Sprints Return To South Buxton

South Buxton Raceway already had a first-time Southern Ontario Sprints winner this year.

Could there be a second first-timer this Saturday night?

Brantford’s Mitch Brown certainly hopes so.

The current points leader and winningest driver on the SOS circuit this year will try to improve upon his career-best third-place South Buxton finish on July 5 when the series returns to the 3/8th-mile ‘D’ this Saturday.

Glenn Styres picked up his first career South Buxton victory after 12 years of trying in the SOS’s first southern journey.

St. Thomas’s Justin Martin finished second while Brown beat Tilbury’s Kyle Patrick in a photo finish for fourth.

Brown heads to South Buxton with a slim three-point lead over Styres atop the division standings on the strength of winning all three races at Brighton to date, including the last time the SOS raced on July 12. Brown only had three top-10 finishes in six South Buxton starts before his third-place run in July.

He was eighth in both last August’s SOS feature and the Northern Summer Nationals in June, 2012, and ninth in the Patriots’ Can-Am championship in June 2013.

Martin is third in the SOS standings, 138 points behind Brown, and 39 ahead of fourth-place Warren Mahoney, of Lefroy, and 51 up on fifth-place Chris Jones of Picton.

Fourteen sprints made the trip to South Buxton on July 5, which was the second half of an SOS doubleheader as they raced in the Corr-Pak Challenge a night earlier at Ohsweken. SOS officials are hoping for a bigger car count for this Saturday’s South Buxton trip, as the Corr-Pak series has this Friday off at Ohsweken.

Styres and Brown are flip-flopped in the Corr-Pak standings, as the Ohsweken track owner has a 32-point lead. Patrick is fourth in the Corr-Pak series, 55 points behind Styres. Patrick finished fifth in the July 25 Corr-Pak feature after winning his heat.

His best finish was a second on July 11, when he led the first 19 laps but was passed by Dain Naida, of Tecumseh, Mich., on the final lap. Patrick, the 2003 SOS rookie of the year, picked up his only South Buxton career win in 2005 on the SOS circuit.

Ridgetown’s Adam West, who finished eighth in the July 5 SOS feature, will also be in Saturday’s field.
West is running a partial schedule on the SOS and Corr-Pak series this season. He won a heat race before finishing 10th in the Corr-Pak feature on July 4. West, the SOS season champion in 2005, has two career wins at South Buxton in 2007 and 2009.

Pit Stops

• The Autograph Night scheduled for this week has been moved to Aug. 9 to accommodate the busy race night, as all five of South Buxton’s regular classes will be in action as well.
• Leamington’s Joel Dick holds the biggest division lead as he has a 106-point advantage on Belle River’s Mario Toniolo and 109 points up on Shrewsbury’s Jim Dale Jr. in the Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds. Dick won his ninth feature in the 13-week season last Saturday night.
• Chatham’s Jim Jones takes a 35-point lead over Ridgetown’s Dale Glassford in the Westside Performance Plus UMP Late Models into Saturday’s program.
• Eren Vanderiviere is 44 points ahead of Steve Shaw in a battle of Merlin drivers in the Tirecraft Sport Stocks. Shaw’s feature win last week ties him for the division lead with Vanderiviere with four each.
• Blenheim’s Trevor Jones regained the lead in the Tirecraft Mini-Mods as he has a 14-point lead over Cottam’s Rob Quick, last week’s feature winner. Blenheim’s Brett Hope dropped to third as he was stripped of all points plus his haet and dash wins when his car failed post-race tech inspection. Hope would have had a 50-point lead but instead trails Jones by 43 points.
• Blenheim’s Jeff Schives was six points behind Chatham’s Chris Ellerbeck in the Autotech Bombers standings after the July 12 races but two weeks later has an 85-point lead.
• The grandstand opens at 4:30 p.m. and racing starts at 7 p.m. Special prices are in effect ($20 adults ages 17-59; $15 teens 13-16 and seniors 60-over; $10 children 6-12; free for 5-under.
• The Tilbury Kinsmen will host the beer tent.