Wins Keep Coming For Glassford

Another Saturday night, another trip to Victory Lane.

But his 12th win in 14 features was a little more meaningful to Ridgetown’s Dale Glassford.

“It’s good to win on these special nights, especially when it’s someone so close to you,” Glassford said after winning the Gord Gotelaer memorial feature in the Westside Performance Plus UMP Late Models for the second year in a row.

It was the second memorial race in honour of the Ridgetown native Gotelaer, the former South Buxton track champion and Hall of Fame who died on May 19, 2013, at the age of 76.

“My brother Mark and I grew up with all of the Gotelaers, we’ve known each other our whole lives, my dad (Wayne) raced with Gord,” said Glassford.

Glassford started in the second row in a race that started with Gotelaer’s widow Shirley waving the green flag.

For the second week in a row, Chatham’s Brad Authier and Glassford battled for the lead in the early laps before the division leader went to the top of the track coming out of turn four and took the lead around the ‘D.’

“We ran pretty tight, he’s a battler and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to get by him,” Glassford said of trailing Authier.

“He drifted up just a little in the corner, just enough of an opening to get my nose in.”

After clearing Authier, Glassford built a half-track lead before a pair of late cautions forced two attempts green-white-checkered finishes.

Glassford held off Chatham’s Jim Jones on the two restarts, while Chatham’s Gregg Haskell, Authier and Ridgetown’s Jason Haskell rounded out the top five.

Glassford, who also won his heat race, padded his lead to 175 points over Jones with the season championship race slated for Sept. 19.

“I appreciate the good luck we’re having, but I’m just going to take it as another race,” Glassford said, looking ahead to the championship race.

“Look at Nick tonight, he had a good starting spot and it didn’t work out for him,” he said of his son.

“The same thing could happen to us, you never know,” Glassford said.

Nick Glassford started on the pole of Saturday’s Autotech Bombers season championship as the points leader but finished 13th.

Glassford was penalized to the back of the field for contact with Kingsville’s James Kelly on lap four while battling for second and wound up in the pits four laps later with a broken transmission.

Windsor’s Jamie Beaulieu went on to win both the championship race and points title.

Blenheim’s Austin Pickering passed Beaulieu for the lead after a restart with five laps to go but drifted coming out of turn two with three laps to go, allowing Beaulieu to regain and keep the lead.

It was the second straight runner-up championship race finish for the 16-year-old Pickering.

Chatham’s George Rock, Port Lambton’s Caleb O’Leary and Merlin’s Cale Johns rounded out the top five.

Chatham’s Jake Hooker led all 20 laps to win his third straight and ninth Tirecraft Sport Stocks feature win of the season. He also won his heat race.

Hooker opened his lead to 53 points over Kingsville’s Rob Young, who finished second, heading into this Saturday’s championship night.

Ruthven’s Brad Bloomfield was third, followed by Chatham’s Eren Vanderiviere and Wallaceburg’s Willy Vyse, who won the other heat race.

Dylan Wolters used a lap car to pass Larry Hart with five laps left in a battle of Kingsville drivers in the Tirecraft Mini-Mods feature.

South Buxton’s Andrew Pfahler finished third and Cottam’s Rob Quick was fourth.

Blenheim’s Kyle Hope led the first six laps before driving to the pits on lap seven while leading.

Hope finished 13th as his division lead over Quick was reduced to 161 points heading into this Saturday’s season championship night.

Clayton Smith, of Taylor, Mich., led the final 18 laps – eight of which were green-flag laps – to win a caution-plagued Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds feature.

Shrewsbury’s Jim Dale Jr., Port Lambton’s Drew Smith, points leader Joel Dick of Leamington and Essex’s Gerald Martin rounded out the top five.

The Modifieds’ championship night is Sept. 19.