Joel Dick Continues To Dominate

If you want to talk winning races, Joel Dick will chat it up all day.

If you want to talk points, it will be a short conversation.

“No, not at all,” Dick answered about whether his first South Buxton Raceway points championship is a goal.

“I don’t check them, I don’t look at them,” he said of the points standings.

“Obviously the better you do, the more points you’re going to have, but we just come out here to do our best and try to win as many races as we can,” Dick said.

And all the Leamington driver has done this season is win feature races.

Dick took both checkered flags on double-feature night Saturday and has won all four Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modified features to start the 2014 season.

He led the first 15 laps of the first feature, losing the lead briefly to Shrewsbury’s Jim Dale Jr. after a restart with 10 to go but regained control and led the final five circuits.

In the nightcap, Dick started in the third row but quickly worked his way through the field to take the lead

on lap five and led the rest of the way.

“The team has been doing awesome, we’ve been doing a great job in the shop, in the pits and on the track … it’s all working out so far,” Dick said of his fast start.

“Everything’s going good, so far, we hope to keep this streak going as long as we can,” he said.
Dick, who has won five straight features dating back to last September’s 2013 season championship race, has won 21 feature races since moving up to the Modified class in 2010.

He finished second in the season points standings each of the last three years. Merlin’s Brad McLeod was the runner-up in the first feature and Port Lambton’s Drew Smith in the second. Belle River’s Mario Toniolo finished third in both features and is second in the drivers’ standings, 55 points behind Dick.
Rodney’s Brad Simpson and Dale Jr. finished fourth and fifth in both features.

Meanwhile, two veteran substitute drivers were victorious in their return to South Buxton on Saturday night as Blenheim’s Andrew Reaume won in the Westside Performance Plus UMP Late Models and Chatham’s Tim Mackenzie in the Tirecraft Mini-Mods.

Reaume drove for Chatham’s Erick Walker in a car that he has helped set up the last two seasons.

The two-time track champion, who has been driving on the Ohio late model circuit the last five years, steered Walker’s W05 machine to its first checkered flag in two years in the heat race before taking the second feature. Reaume started in the fourth row and was in second place by lap three before passing Wallaceburg’s Mike Lewis for the lead with seven to go in the 20-lapper.

Lewis held on for second, followed by Ridgetown’s Dale Glassford, Chatham’s Jim Jones and Brad Authier.
Chatham’s Gregg Haskell won the first Late Model feature, holding off Reaume in an early-race battle that left the Blenheim driver with a flat tire … and a little upset.

“The first feature should have been mine (too), somebody else thought otherwise,” said Reaume, who felt he was pinched to the bottom and had a tire cut by Haskell.

“To tell you the truth, I did not know Andrew was in that car,” Haskell said, who learned during his post-race track interview that Reaume was the substitute driver.

“I never saw him once, but I guess we got together and he kind of thought it was my fault … I guess that happens in racing,” Haskell said of the incident.

Glassford, Jones, Authier and Chatham’s Norm Bechard rounded out the top five. It was Reaume’s third straight South Buxton victory as a substitute driver, his previous two coming in Kirk Hooker’s No. 38 in the 2013 Gord DeWael memorial race and 2012 Canadian Fall Shootout.

“Kirk and I will get the 38 back out here a few times this year and I’ll be in it,” said Reaume, whose American career is on hold for the moment.

Mackenzie, who sold his late model two years ago after eight years in the class, drove the No. 0 for Chatham’s John Pinsonneault. Pinsonneault won two heat races in the first three weeks of the season but had no luck in features, with a 15th-place finish, a DNS and a rainout.

Mackenzie finished fourth in Saturday’s first feature before taking the checkered in the second.

“I never thought I was going to do that, not starting at the back on a dry track like that,” Mackenzie said of his victory, as he started in the eighth-row of the 20-car field.
He passed seven cars on the first lap, moved into the top-three by lap six and stalked the leader Kyle Hope for six laps.

With three laps to go, Mackenzie found an opening and took the lead through turns three and four.

“He (Hope) was bobbling going into the turns, so I put that left front right on the berm and almost jumped it,” he said of his winning pass.

Mackenzie had several checkered flags and feature wins in the Comp 4 division from 1998-2004 but Saturday was his first time in the mini-mod style car.

“They’re race cars now instead of grocery carts,” Mackenzie said with a laugh as he compared the machines.
“They’re faster, they’re lighter and they handle better, especially this one,” said Mackenzie, adding he will be behind the wheel of the ‘0’ car at least once a month.

Hope had a good night as he finished third in the first feature and won his heat.

Cottam’s Rob Quick won the first mini-mod feature, taking the lead from Blenheim’s Brett Hope at the midway point of the 20-lapper.

Merlin rivals Steve Shaw and Eren Vanderiviere traded checkered flags and second-place finishes in the Tirecraft Sport Stocks, the second wins of the season for both drivers.

Chatham’s Chris Ellerbeck won the Autotech Bombers feature as Blenheim’s Jeff Schives saw his bid for a fourth straight feature win end with a flat tire while running second midway through.

This coming Saturday will be Autograph Night, as fans will be allowed on the track to meet the drivers. The promotion was moved from this past Saturday to allow for the double features as a result of the previous week’s rainout at intermission.