By T.J. Buffenbarger
OHSWEKEN, Ont. (August 16, 2023) – “Never in a million years.”
That was Mike Bowman’s response after being asked if he ever thought he would take home a $30,000 payday sprint car racing by winning four feature events over two nights.
Bowman, from St. Catharines, Ontario, completed a clean sweep of the feature events during the Sit’n Bull Tire Shootout Tuesday night at Ohsweken Speedway winning both the winged crate and 360 sprint car features for the second night in a row.
Early in the night Bowman faced some adversity with a broken front axle just after his first timed lap during hot laps/qualifying, but Bowman’s crew was able to make repairs in time for the 360 sprint car feature.
“We broke that axle going into turn one and I was going at those hay bales so fast I didn’t think I would have a car to race,” said Bowman. “The guys worked hard today. I always say that every time but today they really worked hard. Anyways, I am so pumped!”
In the $10,000 to win Southern Ontario Sprints event Nick Sheridan led the first six laps before Bowman charged from sixth starting position to take the lead. Bowman then had to hold off a charging Stewart Friesen from the fifth starting spot for the victory. Matt Farham from 15th, Lian Martin from 9th, and Cory Turner rounded out the top five.
Friesen afterwards hoped he would get one more shot at Bowman towards the end of the feature.
“Congrats to those guys. We’ve been friends a long time so feel good for them,” said Friesen of his Bowman, who he raced modified with. “I’m bummed about second. It hurts for sure, especially with all the money on the line tonight. We just didn’t fire off fire there and just skated for the first five or six laps and then the tires finally got underneath me we got rolling pretty good but could use the caution maybe? I don’t know. Once we kind of settled out there and pace kind of fell off.”
Bowman took the lead from Jesse Costa on lap 14 of the $5,000 to win Action Sprint Tour crate sprint car feature and drove away from the field, topping Costa by 5.771 seconds at the finish of the 25-lap main event. Matt Billings rounded out the podium.
Sit’n Bull Tire Shootout
Ohsweken Speedway
Ohsweken, Ontario
Tuesday, August 16, 2023
Southern Ontario Sprints
Qualifying Flight A
1. 7-Eric Gledhill, 13.736[5]
2. 45-Nick Sheridan, 13.754[10]
3. 67-Jessica Friesen, 13.768[4]
4. 17X-Cory Turner, 13.777[6]
5. 9-Liam Martin, 13.808[2]
6. 94-Todd Hoddick, 13.928[9]
7. 87X-Shone Evans, 14.026[13]
8. 7NY-Matt Farnham, 14.070[7]
9. 68-Aaron Turkey, 14.120[12]
10. 15-Ryan Turner, 14.207[8]
11. 12DD-Darren Dryden, 14.222[3]
12. 77T-Tyeller Powless, 14.357[11]
13. 19D-Allan Downey, 14.475[15]
14. 70MM-Mack DeMan, 14.627[14]
15. 46-Kevin Pauls, 14.676[1]
Qualifying Flight B
1. 10-Mitch Brown, 14.279[8]
2. 71-Mike Bowman, 14.320[3]
3. 52-Stewart Friesen, 14.367[4]
4. 77J-Jim Huppunen, 14.427[5]
5. 49L-Lucas Smith, 14.518[2]
6. 45H-Chuck Hebing, 14.541[7]
7. 88H-Josh Hansen, 14.608[9]
8. 5-DJ Christie, 14.700[12]
9. 11-Jamie Turner, 14.715[1]
10. 0-Glenn Styres, 14.761[11]
11. 70-Baily Heard, 14.763[6]
12. 1-Holly Porter, 14.785[14]
13. 21-John Burbridge Jr, 15.253[15]
14. 77X-Alex Hill, 15.416[13]
15. 47X-Dylan Westbrook, 15.416[10]
B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 15-Ryan Turner[3]
2. 12DD-Darren Dryden[5]
3. 70-Baily Heard[6]
4. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[14]
5. 77T-Tyeller Powless[7]
6. 1-Holly Porter[8]
7. 0-Glenn Styres[4]
8. 70MM-Mack DeMan[11]
9. 68-Aaron Turkey[1]
10. 46-Kevin Pauls[13]
11. 19D-Allan Downey[9]
12. 21-John Burbridge Jr[10]
13. 77X-Alex Hill[12]
14. 11-Jamie Turner[2]
A-Main (25 Laps)
1. 71-Mike Bowman[6]
2. 52-Stewart Friesen[5]
3. 7NY-Matt Farnham[15]
4. 9-Liam Martin[9]
5. 17X-Cory Turner[3]
6. 5-DJ Christie[16]
7. 12DD-Darren Dryden[18]
8. 45-Nick Sheridan[2]
9. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[20]
10. 67-Jessica Friesen[4]
11. 45H-Chuck Hebing[12]
12. 88H-Josh Hansen[14]
13. 15-Ryan Turner[17]
14. 49L-Lucas Smith[10]
15. 0-Glenn Styres[23]
16. 70-Baily Heard[19]
17. 10-Mitch Brown[1]
18. 7-Eric Gledhill[8]
19. 94-Todd Hoddick[11]
20. 1-Holly Porter[22]
21. 77J-Jim Huppunen[7]
22. 77T-Tyeller Powless[21]
23. 87X-Shone Evans[13]
DNS: 70MM-Mack DeMan
Action Sprint Tour
Qualifying Flight A
1. 71-Mike Bowman, 15.293[11]
2. 52-Jesse Costa, 15.363[5]
3. R52-Matt Billings, 15.459[13]
4. 4-Mack DeMan, 15.479[8]
5. 2S-Al Sleight, 15.768[16]
6. 50LS-Adrian Stahle, 15.810[6]
7. 97-Sheldon Bender, 15.834[4]
8. 20L-Treyten Lapcevich, 15.861[12]
9. 77E-Ashton VanEvery, 15.945[1]
10. 99-Joshua Hill, 15.951[19]
11. 87-Andrew Hennessy, 15.989[7]
12. 28T-Cameron Thomson, 15.997[10]
13. 2-Travis Hofstetter, 16.037[2]
14. 14W-Greg Wilson, 16.097[9]
15. 9C-Brian Nanticoke, 16.337[3]
16. 72-Tanner Podwinski, 16.381[15]
17. 16X-Keegan Baker, 16.513[14]
18. 51-Trevor Young, 16.629[18]
19. 420-Jordan Hill, 16.918[17]
Qualifying Flight B
1. 71C-John Cadman, 16.217[8]
2. 14-Larry Gledhill, 16.243[4]
3. 74-Rob Neely, 16.305[11]
4. 29W-Tyler Ward, 16.398[6]
5. 19-Mathieu Bardier, 16.481[1]
6. 2M-Steve Murdock, 16.488[5]
7. 9-Adam Turner, 16.522[2]
8. 20-Johnny Miller, 16.661[18]
9. 94-Ryan Fraser, 16.664[12]
10. 00-Greg Smulders, 16.770[7]
11. 88-Lance Erskine, 16.871[14]
12. 31-Dale Curran, 16.909[9]
13. 69K-Ken Hamilton, 16.925[13]
14. 4B-Darrell Pelletier, 16.929[17]
15. MK8-Matt Hill, 17.120[10]
16. 24K-Kiana Teal, 17.871[15]
17. 11W-Jeff Earl, 18.918[3]
DNS: 85C-Cam MacKinnon, 18.918
B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 77E-Ashton VanEvery[1]
2. 87-Andrew Hennessy[5]
3. 99-Joshua Hill[3]
4. 28T-Cameron Thomson[7]
5. 88-Lance Erskine[6]
6. 94-Ryan Fraser[2]
7. 2-Travis Hofstetter[9]
8. 16X-Keegan Baker[17]
9. 31-Dale Curran[8]
10. 14W-Greg Wilson[11]
11. 00-Greg Smulders[4]
12. 72-Tanner Podwinski[15]
13. 420-Jordan Hill[21]
14. 9C-Brian Nanticoke[13]
15. 4B-Darrell Pelletier[12]
16. 51-Trevor Young[19]
17. MK8-Matt Hill[14]
18. 24K-Kiana Teal[16]
19. 69K-Ken Hamilton[10]
20. 11W-Jeff Earl[18]
DNS: 85C-Cam MacKinnon
A-Main (25 Laps)
1. 71-Mike Bowman[6]
2. 52-Jesse Costa[1]
3. R52-Matt Billings[2]
4. 4-Mack DeMan[3]
5. 74-Rob Neely[5]
6. 29W-Tyler Ward[4]
7. 97-Sheldon Bender[13]
8. 14-Larry Gledhill[7]
9. 19-Mathieu Bardier[10]
10. 99-Joshua Hill[19]
11. 20-Johnny Miller[16]
12. 20L-Treyten Lapcevich[15]
13. 87-Andrew Hennessy[18]
14. 2S-Al Sleight[9]
15. 28T-Cameron Thomson[20]
16. 77E-Ashton VanEvery[17]
17. 16X-Keegan Baker[24]
18. 2-Travis Hofstetter[23]
19. 88-Lance Erskine[21]
20. 9-Adam Turner[14]
21. 50LS-Adrian Stahle[11]
22. 94-Ryan Fraser[22]
23. 2M-Steve Murdock[12]
24. 71C-John Cadman[8]