By T.J. Buffenbarger
Parker Price-Miller picked up his second career Canadian Sprint Car Nationals victory Saturday night at Ohsweken Speedway. Price-Miller held off multiple challenges by Chuck Hebing and a restart with two laps to go for the $10,000 victory driving for the Hills Racing Team at their home track.
Jonathan Preston and Parker Price-Miller start on the front row for the 35-lap main event and exchanged slide jobs back and forth and allowed Chuck Hebing to slide by into the lead on the opening lap.
The caution flag appeared after the first lap when Coleman Gulick slowed in turn four. Gulick eventually regained power, but not before the caution appeared.
During the restart Preston’s exceptional run at the Nationals came to an end when he started to bounce going into turn three and flipped end over end into the turn three catch fence. Preston emerged from his car under his own power.
Hebing continued to lead after the restart and caught the back of the field five laps into the feature. That gave Price-Miller the opportunity he needed to slide past Hebing for the lead in turns three and four. Max Stambaugh tried to follow Price-Miller through, nearly made contact with Hebing, but Hebing was able to hold onto second.
Price-Miller was held up in slower traffic on lap nine and allowed Hebing to get a look under him, but could not make the pass. Meanwhile former Canadian Nationals champion Sam Hafertepe Jr. worked his way up from the fifth row to take fourth position by Davie Franek right before a debris caution on lap 14.
Hebing continued to challenge Price-Miller unsuccessfully before slipping off turn two on lap 20 and nearly going off the top of the race track, allowing Price-Miller to extend his lead. Hafertepe worked around Stambaugh for third position and Dylan Westbrook followed suit around Stambaugh to enter the top five.
2018 Ohsweken Speedway track champion Westbrook was running strong, but had mechanical issues including a flat tire and slowed off turn four. Jeff Cook slowed on the ensuing restart to bring out another caution, giving Westbrook enough time to make repairs and rejoin the field.
Ove the final 10 laps Hebing started to apply more pressure to Price-Miller when the caution appeared again for Kyle Drum slowing in turn three with a broken front end. Drum did not make the call for the restart.
Hebing continued to challenge Price-Miller until he got into a rough patch in turn two and ended up with some front-end damage, doing a 360 spin in front of the field before coming to a stop in the infield and allowing the feature to remain under green flag conditions.
Price-Miller was pulling away with three laps to go with Hafertepe and Mark Smith in pursuit when the red flag appeared for Jordan Thomas tipping over in turn two. Thomas was able to make the restart following a break in the action for team to refuel due to the number of caution laps.
During the final two lap shootout Price-Miller pulled away while Steve Poirier made a late race charge into the second spot. Poirier ran out of laps to catch Price-Miller as he claimed his second Canadian Sprint Car Nationals title. Poirier held on for second with Smith, Hafertepe, and Franek rounding out the top five.
2018 Canadian Sprint Car Nationals
Ohsweken Speedway
Ohswekent, ONT
Saturday September 15, 2018
Winged 360 Sprint Cars
Qualifying Group A: 1. 47X – Dylan Westbrook, 13.633.
Qualifying Group B: 1, 67X – Parker Price-Miller, 13.701.
Qualifying Group C: 1. 17H – Max Stambaugh, 15.770;
Heat Race #1 (10 Laps): 1. 45 – Chuck Hebing, 2. 15H – Sam Hafertepe Jr, 3. 47X – Dylan Westbrook, 4. 97 – Cory Turner, 5. 87 – Jason Barney, 6. 56V – Billy VanInwegen, 7. 91 – Ryan Turner, 8. 67 – Pete Richardson, 9. 9B – Scott Burk, 10. 15F – Mike Ferrell, 11. 2 – Dave Axton. (First three finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #2 (10 Laps): 1. 23 – Devon Dobie, 2. 28FM – Steve Poirier, 3. 35 – Jared Zimbardi, 4. 77X – Alex Hill, 5. 9 – Steve Lyons, 6. 87X – Shone Evans, 7. 18 – Ryan Susice, 8. 13 – Keith Granholm, 9. 5D – Jacob Dykstra, 10. 1 – Holly Porter, 11. 1C – Ryan Hunsinger. (First three finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #3 (10 Laps): 1. 67X – Parker Price-Miller, 2. 24F – Davie Franek, 3. 85 – Dustin Daggett, 4. 28 – Phil Gressman, 5. 98 – Joe Trenca, 6. 14 – Coleman Gulick, 7. 19K – Paul Kinney, 8. 90 – Matt Tanner, 9. 33 – Danny Varin, 10. 18X – Josh Shantz, 11. 16L – Roger Levesque. (First three finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race 4 (10 Laps): 1. 17X – Mack DeMan, 2. 28P – Jordan Poirier, 3. 55S – Mark Smith, 4. 17 – Jared Horstman, 5. 79 – Jordan Thomas, 6. 10 – Mitch Brown, 7. 1-10 – Jake Brown, 8. 55 – Mike Thorne, 9. 3 – Denny Peebles, 10. 5C – Conor Mahoney, 11. 44 – Barry Dunn. (First three finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #5 (10 Laps): 1. 56 – Dain Naida, 2. 17H – Max Stambaugh, 3. 10C – Jeff Cook, 4. 47 – Kyle Drum, 5. 80 – Chris Steele, 6. 0C – Cole Macdonald, 7. 88C – Chad Miller, 8 28H – Hud Horton, 9. 11 – Jamie Turner, 10. 30 – Scott Goodrich, 11. 15 – Dan Nanticoke. (First three finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #6 (10 Laps): 1. 22p – Jonathan Preston, 2. 14H – Jim Huppunen, 3. 49 – Scott Kreutter, 4. 54 – Steve Hutchinson, 5. 22 – Shawn Sliter, 6. 10H – Kelly Hebing, 7. 121 – Steve Glover, 8. 0 – Mikey Kruchka, 9. 18S – Michael Summers, 10. 53 – Shawn Donath. (First three finishers transferred to the A-Main)
B-Main #1 (12 Laps): 1. 77X – Alex Hill, 2. 87 – Jason Barney, 3. 97 – Cory Turner, 4. 56V – Billy VanInwegen, 5. 18 – Ryan Susice, 6. 9 – Steve Lyons, 7. 1 – Holly Porter, 8. 81 – Ryan Turner, 9. 87X – Shone Evans, 10. 5D – Jacob Dykstra, 11. 67 – Pete Richardson, 12. 13 – Keith Granholm, 13. 2 – Dave Axton, 14. 9B – Scott Burk, 14. 15F – Mike Ferrell. (First two finishers transferred to the A-Main)
B-Main #2 (12 Laps): 1. 79 – Jordan Thomas, 2. 17 – Jared Horstman, 3. 10 – Mitch Brown, 4. 14 – Coleman Gulick, 5. 28 – Phil Gressman, 6. 1-10 – Jake Brown, 7. 98 – Joe Trenca, 8. 3 – Danny Peebles, 9. 19K – Paul Kinney, 10. 33 – Danny Varin, 11. 55 – Mike Thorne, 12. 44 – Barry Dunn, 13. 5C – Conor Mahoney, 14. 18X – Josh Shantz, 15. 90 – Matt Tanner. (First two finishers transferred to the A-Main)
B-Main #3 (12 Laps): 1. 47 – Kyle Drum, 2. 54 – Steve Hutchinson Jr, 3. 28H – Hud Hortaon, 4. 80 – Chris Steele, 5. 22 – Shawn Sliter, 6. 10H – Kelly Hebing, 7. 88C – Chad Miller, 8. 0C – Cole Macdonald, 9. 121 – Steve Glover, 10. 18S – Michael Summers, 11. 11 – Jamie Turner, 0 – Mikey Kruchka. (First two finishers transferred to the A-Main)
A-Main (35 Laps): 1. 67X – Parker Price-Miller, 2. 28FM – Steve Poirier, 3. 55S – Mark Smith, 4. 15H – Sam Hafertepe Jr, 5. 28F – Davie Franek, 6. 49 – Scott Kreuttern, 7. 28P – Jordan Porier, 8. 10 – Mitch Brown, 9. 80 – Chris Steele, 10. 87 – Jason Barney, 11. 56 – Dain Naida, 12. 35 – Jared Zimbardi, 13. 17X – Mack DeMan, 14. 14H – Jim Huppunen, 15. 79 – Jordan Thomas 16. 23 – Devon Dobie, 17. 17 – Jared Horstman, 18. 77X – Alex Hill, 19. 17H – Max Stambaugh, 20. 45 – Chuck Hebing, 21. 47X – Dylan Westbrook, 22. 47 – Kyle Drum, 23. 10C – Jeff Cook, 24. 85 – Dustin Daggett, 25. 28H – Hud Horton, 26. 54 – Steve Hutchinson, 27. 98 – Cory Turner, 28. 14 – Coleman Gulick, 29. 22P – Jonathan Preston, 30. 56V – Billy VanInwegen.