Laird action heats up

It was a busy night on Monday night at Laird International Raceway and the near-capacity crowd in attendance were treated to a full night of racing as well as a demolition derby to end off the night.

The race night opened as always with the Fast Car Dash which featured Cory Furkey, Jeremy Van Hoek, Rod Bolduc, and Nick Guerriero, who was racing at LIR for the first time this season after spending much of the season at Kinross Speedway.

Guerriero proceeded to hold off Bolduc and take the victory in the Dash.

Due to a high car count, the Late Model Division was set to run four heat races instead of the normal two.

In the first heat, Paul Seabrook finished ahead of Dennis Varcoe to take the victory. Rick Leonard proceeded to take home the second heat race, although not before some delays.

Bolduc was black-flagged early on after he hit Guerriero which caused the latter to also be forced out of the heat race. Later in the heat, Jeremy Van Hoek, who was using a rented car after his was wrecked in the Aug. 25th feature when George Wilson ran him into the guardrail on the front-stretch, found his way off the track and into the tire wall just before turn three.

The incident with Wilson caused his car to be wrecked and Van Hoek was taken to hospital for precautionary measures but following the races it was deemed that he would be ok and was just suffering from some bumps and bruises. Wilson was subsequently suspended for the Aug. 25th incident and was out of action on Monday night.

Due to some cars dropping out, the Late Model's only ran a third heat race instead of the intended four. Chris Furkey rode his car to victory beating out Leonard and Seabrook, who finished second and third respectively.

In the Late Model feature, Bolduc continued his winning ways as he won his second straight feature race beating out Leonard and Chris Furkey to take the win. Charlie Robert and Seabrook rounded out the top five.

In the Factory Stock Division, John Fragale won the first heat race while Steve Kent, who has been dominant at times this season, finished a solid second. Chris Jones proceeded to come out victorious in the second heat while John Hamilton finished second.

In the Factory Stock feature, Kent was black-flagged early in the race after he attempted to make a pass on the inside of the back straightaway and crossed the white boundary line. With Kent out of the picture, Fragale proceeded to win the feature while Chuck Fawcett finished in second and Hamilton in third.

In the Modified Division, the division lost a racer as Kevin Oicle is out of action but the division did add another car to run as former Late Model driver Rob Hiiemaa came back to LIR and took part in the festivities.

Jordan Sims took the first heat race in usual fashion to start off a busy night for the young racer. Not only was Sims driving his usual No. 47 car in the Modified Division, Sims recently acquired the Late Model car driven last season by Michael Gold. With the new car in place, Sims also ran his first Late Model races at LIR on Monday night. Mav McDonald proceeded to win the second heat race.

In the Modified feature, things got interesting on the final lap with Sims and McDonald battling for the lead. As the two entered turn four Sims made contact with McDonald's back-end, causing the No. 86 car to spin out. Sims was black-flagged for the incident and McDonald could not continue. With only one qualified car left, Len Bibeau picked up the victory in the race.

The Stock Four Division was in a similar position to the Late Model's. Due to a high car count, the Stock Four's ran extra heat races. Adam Gardener took home the first heat race, while heat two went to Gord Hunt. Cody McLean took the third heat race.

In the feature, Adam Gardener took home the victory. A regular at Kinross Speedway, Gardener has seen limited action at LIR this season as well.

Finally, in the Demolition Derby, the only thing people were talking about following the action was the car of Jeremy Mercier going up in flames during the third heat. Mercier managed to get out of the car unharmed, but the car burned on the infield for a lengthy period while LIR officials attempted to douse the flames.

When the action of the derby returned, Joe Addison was the last car standing as he took home the $1,000 prize awarded to the winner.

Action will continue at LIR this Thursday night, with the season nearing a close. Qualifying is set for 6 p.m. while racing will kick off at 7 p.m.