Wilson dominates Laird late models

There are nights when he makes it look so easy.

And Thursday night was one of those nights at Laird International Raceway for Late Model driver George Wilson.

The veteran drove home with a feature victory to go along with a pair of heat race wins and a Fast Car Dash win as he widened his lead over Rod Bolduc in the division's points standings. Heading into Thursday night, Wilson held a 12 point lead of Bolduc.

The evening began with the Fast Car Dash field being cut down to just two cars, Wilson and sophomore driver Jeremy Van Hoek, after Cory Furkey and Mav MacDonald were involved in a crash on the second lap, which led to their both leaving the race early.

MacDonald was racing in place of Rob Sartini at the wheel of the No. 98 as Sartini was unable to attend due to work commitments.

After beating out Van Hoek in the Fast Car Dash, the Late Model Division's first heat race came down to the same two drivers as Wilson again edged out Van Hoek for a victory. Wilson inched closer to the clean sweep when he topped Rod Bolduc and Van Hoek in the second Late Model heat race.

Wilson was in dominant form when the Late Model Feature race rolled around. After a number of crashes dwindled the field in the Feature from 11 cars down to just five, Wilson opened up a sizeable lead, nearly half of a lap, until a caution flag brought the field closer together late.

Wilson eventually completed the sweep by winning his fifth Late Model Feature of the season. Bolduc finished the race in second while Rick Leonard, Cory Furkey and Charlie Robert rounded out the top five.

In other Laird action from Thursday night, it was a strong night for Tyler Parsons in the Stock Four Division as the young driver finished a strong second behind Gord Hunt in the division's first heat race before cruising to victory in the second heat and taking home a Feature race victory by beating out Scott Syrette and George Haldenby.

In the Modified Division, Larry Ebare won the first divisional heat over Kevin Oicle and Jordan Sims, but after that, Oicle and Sims dialled themselves in. Oicle topped Sims in the second heat race before Sims moved on to win the feature race finishing ahead of Len Bibeau and Barrie's Bert Gagne for the victory. Oicle left the feature with five laps remaining.

Finally, in the Factory Stock Division, unlike the other three Divisions, the division saw three different racers walk away with victories on Thursday. John Fragale took home the first heat race while Sebastien Servent came away with a victory in heat number two. Veteran driver Steve Kent then drove his way to victory, beating out Chris McDougall and Fragale for the feature victory.

Action resumes at LIR on Thursday, July 14 with time trials scheduled for 6 p.m. and racing set for 7 p.m.