laps): 1. 44-Bryce Melanson[3]; 2. 86EH-Tanner Ulakovic[1]; 3. 89CH-Jeff Chuchmuch[5]; 4. 56-Keith LaPlante[6]; 5. 46B-Addy Beerthuizen[7]; 6. 31J-Mike Jacques[4]; 7. (DNS) 2-Dan Tocheri; 8. (DNS) 57JR-Robert Squitti; 9. (DNS) 99J-John Coppock

B Feature 4 (12 Laps): 1. 32C-Curtis Stieh[2]; 2. 7X-Marcus Dunbar[1]; 3. 723-Wayne deBruin[5]; 4. 54-Lance Relf[4]; 5. 11-Carrie Allen[3]; 6. 99D-Ben DeFoy[6]; 7. 03-Jami Oshust[8]; 8. (DNS) 5JR-William Milne Jr

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Kathryn Stieh[4]; 2. 77-Kyle Bolt[6]; 3. 12K-Chase Kivi[1]; 4. 32-Cory Ward[5]; 5. 53T-Sacha Torkkeli[2]; 6. 2B-Jonah Bolt[8]; 7. 50S-Amanda Smith[3]; 8. 21B-Justin Byers[7]; 9. 16-Teagan Britten[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 54X-AJ Kellar[2]; 2. 426-Brendan Makkinga[1]; 3. 19-Paul Krawec[3]; 4. 35-Nathan Henny[5]; 5. 12SB-Scott Gregory[6]; 6. 57-Spencer Smith[7]; 7. 54-Dean Kellar[4]; 8. (DNS) 9E-Cameron Ellis

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Justin Tougas[1]; 2. 9-Sam Williamson[2]; 3. 11-Levi Randt[7]; 4. 88-Steven Hitchman[3]; 5. 24-Andrew Piilo[8]; 6. 17A-David Mitchell[6]; 7. 13S-Mike Stover[4]; 8. 332-Connor Stieh[5]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 17A-David Mitchell[2]; 2. 57-Spencer Smith[1]; 3. 54-Dean Kellar[4]; 4. 13S-Mike Stover[5]; 5. 21B-Justin Byers[7]; 6. 16-Teagan Britten[8]; 7. 50S-Amanda Smith[3]; 8. 332-Connor Stieh[6]; 9. (DNF) 9E-Cameron Ellis[9]