Glassfords Hope To Continue Reign
Nick Glassford waves the checkered flag after his July 18 Bomber feature win, with his parents Dale and Lori in the background – Photo by James McDonald/ Apex One Photo
Dale Glassford will be going for his 12th feature win of the season when the Westside Performance Plus UMP Late Models run the second Gord Gotelaer memorial race.
Glassford, 45, won last year’s inaugural memorial.
Nick Glassford, 15, will be on the front row of the Autotech Bombers season championship race, as he is the division points leader going into Saturday.
The Late Models, Bombers and the Dowler Karn-RayMac Auto Parts Topless Sprints were the only features run last Saturday before a sudden downpour forced the cancellation of the other three classes.
“These memorial races are always a big deal for us – the Gotelaer, the (Don) Hendricks, the (Gord) DeWael – because these are the guys all of us grew up watching and wanted to be like,” said Dale Glassford.
“We all raise our game and tighten the belts for these,” he said.
Glassford won the Hendricks race in June but the only two features he didn’t win were memorials, as Chatham’s Jim Jones won the third DeWael memorial in July and Gregg Haskell won his father Rick Haskell’s (a former track worker) memorial two weeks ago.
The Gotelaer memorial is special to Glassford, since both hail from the Ridgetown area.
“When there’s special nights like this, it means that much more to win, and especially this one because I’ve known the family my whole life,” said Glassford, who went to school with Gotelaer’s sons Pete and Jeff.
“I was pretty young, but I remember my dad (Wayne) racing against Gord here and at the Ridge,” he added.
Glassford takes a 169-point lead over Chatham’s Jim Jones heading into Saturday, as he takes aim at his second straight and fourth division points championship in the last seven years.
Nick Glassford, meanwhile, was fourth in the Bombers division standings after he picked up his fifth feature win of the season before last Saturday’s program was cut short by rain.
But under the new format, where each driver’s worse two points nights are eliminated, Glassford vaulted from 65 points behind in fourth place to the division lead.
Glassford takes a six-point advantage Windsor’s Jamie Beaulieu, who was the division leader by 15 points leader over Merlin’s Cale Johns before the standings were adjusted.
Drivers will line up by points for the season championship race.
“The top four have been so close all year, this championship race is going to be the best race of the year,” said Glassford, as Johns and Kingsville’s James Kelly also dropped one spot in the standings after the adjustment.
The four have accounted for all 13 feature wins in the class – Glassford five, Beaulieu four, Johns three and Kelly one.
New champions are guaranteed as Blenheim’s Jeff Schives, who won the points and championship race last year, moved up to the Tirecraft Mini-Mods this season.
The Mini-Mod and Tirecraft Sport Stocks run their season championships next Saturday.
Blenheim’s Kyle Hope has a commanding 194-point lead over Cottam’s Rob Quick in the Mini-Mods while Chatham’s Jake Hooker leads the Sport Stocks standings by 47 points over Kingsville’s Rob Young.
The Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds and the Late Models will have their championship night on Sept. 19.
Leamington’s Joel Dick, holds a 161-point lead over Clayton Smith, of Taylor, Mich. in the Modifieds standings.
The grandstand opens at 4:30 p.m. and the green flag falls at 6:30 p.m. In case of a complete rain out, the program will be rescheduled for Sunday, with racing starting at 5 p.m.