Reaume Wins Fall Shootout

Andrew Reaume made himself feel right at home in his return to South Buxton Raceway on Saturday night.

The Blenheim native started last but stormed through the 18-car field to claim his fourth career Canadian Fall Shootout crown.

“I hope the fans enjoyed that, I had my work cut out for me starting dead last,” Reaume said after collecting the $3,000 first-place prize for winning the Westside Performance Plus UMP Late Model Shootout.

Reaume was relegated to a 10th-row starting position after not taking the green flag in his heat race.

He dodged a bullet on a restart on the first lap when he got on the brakes in time to avoid contact with car that had spun out in front of him.

“After that happened, we knew we had to be patient,” said Reaume.

“Thirty-five laps was a long time to do what we needed to do.”

He methodically worked his way through the field and moved into third on lap 14, but was a half-track behind the leader Dale Glassford, of Ridgetown.

“Once I got to third, I wasn’t in too big of a hurry to get up there because we already had a handful of cautions, it was a pretty safe bet there was another one coming,” he said.

After taking second from Ridgetown’s Jason Haskell, Reaume got the break he needed when the caution waved on lap 23, erasing Glassford’s huge lead.

Reaume got a big run on the high side on the restart to get by Glassford before they hit turn two and immediately pulled away.

Haskell passed Glassford for second with seven laps to go.

A late caution set up a green-white-checkered but Reaume had no problem holding off Haskell and Glassford to take the checkered.

Rob Pietz, of Port Colborne, and Late Model rookie Brad Simpson, of Rodney, rounded out the top five.

“I really wanted to win this badly,” said Reaume, making his first appearance in the Late Models at his home track this season.

“I know Glassford was doing the majority of the winning and I wanted to have a good race with him,” he said of the Late Model track champion.

“And Jason was running real well, I was impressed.”

Glassford won back-to-back season points and championship races and dominated the Late Models by winning 15 of 17 features, including Friday’s prelude to the Shootout.

“No, we’re not disappointed at all, he was just a little better than us,” Glassford said Reaume.

“If we can run fast and up front like that and come away with all of our equipment in one piece, we’re happy,” he said.

Reaume, who has been racing part-time on the Ohio Late Model circuit this season, had Saturday’s date circled on his calender since the spring.

“We like coming out here and supporting the whole deal, it’s just 15 minutes from home, we have a lot of sponsors who want to see us race,” said Reaume, said.

It was his first time back at South Buxton since winning the Sport Stocks feature on May 2.
Glassford and Haskell won the heats.

Leamington’s Joel Dick took the lead with 15 laps to go and led the rest of the way to win the Schinkels’ Gourmet Meats UMP Modified Shootout feature.

He also won Friday’s feature to pocket $2,700 for the weekend.

Dick moved into the lead after a close 20-lap four-car battle with Port Lambton’s Drew Smith, Blenheim’s Brian Speelman and Shrewsbury’s Jim Dale Jr.

Smith and Speelman traded the lead seven times before Dick eventually moved to the front.
“It was good, clean racing,” Dick said of the battle.

“Those guys were battling neck and neck, I decided to wait for a hole, I wasn’t going to move them out of the way.”

Smith held on for second with Dale finishing third. Speelman left with five laps to go while running second, and was credited with a 17th-place finish.

Brent Hole, of New Knoxville, Ohio, and Belle River’s Mario Toniolo, finished fourth and fifth.
Dick and Dale Jr. Won heats, along with Leamington’s Justin Coulter.

Chatham’s Eugene Hoekstra and Toniolo won the ‘B’ mains.

Dick won back-to-back points titles but his bid for a second straight championship race victory on Sept. 20 was foiled by a broken bolt that end his night early.

“It doesn’t really, each week is it’s own deal,” answered Dick when asked if the Shootout twin wins takes away the sting of the championship race, won by Dale Jr.

“But it’s been an awesome year, we had some ups and downs but we really came together as a team,” he said.

New Shootout winners in the Late Models and Modifieds were guaranteed when last year’s winners – Eric Spangler, of Lake City, Mich. and Brian Ruhlman, of Clark Lake, Mich. respectively – opted to race in the United States.

Chatham’s Jake Hooker led all 20 laps of Friday’s Tirecraft Sport Stocks feature on Saturday, his 10th feature win of the season.

Cottam’s Rob Quick also led all 20 laps of Saturday’s Tirecraft Mini-Mods feature.

Justin Martin, of Rodney, won Saturday’s Dowler Karn/Ray Mac Auto Parts Topless Sprints feature and Joe Bares, of Grand Rapids, Mich., won on Friday.