Story By: TOMMY GOUDGE / OHSWEKEN SPEEDWAY – OHSWEKEN, ONT – The 26th season of racing at Ohsweken Speedway continues Friday, June 23 when Gale’s Auto Aftermarket presents the Race of Champions Dirt Sportsman Modified series and the Cash Blast 50 for the Middleport Mechanical Thunder Stocks, plus Strickland’s Crate Sprint Cars, and HRW Automotive Mini Stocks.
Friday’s event will be the first of two scheduled Race of Champions Dirt Sportsman Modifieds series visits to Ohsweken in 2023. Six different drivers have claimed wins in the last six Sportsman events at Ohsweken dating back to August of 2017. Cody McPherson and Nelson Mason took Sportsman wins at Ohsweken last season, but Adam Leslie claimed the 2022 series championship. McPherson leads the current Merrittville Speedway Sportsman championship standings over Chad Chevalier, James Friesen, Justin Sharp, and Brent Begolo.
Dave Bailey has quickly climbed back into the top three in the Thunder Stock standings after a rough start to the season. The six-time champion has wins in back-to-back weeks, but Ryan Beagle has a three point advantage over Kyle Wert for the championship lead, with Bailey 28 points behind Wert. Trevor DeBoer and Ron Loggie round out the current top five. Bailey has two consecutive Cash Blast 50 wins, but he will have stiff competition from his fellow Friday Night Excitement series competitors and some outsiders looking to claim Gale’s cash.
The Crate Sprint Car division has seen four different winners (Dale Curran, Jesse Costa, Austin Roes, and Mack DeMan) in the first four weeks, but two winless drivers are atop the championship standings. Larry Gledhill has a 10 point lead over Brett Stratford heading into week five, followed by Curran, Costa, and Lance Erskine.
The Mini Stock standings were shaken up in their last event, and likely will be again after this week’s action. Ryan Hillar took his first career win in week four and extended his points lead to 16 markers in the process. Mike Sarantakos now holds the second position, followed by Fabio Olivieri, Jason Tolton, and Dusty DeBoer. Unfortunately DeBoer’s championship chase has ended though, as the 2019 champ suffered back and injuries in a grinding crash on June 9.
Race time is 7:30PM on Friday, June 23. Adult grandstand admission is $20 on Friday, while Senior (65+) and Youth (13-17) admission is $15, and Kids (0-12) are FREE.