Mike Lewis may have stumbled upon a new way of preparing his car for Saturday night.
Don’t touch it until Saturday afternoon.
While most race teams begin working on their cars on the Sunday or Monday following a race night, Lewis said he and his brother Dan never touched their No. 05 machine until Saturday afternoon.
And a few hours later, the Wallaceburg driver was waving the feature checkered flag in the Westside Performance Plus UMP Late Models at South Buxton Raceway.
“We washed all the mud off from last week, worked on it for about an hour around 3 o’clock and brought it out here as is,” Lewis said.
“And that was a gamble, considering how rough the track was last week, we could have easily had something broken.
“But Dan (his older brother) put a good set-up on it and we were fast,” Lewis said.
Lewis took the lead at the drop of the green and led all 25 laps for his third career feature win and first since the 2010 season.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said after taking a victory lap to celebrate his drought-ending victory.
Chatham’s Jim Jones, who won the heat and pursuit races earlier in the night, ran second from lap four to the end but couldn’t mount a serious run on Lewis.
“I just tried to run my line and get through (traffic) as fast as possible and hopefully hold up the second place car,” Lewis said.
“My guys told me after that Jimmy was right on my back end through the traffic.”
The 40-year-old Lewis said he learned a lesson by watching Leamington’s Joel Dick win his second straight Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modified feature earlier in the night.
“The car was fast, it hugged the high side and that seemed the way to go,” Lewis said.
“I saw Joel run around up there in the mods and that seemed to be the place to be.”
Chatham’s Gregg Haskell and Erick Walker were the only other cars to finish on the lead lap.
Last week’s feature winner Dale Glassford, of Ridgetown, left the race on lap five after colliding with Haskell and finished eighth, one spot ahead of Chatham’s Brad Authier who was second last week but ninth this week after hitting the wall on lap three after his brakes failed.
Dick outlasted Merlin’s Joe Brosseau in a series of restarts just past the halfway mark of the Modified feature to win for a second week in a row.
Shrewsbury’s Jim Dale Jr., Belle River’s Mario Toniolo and Chatham’s Brian Speelman rounded out the top five.
Port Lambton’s Drew Smith, who finished third in his heat, scratched from the feature.
Grande Pointe’s Tyler Lozon took the lead on lap seven and was never seriously challenged en route to the Tirecraft Sport Stocks feature win.
Merlin’s Steve Shaw and Eren Vanderiviere rebounded from early accidents to finish second and fourth, respectively.
Wallaceburg’s Gary Vyse, who won his heat race, finished sixth.
Blenheim’s Trevor Jones won a shortened Tirecraft Mini-Mods feature for a second straight week, as he was running third until the leaders John Pinsonneault Jr. and Blenheim’s Brett Hope tangled on lap four.
Six laps and six more caution flags brought the race to an end, 10 laps shy of its scheduled length due to a time limit.
Blenheim’s Kyle Hope was elevated to a second-place finish after Dresden’s Matt Sorrell was disqualified in post-race tech inspection.
Chatham’s Rick Balasin was third and Merlin’s Jody Mason fifth.
Blenheim’s Jeff Schives won his second straight Autotech Bomber feature, with Chatham’s Brandon Ardis and Ryan O’Hearn second and third.
Pit Notes
Prior to the race night, South Buxton inducted 11 members to its new Alumni Hall of Fame, including track funders Joe Atkinson and Dennis Pook, along with former drivers Larry Atkinson, Fred Chambers, Brent Gibbons, Al McCully, Jim Morlog and John Reynolds, and posthumously Gord DeWael, Gord Gotelaer and Don Hendricks.
The Best Appearing Car Awards were presented to Goderich’s Mark Glassford in the Modifieds, Cottam’s Tiffany Ellis in the Sport Stocks, Port Lambton’s Caleb O’Leary in the Bombers along with Haskell and Sorrell. Fans voted for the award on opening night a week earlier.
This coming Saturday will be Cheap Night, with half-price grandstand admission.
