LONG SAULT, Ontario — Since the summer portion of the Super DIRTcar Series schedule began, no one has been able to stop Stewart Friesen.
That didn’t change on Tuesday at Cornwall Motor Speedway, as the Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, driver led the final 67 laps to win the O’Canada 75—his fourth win of the season.
“What a great race car,” Friesen said. “I knew it was pretty good when we unloaded. Just needed to give a couple of tweaks to what it needed.”
Kevin Hamel led the field to the green in the 75-lap feature. The Cornwall regular outdueled defending race-winner Mario Clair to Turn 1 to gain the early advantage.
Behind Hamel, Friesen wasted no time moving into second, sneaking underneath Clair’s No. 124 one lap later to gain the position.
Hamel stayed in front of Friesen for the race’s first five laps. However, his advantage was negated on Lap 6 when Matt Caprara brought out the first of the event’s four yellow flags.
With lane choice on the restart as the leader, Hamel put his No. 13 on the outside, which gave Friesen the bottom. But when the race resumed on Lap 9, Friesen powered underneath him through Turns 1 and 2 to take the lead.
From there, Friesen aced three more restarts and easily moved through lap traffic to earn the $7,500 prize and his 56th Super DIRTcar Series victory. His triumph puts him one win behind Alan Johnson for fifth on the series all-time wins list.
While Friesen led most of the Feature, there was a point in the race when he said he wasn’t sure where to be on the track.
“What a track,” Friesen said. “Holy smokes. It was like all four seasons. We had some bite and grip, and then it got polished right off at the end. I kind of got lost in the middle of the race and didn’t know what lane to be in, but we found a sweet spot in the middle.”
Points leader Alex Yankowski finished second, continuing his consistent season with his fourth podium. The Covington Township, Pa., driver, who started seventh, battled with three-time defending Series champion Mat Williamson for more than 20 laps before ultimately gaining the position.
With that finish, Yankowski increased his points lead to 17 over Williamson, who crossed the line fourth.
Alex Payne rounded out the podium, reaching third in the race’s closing laps from 19th.
Hamel finished fifth, earning his best Super DIRTcar Series finish.
Bastien Caron won the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series main event.
The finish:
Feature (75 Laps): 1. 44-Stewart Friesen[3]; 2. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[7]; 3. 70A-Alex Payne[19]; 4. 88-Mat Williamson[5]; 5. 13-Kevin Hamel[1]; 6. 25-Erick Rudolph[8]; 7. 77E-Ryan Stabler[10]; 8. 124-Mario Clair[2]; 9. 23-Joey Ladouceur[6]; 10. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[25]; 11. 25P-Michael Parent[4]; 12. 18JR-Louie Jackson Jr[15]; 13. 3RS-Matt Sheppard[16]; 14. 19-Tim Fuller[14]; 15. 54R-William Racine[9]; 16. 15X-Justin Stone[23]; 17. 94-Gabriel Cyr[11]; 18. ONE-Felix Roy[20]; 19. 35-Mike Mahaney[12]; 20. 2-Jack Lehner[17]; 21. 6-Matt Stangle[18]; 22. 151KB-Brian McDonald[24]; 23. 1-Tyler Dippel[26]; 24. 11-Matt Caprara[28]; 25. 29-Ryan Krachun[27]; 26. (DNF) 4H-David Hebert[13]; 27. (DNF) 28-Michael Trautschold[21]; 28. (DNF) 88J-Justin Cyr[22]
