PHOTOS: Please find attached photos of Dale Glassford (Car. No. 90) and Jim Dale Jr. (Car No. 00). Photos by James MacDonald/Apex One Photo
Defending series champions Dale Glassford and Jim Dale Jr. made the most of rough track conditions to win feature races on Saturday night at South Buxton Raceway.
Glassford won his second straight and fourth Dover Sanitation UMP Late Model feature of the season while Dale Jr. made his third trip to the Winners’ Circle in the Schinkels’ Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds.
After struggling in the heat race, the Ridgetown native Glassford admitted he was stumped on how to make his No. 60 car better for the feature.
“The track was a little rough and I knew we were not going to last 20 laps going airborne like that,” Glassford said.
He sat out the pursuit to continue working on the car but learned a valuable lesson by watching his older brother Mark win the race.
“Mark had something that worked really good, so we just copied their set up and that’s what won the (feature) race for us,” said the 40-year-old Glassford, crediting his 42-year-old brother.
Glassford started in the third row and move into third place on the first lap.
He took the lead on lap four by passing Chatham’s Gregg Haskell for second in turn two and Wallaceburg’s Mike Lewis for the lead in turn four.
“When those guys slid up, we were in the right spot both times, the door just opened for us,” he said of his passes.
Still, Glassford had to be smooth because of the track conditions and with veteran Kirk Hooker from Chatham running second the final 14 laps.
“I was just hanging on, it was one of the longest races I’ve ever run,” Glassford said.
“You just try to be as smooth as you can. You can go from hero to zero in a second on a track like this.”
The elder Glassford, who resides in Goderich, finished third, while Lewis and Chatham’s Brad Authier rounded out the top five.
Going into Saturday’s action, Glassford and Authier traded two wins and two second-place finishes in the previous four features.
Glassford, who won both the points title and season championship race in 2009, has four wins and seven second-place finishes in 11 feature races this season. He has seven wins and 19 second-place finishes in 32 total races.
Dale Jr., who ran away with the 2009 points race in the UMP Modifieds, had a 101-point lead atop the standings in mid-June this season.
But three blown motors in a five-week span dropped Dale Jr. as low as fourth place in the standings, 122 points behind Merlin’s Brad McLeod two weeks ago.
“It’s over,” Dale Jr. said of his chances for a second straight and seventh career points championship.
Despite wins in Saturday’s feature and heat races, plus a second-place finish in the pursuit, Dale Jr. only managed to shave 29 points off McLeod’s lead to make it an 85-point difference with four race nights to go.
“He has to not start a feature. All he has to do is start every feature and I can’t catch him,” said Dale Jr., who is back in second place in the standings.
McLeod, a seven-time track champion, took advantage of his front-row starting position to take the lead at the drop of the green.
Dale Jr., who started third row inside, powered his way into second place on the second lap.
It took Dale Jr. less than two laps to pass McLeod for the lead and was virtually unchallenged over the final 16 laps to win for his first feature win since May 29.
“It started to spit when we were lining up, so I thought I’d better get up front in a hurry before it really started to rain,” Dale Jr. said.
The rain held off, but there was no holding back the race leader.
“The track was rough, but I found a spot to run and thankfully no one else was running it,” he said.
Rutherford’s Chris Van De Wiele, who was marred in traffic through the first half of the race, gained five positions in two laps to move into second with six laps to go but had nothing for Dale Jr.
Wyoming’s Brian Speelman finished third, with Leamington’s Joel Dick and McLeod rounding out the top five.
Gerald Martin won his first feature race since 2007 in the Windride Transportation Sport Stocks.
The Essex native started on the outside of the front row and led all 20 laps, holding off his stepson Doris Lajeunesse over the final 11 laps.
Wheatley’s Paul Gossmann finished third, followed by Chatham’s Eren Vanderiviere and Essex’s Tiffany Ellis.
Maidstone’s Scott MacKenzie was the hard-luck driver of the race as he twice suffered flat tires while running in second place. He wound up with an eighth-place finish.
Denis DeSerrano of Cottam became a three-time feature winner in the Four Seasons Driver Education Comp 4s, taking the lead from Blenheim's Kyle Hope with less than two laps to go.
Chatham’s Randy McKinlay ran second, followed by Nate McNally of Charing Cross while Hope faded back to a fourth-place finish.
The ASCS Sprints On Dirt return to South Buxton on Saturday, Aug. 21. Gates open at 5:30 p.m. and racing begins at 7 p.m.
By Mike Bennett // South Buxton Raceway
