Mark Smith and Sam Hafertepe Jr. punched their ticket into Saturday’s finale of the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals by winning the twin 15-lap features on Friday during the Burger Barn Night Before the Nationals. Smith and Hafertepe scored convincing victories that earned them the right to start no further back than the fifth row in Saturday’s $10,000 to win finale.
Feature #1:
Smith started on the front row for first 15-lap main and raced with fellow front row starter Jordan Thomas swapping the lead back and forth until the caution appeared on lap five for a spin. Thomas hung with Smith until the final 1/3 of the race when Smith pulled away for his 15th win of the season.
After not having luck go his way at Ohsweken Smith in the past Smith from Sunbury, Pennsylvania was happy to have a guaranteed starting spot in Saturday’s feature.
“It’s nice to know because there are so many cars here,” Smith said of being locked into the show. “Hopefully we can better that spot and get moved up a couple of rows, but if its no worse than 9th or 10th I’m good with that.”
Smith hopes what they learned on Friday will equate to a victory on Saturday.
“We’ve been coming up here a lot, but have had a lot of bad luck here,” said Smith. “We’ve had some decent finishes, but just want to put a whole night together and maybe pull one of these suckers off.”
Thomas, Parker Price-Miller, Dustin Daggett, and Jared Zimbardi rounded out the top five.
Feature #2:
The second 15-lap main had the appearance of being a showdown between Hafertepe and Chuck Hebing for the lead. After swapping the lead over the first ¾ of a lap the caution flag appeared for a spin by Scott Goodrich.
The second attempt to start the race saw Hafertepe secure the lead for good, using some of the knowledge he gained on the first attempt to start.
“I actually ran the top on purpose because I wanted to see how good the bottom was. I knew if I got the run off two I’d clear him in three and four in the top and I’d go to the bottom if he beat me, and he did but the caution came out and I knew exactly what I wanted to do on the next restart.”
Hebing closed in on a couple of occasions in the middle stages of the main, but not close enough to seriously challenge. Late in the feature Hafertepe opened a sizeable advantage while Hebing had to contend with 2018 Ohsweken track champion Dylan Westbrook. Jonathan Preston and Jordan Poirier rounded out the top five.
While Hafertepe was happy to win on Saturday that was not he end goal while running Friday night’s program.
“The car never hit the track the same every time we went out. I didn’t care about winning the $500, I didn’t care about getting locked in, I wanted to get my race car better. We really did in the feature. We did a really good job with the race car. There are a few more changes I want to make. I think we can be a lot better.”
While Hafertepe can start no worse than the fifth row in Saturday’s finale he was looking to improve his starting spot on Saturday based on the level of competition.
“I want to start on the front row, I don’t want to start 10th,” said Hafertepe. “To have that spot is a comfort, but the guys that are left in the field that still have a shot if we have to come out of row five it’s going to be really hard to win. We’ve got Parker (Price-Miller) in our stable of cars and he’s been fast. You have Dylan Westbrook, Chuck Hebing, so many guys that are able. If you get those guys in the first two or three rows, it’s going to be really hard to track them down.”
Burger Barn Night Before the Nationals
Ohsweken Speedway
Ohsweken, ONT
Friday September 14, 2018
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps): 1. 15H – Sam Hafertepe Jr, 2. 67X – Parker Price-Miller, 3. 87X – Shone Evans, 4. 56N – Dain Naida, 5. 88C – Chad Miller, 6. 55 – Mike Thorne, 7. 19K – Paul Kinney, 8. 1C – Ryan Hunsinger, 9. 10C – Jeff Cook, 10. 21J – John Bubridge Sr. (First five finishers transferred one of the two A-Mains)
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps): 1. 79 – Jordan Thomas, 2. 56V – Billy Vaninwegen, 3. 17X – Mack DeMan, 4. 77X – Alex Hill, 5. 17 – Jared Horstman, 6. 49K – Scott Kreutter, 7. 9 – Steve Lyons, 8. 121 – Steve Glover, 9. 9B – Scott Burk. (First five finishers transferred one of the two A-Mains)
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps): 1. 22 – Shawn Sliter, 2. 28P – Jordan Poirier, 3. 10H – Kelly Hebing, 4. 91 – Ryan Turner, 5. 30 – Scott Goodrich, 6. 18X – Josh Shantz, 7. 5C – Conor Mahoney, 8. 15F – Mike Ferrell, 9. 18S – Michael Summers, 10. 16L – Roger Levesque. (First five finishers transferred one of the two A-Mains)
Heat Race #4 (8 Laps): 1. 45 – Chuck Heving, 2. 85 – Dustin Daggett, 3. 98 – Joe Trenca, 4. 98 – Joe Trenca, 5. 28FM – Steve Poirier, 6. 14H – Jim Huppunen, 7. 14 – Coleman Gullick, 8. 17H – Max Stambaugh, 9. 28H – Hud Horton, 10. 0 – Mikey Kruchka, 11. 10 – Mitch Brown. (First five finishers transferred one of the two A-Mains)
Heat Race #5 (8 Laps): 1. 28F – Davie Franek, 2. 28FM – Steve Poirier, 3. 55S – Mark Smith, 4. 82 – Jared Zimbardi, 5. 2 – Dave Axton, 6. 1-10 – Jake Brown, 7. 87 – Jason Barney, 8. 54JR – Steve Hutchinson Jr, 9. 0C – Cole MacDonald, 10. 3 – Denny Peebels, 11. 15 – Dan Nanitcoke. (First five finishers transferred one of the two A-Mains)
Heat Race #6 (8 Laps): 1. 47X – Dylan Westbrook, 2. 22P – Joanathan Preston, 3. 5D – Jacob Dykstra, 4. 28 – Phil Gressman, 5. 23 – Devon Dobie, 6. 1 – Holly Porter, 7. 13 – Keith Granholm, 8. 47 – Kyle Drum, 9. 44 – Barry Dunn, 10. 53 – Shawn Donath. (First five finishers transferred one of the two A-Mains)
Feature #1 (15 Laps): 1. 55S – Mark Smith, 2. 79 – Jordan Thomas, 3. 67X – Parker Price-Miller, 4. 85 – Dustin Daggett, 5. 82 – Jared Zimbardi, 6. 28F – Steve Poirier, 7. 28F – Davie Franek, 8. 56V – Billy Vaninwegen, 9. 98 – Joe Trenca, 10. 91 – Ryan Turner, 11. 10H – Kelly Hebing, 12. 22 – Shawn Sliter, 13. 28 – Phil Gressman, 14. 88C – Chad Miller, 15. 17X – Mack DeMan.
Feature #2 (15 Laps): 1. 15H – Sam Hafertepe Jr, 2. 47X – Dylan Westbrook, 3. 45 – Chuck Hebing, 4. 22P – Jonathan Preston, 5. 28P – Jordan Poirier, 6. 17 – Jared Horstman, 7. 97 – Cory Turner, 8. 80 – Chris Steele, 9. 77X – Alex Hill, 10. 56N – Dain Naida, 11. 23 – Devon Dobie, 12. 30 – Scott Goodrich, 13. 87X – Shone Evans, 14. 2 – Dave Axton, 15. 5D – Jacob Dystra.