THREE DRIVERS RECORD FIRST CAREER FEATURE WINS AT CFS
(Shediac, N.B.) — Craig Ward of Riverview, Tim Layton of Hillsborough and Julie Leblanc of Haute Aboujagane will long remember this past weekend as they each picked up their first career feature wins during Sunday afternoon’s Buyer Flyer points championship stock car racing action at the Centre for Speed (CFS), Atlantic Canada’s Super Speedway and “Metro Moncton’s Playground of Power”.
“Ten long years I’ve been waiting for this, and it sure feels great,” are the first words that came from Craig Ward (#02) as he climbed out of his Ron Arsenault Engines Super Sportsman Monte-Carlo during an interview in victory lane. And Ward sure did it the hard way, battling side-by-side with Bert Cormier (#3) of Bouctouche for most of the 35-lap main event and then, he maintained his composure during two late race restarts to finally taste victory and cross the stripe ahead of Cal Hatfield (#11) of Rothesay and Luc Bourgeois (#88) of Memramcook. Cormier’s day did not end as well as he first lost traction as he was leading the event on lap #33, forcing him to the back
of the pack for the restart only to get caught up in another tussle, causing him to slam backwards in the backstretch wall.
Ward’s win overshadowed a good outing for the 2008 CFS champion, Claude Gaudet (#22) of Grand Barachois who collected wins in both the 10-lap heat and semifinal in the Super Sportsman division.
Tim Layton (#6) of Hillsborough also had an
afternoon to remember as he picked up his first career Streetstock feature win at CFS in the 50-lap Eastern Well Drillers Invitational feature. Layton, the 2008 Riverglade Speedway Streetstock champion, patiently waited for the right opportunity to take the lead by staying step-for-step with Doug MacEwen (#40) of Charlottetown. Then on lap #41, Layton spotted a small opening on the inside and dove in to grab the lead for good with 9 laps to go. At the stripe, Don Marcoux (#27) of St.-Louis-de-Kent edged out MacEwen to finish in second. Layton had earlier notched his first ever win at CFS
in the 10-lap semifinal while 2007 track champion, Rémi Gaudet (#22) of Grand Barachois picked up the first place hardware in the 10-lap heat.
In Mini Stock action, 15-year old rookie Julien Leblanc (#07) of Haute Aboujagane collected his first career feature win in the 35-lap main event crossing the stripe ahead of Mike Edwards (#23) of Riverview and Martin Landry (#00) of Grand Barachois. Landry took some consolation in his two earlier wins in the 10-lap heat and semifinal.
In Four Fun division action, Marcel Goguen of Grande-Digue borrowed Eldon Campbell’s (#17) Guildfords 1991 Honda and promptly drove it to victory lane in the 35-lap feature and the 10-lap heat, while collecting a third-place finish in the semifinal, which was won by Wilfred Simon (#10) of Bouctouche.
The Atlantic Open Wheel (AOW) Modifieds made their first
outing of the 2010 season with Mark Price (#9) of Saint John capturing the win in the wild 35-lap feature race. Price and Ricky Arbeau (#61) of Fredericton battled hard during the first half of the event. On lap #17, Price and Arbeau got together and spun out in front of the field in turn #4 while the defending AOW points champion, Mike Rayburn (#98) of Hampton slid up the track and into the concrete wall to avoid a collision with the co-leaders. Rayburn’s day was done while Arbeau and Price had to restart at the back of the field. The lead would change three times over the second half of the race with both Shelley Stewart (#43) of Emerald, PEI and Ken Deveau (#3) of Saint John leading the field around the CFS oval.
Meanwhile, Price was methodically making his way through the field after his earlier mishap and found himself parked on Deveau’s back bumper. With 7 laps remaining, Price dove down into a small opening on the inside coming out of turn #4 to reclaim the lead and eventually cross the finish line ahead of Deveau and Paul Costain (#64) of Moncton. Price also picked up the win in the first heat, Rayburn was first across the line in the second heat, and Joe Hoyt (#17) of Wassis picked up the win in the 10-lap semifinal.
In the afternoon’s final event, Stéphane Poirier (#79) of St-Louis de Kent bumped and slid his way to the win in the 20-lap ‘Soap Box
Derby’ Thrasher division event.
Racing resumes next Sunday July 4 at 2:00 p.m. with the FERO Super Sportsman 100-lap Invitational as well as championship points racing in the other three divisions of Shediac Sportsman (formerly Street Stocks), Mini Stock and Four Fun divisions. The Atlantic Open Wheel (AOW) Modifieds will also be part of the action in their
second racing event of the 2010 season and first of a five-race mini-series at CFS.
Full schedule details are available at www.centreforspeed.com
About CFS
The CENTRE for Speed (CFS) is a 128-acre motor sports park which includes Atlantic Canada’s largest and fastest 3/8 of a mile stock car oval as its centerpiece. The CENTRE overlooks the Northumberland Strait and is located 5 kilometers east of Shediac’s Parlee Beach on Route #133 in the village of Grand Barachois, New Brunswick.