Laird crowns season champions
Sunday, September 09, 2012 by: Brad Coccimiglio
The points champions have been crowned at Laird International Raceway.
The track held the final program of the 2012 race season locally and the points races were right down to the wire in some divisions.
The Super Late Model division saw Paul McLean officially clinch the points title in fine fashion by winning the final feature of the season. McLean entered the day with a 14-point lead over Keith King and extended the lead when he finished fourth in the opening heat race of the night, King would not finish the heat after crashing his car coming out of turn three. The crash left his car unusable for the remainder of the night. King did return in father Kevin’s car for the feature and finished third.
The Laird Modified division saw 42-year racing veteran Rick Ellis win his first points title. Ellis, who finished third in the feature, held off a late charge by Jake Irwin to win the title. There was a point where Ellis’ title hopes looked to be in trouble after the veteran driver flipped his car on the backstretch two weeks ago. Teammate Dennis Uhlman proceeded to lend Ellis his car to finish the season.
Irwin finished second to Nick Kozak in the Laird Modified feature. Kozak and Irwin traded heat race victories.
The Factory Four division saw its points race come down to the final laps of the feature race on Thursday. With Leila Uhlman, Taylor Crockford and Jack Lannigan separated by less than 10 points entering the night, all three had legit shots to win the title.
Thanks to a feature win on Thursday night, Uhlman capped off a comeback to win the points title by just one point over Crockford. At the track, Crockford was announced as the points champion, but further review showed Uhlman had indeed won the title after Crockford finished second in the feature. Lannigan finished fourth in the feature and third in the points race.
Uhlman finished the season with 318 points while Crockford finished with 317. Lannigan finished third with 316. Laird officials have planned to review the complete race results from the Factory Four division to ensure the accuracy of the results.
The Factory Stock division saw Kyle Jarrett win the points title. Jarrett placed second in the feature race on Saturday night to Brad Bibeau, who also won the lone divisional heat race on the final night of the season. Marty Devon had a pair of third-place finishes.
Jakob Bourdage won the Xtreme Four points title and picked up three second-place finishes on Saturday. Dan Bibeau swept the division with first-place finishes in the feature as well as both heat races.
Keith King ran a sweep of the Outlaw Modified division and was also crowned the divisional points champion. Ted Ritchie Jr. finished second in the feature while BJ Marcoux finished third.
