Until Sunday night, Tom Walters had yet to find victory lane. For a 28-time champion, it may seem surprising, but new car bugs will do that. However, Walters and Stompin’ Tom Motorsports got the bugs worked out as Sunday night marked a successful one.
OSCAAR Competitor Brandon Watson won the first heat for the Open Late Models. Sunset's Mike Bentley and Gary Elliott finished second and third.
Flamboro Speedway's Brad Corcoran won the second heat of the event. Barrie Speedway's Gord Shepherd finished second, followed by Kawartha's Ryan Kimball.
Delaware Speedway's Jamie Cox would take the last heat win in the first round of qualifying. Kawartha's Dan McHattie finished second followed by Barrie's Dwayne Baker.
Sunset's Bentley would go on to take the win over Watson and Sunset's Sean Grosman.
NASCAR Canadian Tire Series competitor Jason Hathaway won the fifth heat, followed by Delaware's Matt Pritiko and Sunset's Tom Walters.
The final heat of the evening went to Flamboro's Steve Laking. OSCAAR competitor Jesse Kennedy finished second, followed by Mat Box.
In the feature virtue of the fast cars to the front with the dice invert format, Delaware Speedway’s Jamie Cox would start pole with Sunset Speedway’s Tom Walters second and Barrie Speedway’s Dwayne Baker third. Cox would lead the opening 10 laps before Walters would make the pass on lap 11. Cox would not get a good finish as he would run into problems on lap 22.
On the same lap, the first caution would come out for Mike Bentley going for the spin. At this point, it was Walters over Delaware’s Matt Pritiko, Flamboro’s Brad Corcoran, OSCAAR competitor Jesse Kennedy and Kawartha’s Ryan Kimball.
On the restart, Grosman would go for a spin in turn one to bring the caution back out. This wouldn’t be Grosman’s only spin as he’d bring out the caution on lap 23 due to another spin due to brake issues.
By this point, Kennedy had made his way up to second behind Walters over Corcoran, NASCAR Canadian Tire Series competitor Jason Hathaway and Matt Pritiko.
On lap 28, the fourth caution would come for Davey going for a spin. Walters still ran first with Kennedy second, though Hathaway had made his way up to third ahead of Corcoran and Pritiko.
On lap 37, the fifth caution would come out for Jaxson Jacobs spinning.
It would be followed by the sixth caution on lap 42 for Kennedy wrecking Hathaway while battling for second. Meanwhile, Gord Shepherd also ran into some problems. With everything that happened, now Walters led over Corcoran, Pritiko and OSCAAR competitor Brandon Watson. Bentley had made his way up to fifth after his spin on lap 22.
The seventh caution would come out on lap 49 for Jason Parker having issues while Watson had passed Pritiko for third.
The eighth caution came out on lap 56 for Baker, Sunset’s Taylor Holdaway and Sunset’s Billy Zardo wrecking. The wreck started when Baker got loose off of turn two and spun, leaving both Holdaway and Zardo no place to go. Watson had now worked his way up to second behind Walters, followed by Bentley, Corcoran and Flamboro’s Steve Laking.
The ninth caution would come out on lap 58 when Watson had a flat tire after racing side-by-side for second with Bentley. So now it was Walters over Bentley, Corcoran, Laking and Kimball.
The battle for fifth would go all wrong on lap 60 when Kimball, Pritiko and Kawartha’s Bryan Mercer would wreck in turn two. This would allow Kennedy to crack the top five while Laking passed Corcoran for third.
The 11th caution would come out on with four laps to go on lap 71 when Bruce Wheeler hit the wall while Corcoran got back by Laking for third and Delaware’s David Elliott had now cracked the top five, all behind Walters and Bentley.
The first restart would be called off due to Bentley jumping, with the next one being clean and green. It wouldn’t be the last as the 12th caution came out on lap 72 for Kimball having problems while Kennedy passed Elliott for fifth.
The race would go beyond its distance with a green-white-checkered after the No. 0 spun.
On the first green-white-checkered would result in the 14th caution as Watson got spun by Mercer on the restart.
The second green-white-checkered went perfect as Walters was able to hold Bentley off to score his first win of 2012. Laking finished third, followed by Corcoran and Kennedy. Elliott finished sixth, followed by Pritiko, Zardo, Kawartha’s Dan McHattie and Sauble’s Jason Parker.
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