Unbreakable Glassford

Not that he’s greedy, but Dale Glassford wants to win the next two races even more than his first four victories.

The Ridgetown driver remains perfect in feature races in 2015 as he picked up his fourth straight checkered flag on Saturday night in the Westside Performance Plus UMP Late Models at South Buxton Raceway.

“I’ve never had a start like this, I’m almost afraid to wash the car,” said Glassford, smiling at his good fortune through the first four race nights.

Putting together long win streaks is nothing new for Glassford, who won five straight features and seven of eight during a two-month stretch in 2013.

“The odds are, one of these nights, somebody’s going to have a fast car and I won’t be able catch them,” he said.

The Late Models will run memorial the races the next two Saturday nights – the Don Hendricks memorial this coming Saturday and the second Gord Gotelaer memorial on June 28 in honour of the former Ridgetown driver.

Glassford won the inaugural Gotelaer memorial last June.

“I’m hoping I’m not using these (wins) up because those memorial races are always special nights,” said Glassford.

“I knew these drivers and I know the families real well. I’ll put my game face on even tighter those nights … but everyone else will pick up there games too,” Glassford said.

The reigning series champion started in the second row of Saturday’s feature and needed just four laps to get around Chatham’s Jim Jones around the top side of the track. Glassford got a run going into turn three, carried the momentum around the front stretch and took the lead for good going into turn one.

“This car worked great on the outside, you don’t see me up there too often,” Glassford said.
Glassford built a good lead until a pair of cautions on laps 11 and 12 allowed the field to close the gap.

He chose the high side for the restarts and was able to hold off Chatham’s Brad Authier both times.

“He had one really good start, I might have been asleep because he got going,” he said of Authier.

“But I got a run on the outside and I knew coming off the corner the car would just pick up and go.

“ I knew if I slipped up and he could have slid in front of me, it would have been game over.”
Authier finished second, followed by Jones, Mike Dale and Jim Dale Jr. Glassford finished second to Authier in his heat.

Meanwhile, a pair of 15-year-old drivers earned their first career feature wins.

A pair of 15-year-old drivers stole the show at South Buxton Raceway on Saturday night.

Kingsville’s Dylan Wolters led all 20 laps for his first Tirecraft Mini-Mods feature victory while Merlin’s Cale Johns led 14 of 15 laps to win his first Autotech Bombers feature.

Wolters led from the drop of the green and built a comfortable lead until the first caution on lap 13 gave Kingsville’s Rob Quick – last week’s feature winner – the chance get back in the race.

But the young Wolters was able to hold off the veteran Quick over the final seven laps to post his first career feature win and nightly sweep, as he won his heat earlier in the night.
Blenheim’s Kyle Hope, Dresden’s Matt Sorrell and Kingsville’s Larry Hart rounded out the top five.

Johns gave up the Bombers’ feature lead to Kingsville’s James Kelly briefly on lap three but quickly regained the lead and never looked back.

Windsor’s Jamie Beaulieu finished second, followed by Chatham’s Chris Rock, Kelly and Ridgetown’s Nick Glassford.

Steve Shaw of Merlin won his first feature of the season in the Tirecraft Sport Stocks, taking the lead from Ruthven’s Brad Bloomfield on lap five, and held off a strong challenge from Kingsville’s Rob Young.

Chatham’s Jake Hooker made some late lap passes to finished second, followed by Young, Wallaceburg’s Willy Vyse and Essex’s Dillon Moody. Bloomfield’s third-place finish was wiped out when he failed to report to the weigh scales after the race.

Leamington’s Joel Dick led all 20 laps for his third straight Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds feature win.

Belle River’s Mario Toniolo finished second, followed by Cottam’s Denis DeSerrano, Taylor, MIch.’s Clayton Smith and Port Lambton’s Drew Smith.

Races at South Buxton start at 6:30 p.m. for the remainder of the season. Saturday rain outs will be made up on Sundays beginning at 5 p.m.