(Milgrove, ON) – The Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup Series wrapped up the season Saturday night at Flamboro Speedway, with veteran short track racer Shawn McGlynn (#81) of Kitchener finishing third in the feature. To claim the championship he would need to stay out of trouble in qualifying, and merely start in the feature event, but in the end he almost had a shot to win during the rain shortened 74-lap affair.

‘Hamilton’s Asphalt Arena’ was hosting their annual Octoberfest event, part of the post-season for the Ontario Stock Car scene and the Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup tour was the headline event, as the competitors fought mother nature as much as each other throughout the day.

The series was also going to make some of its’ own history, as Race Time Radio was on hand to stream the race live on www.racetimeradio.com, with a line up of Joe Chisholm Jr., and Joe Chisholm Sr. of Race Time Radio, Josh and Gerry Paxton, the voices of Flamboro Speedway, and Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup Series announcer Jamie Maudsley.

The first set of heat races for all the other classes kicked off the day before young 15-year old Matthew Scannel (#56) of Milton hit the track and said down a lap of 18.284 seconds. He was followed up by Chad McGlynn (#18) of Kitchener who stopped the clock at 17.83 seconds to take away the top position. Four more cars would attempt to qualify before the track became too wet to continue.

Following a brief shower, some of the other classes that run treaded tires dried the track, and qualifying was officially rained out. The other features that were going to run that night were moved up, and the second set of heats were pushed until the end of the program of the weather held out.

The field was inverted, putting Adam Martin (#8) of Hespler on the pole with Kris Root (#69) of Delaware on the outside of the front row. Martin led early in the feature and held service on one restart for an early yellow before Tim ‘The Intimidator’ Tolten (#35) of Guelph, poked his Chevrolet out front.

The races second yellow came when two of the top contenders tangled on lap 28, as Shawn McGlynn spun across the nose of Amanda Connolly (#16) of Aurora into the infield. He would pit to fix the damage to the front of his car, and Connolly would be forced to retire with a broken radiator. McGlynn talked about the contact, “I was behind Bob Merrifield at the time and was stuck. I was having a hard time getting a run at him off the corner and he was taking up a lot of room. I tried to give myself a better run at him and thought she was give me enough room to get a run on him. I got into her and it wasn’t her fault, but I was thought she knew that I was just trying to get a run on Bob.”

Root spun off turn two while running in the top-ten on lap 32 to bring out caution number three, and by lap 40, Josh Wood (#66) of London, had moved to second, with Jay Doerr (#40) of London, third, Jake ‘The Juice Box’ Ott (#60) of Ayr, fourth, and Shawn McGlynn fifth.

Just one lap later, the race would take a turn for the worse, as Martin wrecked hard. The car hit the wall on the exit of turn two, as the throttle stuck open. He accelerated down the backstretch before hitting the wall again and riding on top of the wall through turns three and four. The race was red flagged, and while the cars were stopped a mild sprinkle commenced again. Luckily the shower was brief and after a few minutes, action resumed with Tolton setting the again at the head of the pack.

Wood was in hot pursuit and started to apply the pressure to Tolton before making his move on lap 55 and taking his turn at the point. Tolton would finally get in line in Doerr and Ott also betting past, before the trio was joined by Shawn McGlynn a few laps later. Tolten would finish fifth.

Ott passed Doerr on lap 62 and started to put the pressure on Wood, with McGlynn climbing to third. For Wood the track position that he gained on the last couple of restarts, as well as his battle with Tolton paid off on lap 74, as the sprinkles started, turning to a full-scale drizzle. The track was quickly lost and the checkers flew, denying Ott and Mcglynn a shot at Wood in the closing laps, as Josh picked up his second consecutive victory, and fifth of his career.

Wood talked about the final run, “We were losing brakes and I had to work hard to keep Jake behind me. He ran me clean, and I’m not sure if I could’ve held those two guys off, but I would’ve given it a shot. I think I had enough to keep them behind me, unless we had some lapped traffic, but we never got the chance to find out.”

Ott was thrilled with his second-place finish, and closed out his rookie year with top-five finishes in four of the five races they competed in. ‘The Juicebox’ said, “I had the chance to get Tolten when we were running second early, and maybe I should’ve forced the issue, but I was trying to be patient. Then we got caught on the outside and lost a few spots. I was having a tough time getting off the outside of the corners, so the final run would’ve been good with McGlynn, but I could’ve lost second, as well. While it’s too bad we didn’t finish and find out, it was a good run for us.”

After an eventful evening of pit stops and restarts from the back of the pack, McGlynn wheeled his Mustang to a championship winning third-place performance to go with his two wins, two seconds, and a fourth during the tour this summer. He described his evening as ‘eventful’, and added, “If the rain didn’t come at the end, I would’ve liked a shot at Jake and Josh.”

As far as his second Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup Championship, and his third dating back to the CASCAR Sportsman days, McGlynn said, “It’s been a long time and a lot of races since we won our last one. This is for my Dad, because he lives for this. I like winning races, but he really puts a lot of importance in championships.”

Doerr finished fourth.

Lucas Oil 100-lap feature finish (shortened to 74 laps due to rain)
1. Wood, 2. Ott, 3. S. McGlynn, 4. Doerr, 5. Tolton.

Final Point Standings (after all events)
1. S. McGlynn (612 points), 2. Doerr (588), 3. Wood (576), 4. Connolly (571), 5. Merrifield (535).

The broadcast will be available shortly, so you can re-live the action of the Lucas Oil 100-lap feature from Flamboro Speedway, by visiting www.racetimeradio.com.

For more information on the Lucas Oil Sportsman Cup Series, or Flamboro Speedway, please visit www.lucasoilsportsmancup.com, www.flamborospeedway.itgo.com, or contact Series Director Dave Alexander at [email protected].