By Mike Bennett
South Buxton Raceway
Brad Authier felt like a kid again, while Tate O’Leary felt like a grown-up as the two drivers – born 42 years apart – celebrated feature wins at South Buxton Raceway on Saturday night.
Authier, a 53-year-old seven-time track champion in his 35th season of racing, won his first Westside Performance Plus UMP Late Models feature of the season.
O’Leary, who turned 12 in May, won his first Autotech Bomber feature in just his sixth night of racing.
“They’re all special now, because you never know when you’ll get another one,” Authier said after his feature win.
While Authier basked in the glory of his win with a large number of well-wishers, O’Leary didn’t have much time to celebrate – he had to be up first thing Sunday morning for a football game in London with the Chatham-Kent Peewee Cougars.
And he still had homework to do before school on Monday, as he is a Grade 6 student at Blessed Heart school in Port Lambton.
“It feels pretty good,” O’Leary said of his first checkered flag at South Buxton.
But the youngster admitted he wasn’t surprised to win this early in his career.
“I was leading the feature last week but blew a tire on the last lap,” he said.
“That was pretty disappointing.”
O’Leary started eighth and was battling Blenheim’s Jeff Schives – a four-time feature winner this season – for fifth when a two-car accident happened right in front of the duo.
One car flipped end-over-end and landed on its wheels.
It was O’Leary’s 13-year-old brother Caleb.
“It was scary when I saw him flip … I was glad he was OK,” Tate said, as Caleb was able to return and finished sixth.
O’Leary used a bump-and-run to take the lead from Ridgetown’s Nick Glassford with four laps to go and held off Maidstone’s Murray Morrison on a green-white-checkered to take the victory.
The young driver sounded like a pro as he reeled off his list of sponsors to thank, “and I also want to say thanks to my heroes at South Buxton – Kirk Hooker, Drew Smith, Brad Simpsons and the Hoekstras (Darryl and Eugene),” he said.
“My brother and I are racing in memory of my Mom,” he added, as Krista O’Leary died in Oct., 2012.
Authier, who like O’Leary suffered a flat tire while leading his feature a week earlier, rebounded by leading all 20 laps of Saturday’s feature.
The veteran Chatham driver held off a furious challenge from Ridgetown’s Dale Glassford over the final 10 laps, including a bid on the high side coming out of the final turn of the last lap.
“I was playing my own game, don’t give anybody any idea where you’re going to run,” Authier said of his strategy.
“My concern was holding my line, I had to stay at the bottom, but every now and then I’d change it so they didn’t know where I was running.
“I knew the way the track was, they weren’t getting by me on the top side,” Authier said.
The feature win capped a perfect three-for-three night, as Authier also won the heat and pursuit, with Glassford second in both.
“We needed a night like this, and hopefully we’ll have a few more nights to shine,” said Authier, who had one feature win in 2013.
“I realize I’m getting a little older, but I don’t think these guys have anything on us, other than they’re a little younger,” said Authier, who turns 54 in August.
“But we know a little more,” he added, with a smile.
Wallaceburg’s Mike Lewis did not race for a third week in a row because of motor issues.
Blenheim’s Brett Hope passed Cottam’s Rob Quick coming out of the final turn to win his second Tirecraft Mini-Mod feature in the last three weeks.
Leamington’s Joel Dick won his second straight and seventh Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modified feature in eight weeks, leading all 25 laps.
Port Lambton’s Drew Smith finished 12th.
Merlin’s Eren Vanderiviere also went green-to-checkered, leading all 20 laps for his third Tirecraft Sport Stocks feature win of the season.
