Brandon McFerran scores first feature victory of the season

After starting the year with three top-five finishes, Brandon McFerran scored the ‘hat trick’ on Saturday night at Sunset Speedway for his first victory of the season. McFerran becomes the fifth feature winner of the season so far.

McFerran kicked off the night in victory lane as he won the first heat ahead of Eric Yorke, Samantha Shaw, Steve Belanger, Benjamin Wolfe, Stefan Woyslaw, Doug Wilman and Wendy Adams.

The second heat didn’t start off smoothly with Candiss Everingham spinning on the opening lap. Last week’s feature winner Billy Schwartzenburg picked up the win ahead of Ken Townsend, Lauren Halliday, Jake Watson, Rory Collett, Kendra Adams, Nic Montanari, Jerry Noble, Everingham and Steve Love.

Jordan Howse won the final heat for his first career heat victory ahead of Nicole Podewils, Miles Tyson, Billy Melenhorst, Gerritt Tiemersma, Shawn Gerrior, Terry Woodley, Chris Free, Eric Rainey and Dave Middel. Middel would pull off before the completion due to smoke coming from his car.

The b-main would start off with a bang as Wolfe spun off the front row, making considerable contact with the frontstretch wall. The contact pushed the nose back considerably, which would result in a black flag mid-way through the event. Wolfe didn’t listen to the flag, earning a blackflag for ‘driver misconduct’ and failing to make the main event later that night. Tiemersma would pick up the victory ahead of Collett, Gerrior, Kendra Adams, Montanari, Woodley, Wolfe, Woyslaw, Wilman, Noble, Wendy Adams, Free, Everingham, Chandler Bois, Brad Burleigh and Love. As a result, Love would fail to make the main event.

McFerran would win the ‘Dash for Cash’ ahead of Schwartzenburg, Howse, Podewils, Yorke, Shaw, Tyson, Melenhorst, Belanger, Watson, Halliday and Townsend.

The feature line-up would be set on a Frisbee invert that would involve the top 18 cars. Billy Melenhorst got the luck of the draw, scoring the pole ahead of Miles Tyson, Brandon McFerran, Jordan Howse, Shawn Gerrior, Rory Collett, Kendra Adams, Eric Yorke, Nicole Podewils, Terry Woodley, Nic Montanari, Lauren Halliday, Ken Townsend, Samantha Shaw, Gerritt Tiemersma, Billy Swartzenburg, Steve Belanger, Jake Watson, Stefan Woyslaw, Doug Wilman, Jerry Noble, Wendy Adams, Chris Free, Candiss Everingham, Dave Middel, Brad Burleigh, Eric Rainey and Chandler Bois.

Melenhorst would get out to the early lead while Tyson and McFerran battled for second. McFerran would clear Tyson on lap two, with Howse passing Tyson for third at lap three before the caution flew for Wendy Adams spinning in turn four, collecting Middel. Middel would be done for the day, while Adams got her tire changed and rejoined the field. With 22 laps to go, Melenhorst led McFerran, Howse, Tyson, Podewils, Yorke and Collett.

On the restart, McFerran used the outside to his advantage, taking the lead behind the wheel of his No. 64 Peter D. Laird Transport, Road Ranger, Fast Eddie Racewear, East End Car Wash, Creative Edge Graphics, Finish Line Painting & Restoration, DS McClure Farms, EPIC Racewear by OnePromo.ca and AMD Electric Mustang. Podewils would move up to fourth on the restart, passing Howse for third at lap seven. Tyson and Yorke then followed suit with Podewils the next lap, bumping Howse back to sixth. The top six then single-filed themselves out as they began to get into lap traffic, with Gerrior holding Collett and Townsend back to seventh.

As they began to navigate the slower cars, Howse would get alongside Yorke for fifth at halfway, completing the pass on lap 14.

From that point on, the front runners ran single-file as they navigated high and low through the slower lap cars. Brandon McFerran made all the right moves as he picked up the win.

McFerran tweeted earlier in the week that he was excited about his niece coming out to the track this weekend.

Get to spend the weekend with the niece ! She's been bugging me about coming to the races, so let's… http://t.co/Ral1zZs18M

— Brandon McFerran (@BrandonMcferran) May 29, 2014

Perhaps she should come every week as she may be the lucky charm for McFerran and team.

Billy Melenhorst finished second, followed by Nicole Podewils, Miles Tyson, Jordan Howse, Samantha Shaw, Eric Yorke, Billy Schwartzenburg, Ken Townsend, Shawn Gerrior, Gerritt Tiemersma, Jake Watson, Rory Collett, Kendra Adams, Lauren Halliday, Steve Belanger, Nic Montanari, Terry Woodley, Stefan Woyslaw, Doug Wilman, Jerry Noble, Chris Free, Chandler Bois, Wendy Adams, Brad Burleigh, Candiss Everingham and Eric Rainey.

Please note that these results are unofficial as they’re done per my notes.

NOTE: Front runners Ben Melenhorst, Warren Paxton and Andy Kamrath were all not in attendance tonight, taking themselves out of championship discussion moving forward.

Ashley McCubbin

Joining OnPitRoad.com mid-2013 season, Ashley McCubbin is now the Managing Editor and contributes to each racing division as needed. Since studying journalism at the University of Guelph-Humber, Ashley has published articles on a couple of different websites, while serving as a public relations representative for different short track teams. Born in North York, Ontario, Ashley currently lives in Bradford, Ontario and spends her weekend at the local short tracks in the area. She has spent her entire life at the short track level, falling in love with the sport at the age of five. Beyond her love of short track racing, she also has grown an interest for both NASCAR and the IndyCar Racing Series. She also enjoys taking photos and working on websites, while playing a couple rounds of Candy Crush afterwards.

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