From T.J. Buffenbarger
Ohsweken, ON – (September 16, 2011) — Jamie Collard became the first Ontario driver to win the Ohsweken Shootout Friday night during the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals. Collard managed to avoid disaster when then leader Steve Poirier had mechanical problems when leading and motored on to win the special 10-lap event featuring top drivers from each of the affiliate sanctioning bodies taking place in the Nationals.
“We were fighting with the car last night to make it like the car we destroyed last week. This is a completely to new car, and we had to get the bugs worked out of it,” said Collard. “That was an awesome race, I couldn’t believe when Steve shut it down. I thought we were going to wad it up in the back of him. I have to thank Glenn (Styres) from Ohsweken Speedway, Townline Variety, and Iroquois poker.”
After the outlaw style draw Poirier and 2011 Ohsweken track champion Jim Huppunen ended up on the front row for the 10-lap Ohsweken shootout. Poirier took the lead while Collard and Huppunen battled for second with Huppunen taking the spot. Collard eventually cleared Huppunen for second and set sail after the leader Poirier.
Poirier had the race well in hand as he approached slower traffic with just four laps to go. One lap later Poirier broke a rear end in turn-one and Collard had to take evasive action to avoid crashing into the back of Poirier. From there Collard motored on to win over Huppunen, Ron Blair, Dustin Daggett, and Randy Hannagan.
2011 Ohsweken Shootout (10 Laps): 1. 7x – Jamie Collard, 2. 14H – Jim Huppunen, 3. 35 – Ron Blair, 4. 2m – Dustin Daggett, 5. 22H – Randy Hannagan, 6. 7 – Kyle Moffit, 7. 71 – Travis Cunningham, 8. 17 – Jared Horstman, 9. 51L – Lee Ladouceur, 10. 35 – Jared Zimbardi, 11. 49 – Todd Hoddock, 12. 14 – Kyle Sauder, 13. 32x – Scott Kreuter, 14. 33 – Shawn Donath, 15. 10c – Bob Crawford, 16. 31 – Andy Teunessen, 17. 28fm – Steve Poirier, 18. 45 – Chuck Hebing.