Kevin Cornelius scores first career OSCAAR Super Late Model feature victory at Barrie Speedway

The final 10 laps of the OSCAAR Super Late Model feature can be described as only one word – amazing. Kevin Cornelius and Andrew Gresel would trade the lead back and forth, battling side-by-side till the end with Cornelius grabbing the victory. For Cornelius, it marks his first career OSCAAR Super Late Model feature victory.

“Man, I wanted this so bad for the guys,” Cornelius said in victory lane. “These guys put in such a effort. I’d put them up against anybody. I’m pumped for them.”

Cornelius kicked off the night in victory lane by winning the first heat ahead of Gresel, Dave Doucette, Jesse Kennedy, Tyler Hawn and Brent McLean.

After suffering mechanical fortunes the first two weeks, Corey Jones won the second heat ahead of Glenn Watson, Rob Poole, Rudy Oppersma, Mike Beyore and Kelly Balson.

Cornelius went for the daily double ahead of Gresel, Kennedy, Doucette and Hawn.

Rob Poole would win the final heat ahead of Watson, Jones, Beyore, Balson and Oppersma.

Come feature time, it’d be Jesse Kennedy starting on the pole ahead of Dave Doucette, Rob Poole, Glenn Watson, Corey Jones, Andrew Gresel, Kevin Cornelius, Mike Beyore, Tyler Hawn, Rudy Oppersma, Kelly Balson and Brent McLean.

Kennedy would grab the lead on the drop of the green behind the wheel of his No. 10 Cameron Crane and Riggers Ltd – London, Bev’s Auto & Smoke Shop – Oneida, Quality Collision and Auto Body – London, and GRE Super Late Model while Doucette and Poole battled for second. Poole would clear Doucette to take the spot, bringing Watson and Gresel with him as Doucette dropped back to fifth. Jones ran solidly in sixth at lap four ahead of Beyore, Cornelius, Oppersma and Hawn. Cornelius began his charge, passing Beyore for seventh at lap six.

Unfortunately, Glenn Watson ran into some bad luck for the second straight week in a row as he would pull his car behind the wall with mechanical issues.

At the front, Gresel would catch Poole, getting alongside him at lap 10 for second, clearing him at lap 11. Gresel then jumped to the inside of Kennedy on lap 11, clearing him on lap 12 to put the No. 81 Sauble Falls Tent & Trailer Park, London Recreational, Canadian Union of Skilled Workers, HY-Grade Roofing, Have1.com and Raden Givari of eHomes Super Late Model out front of the field. Kennedy would hold down the second spot as Poole battled with Cornelius for third. Cornelius would clear Poole on lap 18 to move into the top three. Behind them, Doucette ran a solid fifth followed by Jones, Beyore, Balson, Oppersma and Hawn. Cornelius would then pass Kennedy to move into second on lap 22 to begin to try and chase down Gresel for the lead.

The leaders would get into heavy lap traffic in the process, and while battling for third, Kennedy and Poole would get caught behind the lap car of Hawn. The battle took an ugly turn as slight contact from Poole would send Kennedy for a spin to bring out the caution at lap 31. Hawn would pull his machine behind the wall as issues with the shifter caused the bulk of problems in his 2014 season debut. With 19 laps to go, Gresel led Cornelius, Doucette, Jones, Balson, Beyore, Kennedy, Poole and Oppersma.

On the restart, Gresel and Cornelius would battle side-by-side back and forth for the lead till the caution flew once again as Poole had a flat tire in turn four due to a tire rub from the previous contact.

On the second attempt at a restart, Gresel and Cornelius kicked off another round of battling with Cornelius getting the edge on Gresel on lap 38 before the caution flew once again as Poole spun off of turn four.

The final restart with 12 laps to go brought forth another impressive side-by-side battle by Cornelius and Gresel with Cornelius clearing Gresel with two to go. Kevin Cornelius would then hold on the rest of the way, putting his No. 17 Halton Crushed Stone, Lee Sand & Gravel, Sandbox Tech Child Care, TripleCrete Ltd., Hanson Pipe & Precast, Alliston Transmission, Ed’s Automotive and MacMaster Pontiac Buick GMC Super Late Model in victory lane.

Speaking of his charge through the field, Cornelius said, “We usually run one set a night so I was just in conservation mode the first 20, 30 laps trying to save my stuff so we would have something there at the end.”

For Cornelius and the entire KDR Motorsports team, it marks a fresh change of pace following a tough start to the 2014 season. The year started off with blowing the motor in pre-season testing, resulting in having to run a Pro Late for the season opener at Sunset Speedway (finished eighth). Then two weeks ago at Kawartha, Cornelius was running third with four laps to go when the power steering line came loose, resulting a DNF.

After practice, concerns were stemming as the team couldn’t get the car to handle to Cornelius’ liking. However, that thought was erased immediately on the first lap of the first heat.

“We wouldn’t be here without Mike McColl,” he commented. “We were absolutely junk at the end of practice and without having Mike a phone call away to help us out, we wouldn’t be here tonight.”

Andrew Gresel finished second for his second straight top-two finish following his win at Kawartha two weeks ago.

“That’s it – Andrew Gresel, the kid right there can wheel a car,” Cornelius commented. “That makes it easier when you’re racing a guy that you can respect like that and will give you the room to race cleanly. We did touch the odd time, but it was nothing serious and we both carried on. All the credit goes to him for that.”

Kelly Balson rounded out the podium for his best career OSCAAR finish in his third start, followed by Dave Doucette and Mike Beyore. Jesse Kennedy finished sixth, followed by Cory Jones, Rob Poole and Rudy Oppersma.

The OSCAAR Super Late Models are back on track in two weeks at Sunset Speedway for the Don Biederman Memorial.