It was only fitting that a Ridgetown driver won a feature racing honouring a Ridgetown legend.
“I had this date circled when the schedule came out,” Dale Glassford said to Gord Gotelaer’s family after winning the memorial race honouring the late Ridgetown racing legend.
Glassford passed Chatham’s Jim Jones on lap four and was virtually unchallenged over the final 16 laps to win the first Gotelaer memorial race in the Westside Performance Plus UMP Late Models on Saturday night at South Buxton Raceway.
“I was pretty young, but I remember my dad (Wayne) racing against Gord here and at the Ridge,” Glassford said.
“I watched Gord for years, so to be the first to win his memorial race, and both of us being from Ridgetown, is a pretty special feeling,” Glassford said.
“I’ve known the family my whole life … went to school with Pete and Jeff … so this is really, really special.”
Glassford, 44, always seems to raise his game in memorial races, as he won the last two Don Hendricks memorial races.
“Gord Gotelear, Gord DeWael, Don Hendricks … my dad didn’t race very long but these were the big names back then and that’s what got us involved in racing so young,” he said of himself and brother Mark, a driver in the Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds.
“When there’s special nights like this, it means that much more to win, and especially tonight because I have ties to Gord and his family and all of us being from Ridgetown, it made it that much more special,” Glassford said.
Jones finished second, followed by Erick Walker, Brad Authier, Gregg Haskell and Mike Dale, all from Chatham.
It was the first memorial race in honour of Gotelaer, a former championship racer at South Buxton – when it was called Raleigh Raceway in the 1970s – and the former Ridge Raceway.
Gotelaer passed away on May 19, 2013 at the age of 76.
He was one of the 11 inaugural inductees to South Buxton’s Hall of Fame on May 10.
Glassford, a two-time Late Model champion himself, had a perfect night as he won the heat and pursuit preliminary races earlier in the night.
Meanwhile, Jeff Daniels had such a horrible month of May, he considered taking Saturday night off.
Instead, he took the feature checkered flag.
“We were about as serious as you could be, we were ready to take a couple of weeks off, regroup and try it again,” said Daniels after winning the Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds feature.
He only had one top-10 finish – an eighth in the second feature on May 24.
“We’ve had a lot of problems, everything was going wrong,” said the Merlin driver, describing the frustrating first five race nights.
“We had parts breaking, we had the wrong set up, then we started chasing it and things just got worse and worse.”
What was the difference this Saturday?
“I don’t know,” he said with a laugh.
“We tore everything out of the car and put it back in, my crew worked really hard this week.
“We must have hit it right on,” he said.
Daniels started in the fourth row and spent the early part of the 25-lapper running sixth.
He moved up three spots to third after a restart on lap nine and passed Rodney’s Brad Simpson for second on lap 12.
The only car in front of Daniels was Joel Dick, the Leamington driver who won the first five features.
But the two drivers’ fortunes changed on lap 13 – ironically – when Dick’s car slowed suddenly coming out of turn four, allowing Daniels to take the lead.
“When I seen him stopping and waving his arm, I thought the caution was out,” Daniels said.
“But I didn’t see any lights, so I just kept going.”
Dick said it was an electrical issue, as the car simply shut off.
Daniels, meanwhile, had an electrifying final 12 laps, holding off the veteran Eugene Hoekstra in a tight battle.
“I just protected the bottom, I’m not sure if there was more grip or whether I was taking away his line, but it all worked out,” said Daniels, who lost the lead briefly after a restart on lap 19 but moved back to the point in turn two.
“It’s an honour,” Daniels said about the close, clean, battle with the eight-time track champion Hoekstra.
“He’s one of the gods of racing around here, it was nice to race with him.”
Merlin’s Brad McLeod finished third while Simpson and Shrewsbury’s Jim Dale Jr. rounded out the top five.
Blenheim’s Brett Hope won his first career feature, taking the lead from Cottam’s Rob Quick on lap three and never trailed to capture the Tirecraft Mini-Mods checkered flag.
Merlin’s Steve Shaw and Jody Mason, along with Blenheim’s Elliott Wilton, rounded out the top five.
Hope also won his heat for a two-flag night and six on the season, one less than Chatham’s John Pinsonneault Jr. who won his heat and dash.
Kingsville’s Rob Young also won his first career feature at South Buxton, taking the lead on lap 10 and surviving four restarts after cautions in the final five laps in the Tirecraft Sport Stocks.
Essex’s Doris Lajeunesse, Merlin’s Eren Vanderiviere, Windsor’s West Bertozzi and Chatham’s Eric Vanderiviere had top-fives in a race that ended with a multi-car pileup after a rare green-checkered finish.
Chatham’s Chris Ellerbeck won his third straight Autotech Bombers feature, holding off Blenheim’s Jeff Schives, who won the class’s first three features.
The Ontario Topless Sprints will be at South Buxton this coming Saturday, with all five regular classes in action as well.
The grandstand opens at 5 p.m. and racing starts at 7 p.m.
