“I don’t think there is any place that we want to win more than here,” Andrew Gresel said in victory lane.
Coming home to his home track of Sauble Speedway, there was one goal on the mind of the rookie – score the feature victory and get his first career OSCAAR Super Late Model win. He did just that.
Gresel would lead all 50 laps behind the wheel of his No. 81 CUSW/Sauble Falls/McRobert Fuels Super Late Model to score his first career OSCAAR Super Late Model win at Sauble Speedway on Saturday night.
Lloyd Ritchie would drive his No. 62 Standing Arrows Smoke Shop Super Late Model to victory lane in the first heat ahead of Derrike Tiemersma, Sean Cronan, Brent McLean, Todd Campbell and Brandon Vanderwel.
Gresel’s night wouldn’t start off that well as he would go for a spin in the first heat on the first lap after contact with Glenn Watson. Kevin Cornelius would pick up the heat victory behind of the wheel of his No. 17 Halton Crushed Stone/Triplecrete/Alliston Transmission/McColl Racing Enterprises Super Late Model, ahead of Brandon Watson, Gresel, Glenn Watson, Tyler Hawn and Shane Gowan.
There’d be a scary moment in the third heat when Vanderwel would climb the frontstretch wall on the last lap after contact with Campbell. Vanderwel would get out of the car alright, though the car sustained heavy front and back end damage. Ritchie would go for the daily double ahead of Tiemersma, Vanderwel, Campbell, McLean, Doug Wilson and Cronan.
Gresel would bounce back from strong in the final heat as he would pick up the win ahead of Hawn, Glenn Watson, Cornelius, Brandon Watson and Gowan.
In the feature, Gresel would start on pole virtue of the draw and spotter Joe Crisholm Jr. pulling first. Tiemersma would start second, followed by Cornelius, Ritchie, Hawn, Glenn Watson, Brandon Watson, Campbell, McLean, Cronan, Gowan and Wilson.
Tiemersma would stay alongside Gresel for a lap, however Gresel would pull ahead on lap two. Tiemersma would then battle side-by-side with Cornelius for second and was able to hold off Cornelius to keep the spot. Behind them, Ritchie and Glenn Watson battled for third, with Glenn Watson grabbing the spot on lap five. The top six then ran single-file while the battled raged for seventh between Campbell and Brandon Watson, with Brandon Watson able to take the position solely on lap seven.
On lap 7, Ritchie and Brandon Watson battled for sixth. Watson was able to clear Ritchie the next lap for the position while Gowan pulled off the track.
The only caution of the feature would come out on lap 20 when Tyler Hawn would lay down oil in turn one, spinning out. After a lengthy clean-up with 30 laps to go, it’d be Gresel leading Tiemersma, Cornelius, Glenn Watson, Brandon Watson, Ritchie, Campbell, Cronan and McLean to the restart.
On the restart, Gresel would once again pull ahead of Tiemersma while Cornelius and Glenn Watson battled for third. Cornelius would clear Watson the next lap to keep the third position. Brandon Watson would then slip past his uncle on lap 32 to move up to fourth while McLean pulled his car behind the wall.
Andrew Gresel would pull away from the field and take the victory. This marks the fourth straight top 10 for Gresel and third top five of the season.
Derrike Tiemersma would finish second to keep his streak of solid finishes going as he has yet to finish outside the top five in a feature so far this year.
Kevin Cornelius would finish third for his third straight podium finish and his fifth top seven finish so far this year.
Brandon Watson would finish fourth for his worst finish this year as he was on the podium in each of the four races ran before Sauble.
Glenn Watson would round out the top five, marking a solid finish after his wreck at Sunset Speedway during the Don Biederman Memorial.
Lloyd Ritchie finished sixth, followed by Todd Campbell, Sean Cronan, Doug Wilson and Brent McLean.
Tyler Hawn finished 11th, followed by Shane Gowan and Brandon Vanderwel.
The OSCAARs will be at Flamboro Speedway this coming weekend as they make their first trip there since October 2009.
