By T.J. Buffenbarger
Ohsweken, ON – (September 12, 2014) – Randy Hannagan and Jared Horstman won feature events during the Night Before the Nationals on Friday night at Ohsweken Speedway. The victories ensured that both drivers will have starting spots in Saturday night’s Canadian Sprint Car Nationals feature event, but will still compete in preliminary events to determine their starting position.
Hannagan and Horstman, who are both regular competitors with the National Racing Alliance, gave the Ohio based group a clean sweep of the Friday night features.
Hannagan jumped into the lead early during the first feature with Alain Bergeron and Hud Horton racing for second. On the lap two Poirier managed to drive by Horton and Daggett into the third spot. Poirier then was working Bergeron for second when they made contact at the end of the front stretch, leaving Poirier with a damaged front axle in front a majority of the field to bring out the caution flag. Poirier was forced pit side.
After a lap four caution for Rick Wilson slowing off turns three and four, Hannagan maintained the top spot while Bergeron and Dustin Daggett raced for second. Daggett took over the positon on lap eight, but Hannagan opened up over a two second advantage. In the later stages Daggett was able to close in when Hannagan encountered slower traffic, but the early lead Hannagan built up was insurmountable on his way to victory. Daggett held on for the runner up spot while Bergeron, Hud Horton, and Jason Barney rounded out the top five.
After Mark Smith scratched from the second feature that allowed Horstman to move up to the front row. Horstman and fellow NRA competitor Max Stambaugh raced side by side for the lead at the start with Horstman taking the advantage. Behind the lead duo Shane Stewart and Paige Polyak were exchanging slide jobs back and forth on each end of the race track for third spot when the caution appeared for Mitch Brown hitting the wall in turn four. Brown’s car had to be towed to the pit area.
Horstman had a great restart to pull away with 10 laps to go. One lap later Horstman’s right wing panel collapsed. While the car loosened up, it did not slow Horstman down as he motored to victory over Stambaugh topped Stewart for the runner up spot by the width of the front tire. Polyak and Jordan Thomas rounded out the top five.
Ryan Hunsinger won the special 20-lap feature for the crate sprint cars.
Night Before the Nationals
Ohsweken Speedway – Ohsweken, ON
Friday September 12, 2014
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps): 1. 17H – Hud Horton, 2. 5M – Brad Malloy, 3. 5D – Dave Dykstra, 4. 14H- Jim Huppunen, 5. 123 – Yan Bilodeau, 6. 89 – Robbie Stillwaggon, 7. 77 – Dain Naida, 8. 25 – Michael Parent, 9. 70 – Jim Lingar, 10. 11 – Jamie Turner. (First five finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps): 1. 10 – Mitch Brown, 2. 6M – Max Stambaugh, 3. 16 – Ryan Ruhl, 4. 67 – Steve Collins, 5. 422 – Etienne Girard, 6. 19 – Cory Turner, 7. 27 – Brad Lamberson, 8. 15AW – April Wilson, 9. 15 – Mike Ferrell. DNS: 7K – Kyle Pitts. (First five finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps): 1. 28fm – Steve Poirier, 2. 8 – Alain Bergeron, 3. 2M – Dustin Daggett, 4. 51 – Bryan Howland, 5. 33K – Kyle Patrick, 6. 5 – Keith Dempster, 7. 49 – Shawn Dancer, 8. 51L – Lee Ladoucer, 9. 10JR – C.J. Jones. (First five finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #4 (8 Laps): 1. 3G – Shane Stewart, 2. 19 – Paige Polyak, 3. 13 – Dylan Swiernik, 4. 00 – Dane Lorenc, 5. 1Z – Jessica Zemken, 6. 36 – Mike Stelter, 7. 71S – Shawn Sliter, 8. 25 – Tyler Graves, 9. 21J – John Burbridge. (First five finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #5 (8 Laps): 1. 22H – Randy Hannagan, 2. 87L – Ryan Linder, 3. 01 – Kyle Fraser, 4. 87 – Jason Barney, 5. 42W – Rick Wilson, 6. 10B – Scott Kreutter, 7. 22 – Jim Porter, 8. 94Z – Stan Zachin, 9. 43 – Scott Sherek, (First five finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #6 (8 Laps): 1. 55 – Mark Smith, 2. 17 – Jared Horstman, 3. 77x – Wayne Johnson, 4. 79 – Jordan Thomas, 5. 75 – Tommy Wickham, 6. 0 – Glenn Styrers, 7. 11C – Chase Ridenour, 8. Connor Mahoney. DNS 49 – Todd Hoddick (First five finishers transferred to the A-Main)
A-Main #1 (15 Laps): 1. 22H – Randy Hannagan, 2. 2M – Dustin Daggett, 3. 8 – Alain Bergeron, 4. 17H – Hud Horton, 5. 87 – Jason Barney, 6. 87L – Ryan Linder, 7. 14H – Jim Huppunen, 8. 51 – Bryan Howland, 9. 5D – Dave Dykstra, 10. 123 – Yan Bilodeau, 11. 5M – Brad Malloy, 12. 42W – Rick Wilson, 13. 33K Kyle Patrick, 14. 28FM – Steve Poirier. DNS: 01 – Kyle Fraser
A-Main #2 (15 Laps): 1. 17 – Jared Horstman, 2. 6M – Max Stambaugh, 3. 3g – Shane Stewart, 4. 19 – Paige Polyak 5. 79 – Jordan Thomas, 6. 16 – Ryan Ruhl, 7. 77x – Wayne Johnson, 8. 1Z – Jesica Zemken, 9. 422 – Etienne Girard, 10. 00 – Dane Lorenc, 11. 67 – Steve Collins, 12. 75 – Tommy Wickham, 13. 13 – Dylan Swiernik, 14. 10 – Mitch Brown. DNS: 55 – Mark Smith
Crate Sprint Feature (20 Laps): 1. 77x – Ryan Hunsinger, 2. 47x – Dylan Westbrook, 3. 55 – Mike Thorne, 4. 68 – Aaron Turkey, 5. 1-10 – Jake Brown, 6. 77 – Alex Hill, 7. 18 – Paul Shantz, 8. 12 – Brad Herron, 9. Mark Czuba, 10. 18x – Davey Boughton, 11. 54 – Ed Green, 12. 5D – Bryan Dykstra, 13. 43K – Kyle Durnin.