ST: Butler, Smith, Kamrath take PS heats; Woodley takes b-main as Reynolds rains out

On Saturday night at Barrie Speedway, the track officials would try and get in a full night of racing with multiple attempts at drying the track, though would unfortunately have to call the Garry Reynolds Memorial short with rain continuing to fall.

Before the rain took over the show, though, there was some exciting racing on track for the fans that certainly will be remembered for weeks to come in the form of six Pure Stock qualifying races and a b-main.

The night didn’t start off cleanly as Tommy Robb would spin Brian Wilson on lap two, followed by Russ Couture getting together with Peter Wakeling on lap three. Ron Black would then end up stalled in turn three for a third caution on lap four.

Despite the series of cautions throughout the first half of the heat, it was still jam-packed with good, hard racing as 2014 Barrie Speedway Champion Doug Butler would barely beat Peterborough Speedway regular James Townsend to the line for the victory. Sunset Speedway regulars Billy Melenhorst and Miles Tyson finished third and fourth, with Barrie regular Justin Holmes rounding out the top-five. Full Throttle resident Wilson finished sixth, followed by Robb, Paul Bogensberger, Glenn Lloyd, Ken Inglis, Couture and Wakeling.

The second heat would see Charlie Smith take home the victory in a clean affair ahead of Barrie Speedway regulars J.P. Rosevear, Richard Butler, Peter Gettliffe, Jamie Cairns, Chance Isherwood and Jeremy McLean. Sunset Speedway regular Terry Woodley finished eighth, ahead of Dave Crumbie, Jerry Noble, Joe Dunlop, Dave Middel and Morgan Robson.

The third heat saw Sunset Speedway regular Andy Kamrath start at the rear of the field and drive his way up through the traffic to grab the win barely over Barrie Speedway regular Ryan Toon at the line. Kamrath’s teammate Warren Paxton finished third, followed by Full Throttle’s Bobby Tolton and 2014 Sauble Champion Billy Schwartzenburg. Peterborough regular Tyler Junkin finished sixth, followed by Ryan Hardy, Ken Townsend, TJ Edwards, Gil Brooks and Mike Gettliffe. Gettliffe had a good run going, though mechanical issues saw that run stall out with a couple laps to go.

The fourth heat didn’t start off cleanly with Wakeling and Robb going around on the first lap as a result of Bogensberger getting into Robb to start it. The second lap saw a surprise twist as race leader Holmes would go for the spin off turn two, and then second and third place runners Billy Melenhorst and Tyson would make contact. As a result, all three would go to the back of the field for the restart. The restart was….well, no better as Melenhorst would spin Wakeling, but there’d be no caution as Wakeling got it back going. Doug Butler would go for the daily double ahead of Townsend, Wilson, Holmes, Melenhorst, Tyson, Robb, Bogensberger, Lloyd, Couture, Inglis and Wakeling.

The fifth heat would run clean with a no incidents and another very, very close finish. Per the transponders, the win would be handed to Charlie Smith for the daily double. However, per a photo by track photographer Mike Keiers, perhaps that win should’ve given to Isherwood. Regardless, Barrie Speedway regular Jamie Cairns knows that he finished third ahead of Woodley, Rosevear, McLean, Noble, Doug Butler, Peter Gettliffe, Dave Crumbie, Middel, Dunlop and Robson.

The final heat would see Andy Kamrath complete the daily double with a run away ahead of Schwartzenburg, Paxton, Brandon Crumbie, Townsend, Edwards, Hardy, Tolton, Toon, Junkin and Brooks.

The b-main would see Inglis have to pull off early with mechanical issues. Sunset Speedway regular Terry Woodley would take home the win ahead of OSCAAR Modified regular Robb, who had borrowed a car from a Full Throttle Speedway driver. Barrie Speedway regular Peter Gettliffe finished third ahead of Peterborough resident Junkin. 2013 Barrie Speedway Champion Mike Gettliffe drove from the rear to fifth, ahead of Townsend, Hardy, Bogensberger, Edwards, Noble, Dave Crumbie, Brooks, Dunlop, Middel, Couture, Wakling, Lloyd and Robson.

With the second round of the short track playoffs in the books, the Pure/Mini Stock drivers pull their attention to a return trip to Sunset Speedway for the Velocity 250. Andy Kamrath is looking for another victory after dominating Thursday night’s Frequent Flyer 50 presented by SL Promotions. If Kamrath is able to secure the victory, it’d mark his fifth big event win this year after sweeping the Mini Stock Nationals and winning the Spring Derby. Though he’ll have a bunch of fast cars on his tail in the form of Billy Schwartzenburg, Tyler Junkin, Jordan Howse, Gehrig Halliday, Gerritt Tiemersma, Terry Woodley and Lance Foster, among others. You also have Brandon McFerran and Samantha Shaw looking for redemption after both had issues during Thursday night’s feature after finishing 1-2 in Sunset’s point standings.

After seeing 53 cars at Sunset on Thursday night and 33 cars at Barrie Speedway on Saturday, there should be lots to show this coming weekend.