OHSWEKEN, Ontario – Ohsweken Speedway brought the June portion of its Friday Night Excitement schedule to a close with a dramatic night of action that saw 122 cars sign-in for competition at the three-eighths-mile oval.
When the noise had tapered, Jim Huppunen found his way to Mister Transmission Victory Lane with the Kool Kidz-Corr/Pak 360 Sprint Cars and Paul Klager scored his first career win in the Strickland’s Brantford Chevrolet Crate Sprint Car division.
For the stock cars, it was Dave Bailey taking the checkered flag for the third time this season with the Middleport Mechanical Thunder Stocks, while the HRW Automotive Mini Stocks Feature was rained out.
Jamie Turner and Holly Porter started on the front row for the 20-lap Kool Kidz-Corr/Pak 360 Sprint Car A-Feature.
Turner grabbed the early lead until third-starting Jim Huppunen, who was driving the Glenn Styres Racing No. 0, drove to the point on lap three with an inside move in turns three and four.
The following lap, eighth-starting Mack DeMan moved into third and a lap later jumped into second past Turner. Huppunen’s lead was 1.5 seconds at that point, but saw it erased by a lap-eight caution when Dan Nanticoke slowed in turn two.
On the ensuing restart, DeMan had to deal with the lapped car of Shawn Sliter, but quickly dispatched of him and challenged for the lead while Dylan Westbrook and Scott Kreutter fought for third.
On lap 13, DeMan got past Huppunen off turn four but the two then raced side-by-side off turn two on the following lap. DeMan appeared to touch the outside wall on the backstretch as both drivers tried to race around a lapped car before wrecking hard into the outside wall on the front stretch and coasting into turn one.
While the yellow flag was displayed, heavy rain began to fall and the race was called complete after 14 laps.
Huppunen earned his first trip of the year to Mister Transmission Victory Lane, with Westbrook, Kreutter, Cory Turner and Derek Jonathan rounding out the top five.
Shane Ross, DeMan and Porter won qualifying heat races to start the night.
The finish:
1. 0-Jim Huppunen, [3]; 2. 47X-Dylan Westbrook, [5]; 3. 49-Scott Kreutter, [6]; 4. 13-Cory Turner, [11]; 5. 81-Derek Jonathan, [4]; 6. 10-Mitch Brown, [9]; 7. 11-Jamie Turner, [1]; 8. 91-Ryan Turner, [12]; 9. 5D-Shane Ross, [7]; 10. 68-Aaron Turkey, [10]; 11. 1-Holly Porter, [2]; 12. 1-10-Jake Brown, [14]; 13. 88H-Josh Hansen, [16]; 14. 17X-Mack DeMan, [8]; 15. 45-Curtis Gartly, [20]; 16. 87X-Shone Evans, [13]; 17. 67-Pete Richardson, [19]; 18. 69-Steve Glover, [18]; 19. 71S-Shawn Sliter, [21]; 20. 9B-Scott Burk, [25]; 21. 0C-Cole MacDonald, [17]; 22. 9-Steve Lyons, [15]; 23. 15-Dan Nanticoke, [23]; 24. 46-Kevin Pauls, [22]; 25. 21J-John Burbridge Sr, [24]
Lap Leaders: Jamie Turner 1-2; Huppunen 3-12, 14; DeMan 13
Hard Charger: Cory Turner (+7)