By Mike Bennett – South Buxton Raceway
The Tornado and Batman will be back on their home turf this Saturday night.
The Tilbury Tornado – Kyle Patrick – and Batman – Ridgetown’s Adam West – will both be in the field when the Southern Ontario Sprints make their first of two trips to South Buxton Raceway.
Ontario’s longest running dirt sprint car series – which ran its first ever event at South Buxton in 1996 – will also be in action on Friday as the SOS take on the Corr-Pak Sprint drivers at Ohsweken Speedway.
Glenn Styres and Mitch Brown are first and second in both the SOS and Corr-Pak standings – a seven-point difference in the SOS standings and 33-point gap in the Corr-Pak series.
Glenn Styres has three Corr-Pak wins while Mitch Brown has two wins in the SOS. Chris Steele is the only driver to win on both the SOS and Corr-Pak circuits in 2014.
Patrick is currently fourth in the Corr-Pak division standings, 47 points behind Styres.
Patrick finished third in last Friday’s feature at Ohsweken. Earlier in the night, he won his heat race.
He finished a season-high second on June 13 and has two heat-race wins and a ‘B’ main to his credit.
Although he doesn’t race regularly with the SOS, Patrick has tasted success with the series.
He was the 2003 SOS rookie of the year and a four-time race winner, including a victory at South Buxton in 2005.
Saturday will be Patrick’s second visit to South Buxton this season.
He finished second in the Ontario Topless Sprints feature on June 7.
Unless he decides to go to Ohsweken on Friday, his South Buxton appearance will only West’s third time on the track this season.
West finished sixth at an SOS feature at Humberstone Speedway in Port Colborne and 12th in the June 13 Corr-Pak feature at Ohsweken.
“It’s always good to race this close to home, all of our friends and family get to come out and see us,” said West, looking forward to Saturday’s action at South Buxton.
“That’s a huge bonus to race in front of the people who are supporting us.”
He only raced three times in 2013 after a broken motor and major wreck parked him early in the year.
The birth of his daughter August, just before Labour Day, ended his season.
He and wife Andrea also have a three-year-old son Aric.
“It’s a little more difficult to get the work done and travelling, so we’re taking it easy this year,” he said.
“I still absolutely love to race, but I don’t miss being in the shop every night until 11:30-12 o’clock and being on the road all weekend.
“Sometimes it’s nice to stay home and be a dad,” he said.
West, the 2005 SOS season champion, has two career wins at South Buxton in 2007 and 2009.
Pit Stops
– Saturday will mark the SOS’s 28th visit to South Buxton.
– Michigan driver Jerry Whitney made history on May 18, 1996 when South Buxton hosted the inaugural SOS event taking the feature checkered flag.
– The SOS returned to South Buxton last August after a three-year absence, as Chris Jones, of Demorestville, beat Styres to the line. Patrick finished sixth.
– Jones finished second to Jamie Collard in the Patriot Sprint Tour’s Canadian mid-season championship in June 2013 at South Buxton.
– Collard, from Burford, continues to recover after suffering serious injuries in a three-car accident in an Empire Super Series race at Selinsgrove Speedway in Snyder County, Pa. on May 17.
– Along the sprints, all five of South Buxton Raceway’s five regular divisions will also be in action Saturday, minus the dash and pursuit preliminary races.
– Blenheim’s Brett Hope is the only new division leader as he moved atop the Tirecraft Mini-Mods standings by 25 points over Blenheim’s Trevor Jones.
– Leamington’s Joel Dick has the biggest lead, a 111-point edge over Belle River’s Mario Toniolo in the Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modifieds. Ridgetown’s Dale Glassford is 14 points ahead of Chatham’s Jim Jones in the Westside Performance Plus UMP Modifieds; Eren Vanderiviere is 44 points up on Steve Shaw in the battle of Merlin drivers in the Tirecraft Sport Stocks; Chatham’s Chris Ellerbeck is 20 points up on Blenheim’s Jeff Schives in the Autotech Bombers.
Tirecraft Auto Centre (370 Richmond St. in Chatham), and One Stop Auto Parts (8 Main St. W. Ridgetown) are the night’s sponsors. The Chatham-Kent United Way will also be on hand.
– The Tilbury Kinsmen Club will have a bent tent set up near the concession stand, as South Buxton is licensed for special events to allow fans to purchase a beverage and enjoy it from their grandstand seats.
– The grandstand opens at 4:30 p.m., with the Sprints’ hot laps starting at 6:30 p.m. and racing starting at 7 p.m.
