TRENTON, Ont. – October 2, 2016 – Charlie Sandercock earned his first career win at Fulton Speedway and fifth of the season with the Go Nuclear Late Model Series on Friday night. It was Sandercock’s final trip south of the border for the 2016 season and he made the most of it to pick up the $1,000 winner’s share.
“This is awesome. We’ve definitely wanted one here for a long time,” Sandercock said following his win. “We’ve been coming here since 2007 off and on and I’m really happy to get (a win) tonight.”
Sandercock set fast time in his group and won his heat from the fourth starting spot before lining up seventh for the 50-lap A-Main.
“We were just kind of biding our time early. We didn’t want to burn our tires up when it was 50 laps, but there were a bunch of good cars up front and we didn’t want to let them get too far away,” Sandercock said of his stratey. “We wanted to make sure we kept them in check. The car definitely worked a lot better with a couple of laps on the tires.”
Sandercock worked through the outside lane most of the race, using the bottom when necessary. On lap 19, he used the top groove to work past Mike Maresca for third and set out to chase down the top duo of Chris Fleming and Dale Caswell. One lap later he got by Caswell for second and was about to make a pass on Fleming for the lead before a caution waved.
“I was kind of up there the whole night and got comfortable. We had the car tuned for up there, but we were able to go around the bottom a couple of times. There was just so much momentum up top that it was really hard to beat,” Sandercock said.
Sandercock challenged Fleming again for the lead on lap 31 before another caution. The ensuing restart led to a three-wide battle up front with Fleming and Chad Homan and Sandercock briefly slipped to second. With 10 to go, Sandercock was back in second and gaining every lap on Fleming.
He began to drive high in to the corners and low to the inside of Fleming at the exit as he prepared to take the lead. On lap 45, Sandercock executed a perfect slide job to take the lead from Fleming. He led the final five laps to score his third-straight victory on the Go Nuclear tour.
“Off of every corner I was lining up my right front nose to the back of his car to make sure I wasn’t going to make contact or take him out,” Sandercock explained. “I knew when I went into the bottom of one and two I had to take that opportunity because the laps were winding down.”
Sandercock claimed the win over Fleming by three seconds and extended his point lead to 96 markers entering the final series race at Brockville Ontario Speedway on October 14. Sandercock needs only to start the final race to clinch his second series championship.
“I think the tour has been our key. We’ve been struggling with a car at home that we’ve been playing with to get going all year,” Sandercock said. “The last few weeks we’ve been running the car we like and know works good and it seems like its turned our year around.”
Sandercock added a little fun to the mix as he competed in the Hotch’s Auto Parts 100-lap Monster Enduro at Brighton Speedway and finished second on Saturday. He will take a week off from Late Model competition before his final race of the season at Brockville.
SEASON STATS
Charlie Sandercock 2016 Crate Late Model Season: 29 Starts – 8 Wins, 22 Top-5s, 27 Top-10s
Charlie Sandercock 2016 360 Sprint Car Season: 2 Starts – 0 Wins, 2 Top-5, 2 Top-10
UP NEXT
October 14 – Go Nuclear Late Model Series at Brockville Ontario Speedway
FOLLOW CHARLIE SANDERCOCK
Website: www.charliesandercock.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CharlieSandercockRacing
Twitter: @57Sandercock
Charlie Sandercock’s 2016 season is proudly supported by the following corporate sponsors: Bellevue Fabricating, Deerhaven Farm and Garden, Newham Enterprise, Image Landscape Contracting, Excel Tower Service, Jeff Harrison Farms, Eibach Springs, MCR, Bullet Signs and Graphics, Victory Motorcycles, CCS Industrial Supply, C Smith Automotive Machine Shop, Klotz Sythetic Lubricants Canada, KD Transmission, Stampkrete Contracting, Auto Add-Ons Belleville and Image Factor.ca Motorsports Designs.
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Prepared By Clayton Johns Media
Email: claytonjohns@hotmail.com
Photo Attachment 1: Charlie Sandercock celebrates his first career win at Fulton Speedway in victory lane on Friday, September 30. (Joe Johnson photo).
