Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin
Even an early race spin couldn’t slow Kyle Batty down at Sunset Speedway as he scored the feature victory in the Ontario Pro Challenge Velocity 250 feature this past Saturday.
Bryan Stevanus won the first heat ahead of Tim Batty, Larry Majuery, Tim Shanahan and Kevin Crowhurst.
Kyle Batty edged Tim Norris to score the victory in the second heat ahead as Peter Hattin finished third ahead of Rick Seeley, Ken Lillycrop and the 4.
Larry Majurey won the third heat ahead of Stevanus, Tim Batty, Crowhurst and Shanahan.
The fourth heat started off rocky with Hattin going for a quick spin, but he was able to keep going without a caution. Kyle Batty went for the daily double ahead of Norris, Seely, Lillycrop, Hattin and the 4.
Come feature time, it’d be Tim Shanahan starting pole ahead of Tim Batty, Bryan Stevanus, Larry Majurey, Peter Hattin, Rick Seeley, Ken Lillycrop, Kyle Batty, Tim Norris, Kevin Crowhurst and the 4.
The feature started off rocky with an incident in turn two involving Lillycrop and Hattin on the opening lap.
The restart wasn’t much better as Seely tagged the back off Kyle Batty, spinning Batty around. Crowhurst then made contact with the back of Seely in the process, with the 4 going for a spin as well. Seely was the only driver to suffer significant damage, which saw the crew rip off the front fender work on the No. 16 entry to before he returned to the track.
The third attempt to start the event saw another incident as both Crowhurst and Batty went around on the frontstretch, with Crowhurst making significant contact with the front stretch wall. Crowhurst was sore, but able to walk away from the crash.
The fourth attempt went cleanly with Bryan Stevanus holding the advantage at the front of the field ahead of Tim Batty, Majurey, Kyle Batty, Hattin and Norris. Kyle Batty got alongside Majurey for third at Lap 4, completing the pass a lap later as Norris moved in to fifth. Hattin now ran sixth ahead of the 4 and Lillycrop.
Kyle Batty continued his charge to the front, passing Tim Batty to move into second at Lap 6, followed by getting alongside Stevanus for the lead two laps later. Kyle Batty then took the lead on Lap 10 ahead of Stevenaus, Tim Batty, Norris and Majurey. Hattin continued to run sixth ahead of Lillycrop, the 4, Seeley and Shanahan. From there on, the race was calm with the field spreading out and the only pass in the closing stages being Lillycrop getting by Hattin to move into seventh with two laps to go.
Kyle Batty cruised to the checkered flag, while Tim Norris crossed the finish line to finish fourth to secure the 2016 Ontario Pro Challenge Series Championship.
