Leading flag-to-flag, Luke Gignac would pick up his first career OSCAAR Modified feature victory on Saturday night at Flamboro Speedway.
John Harper won the first heat ahead of AJ Emms, Luke Gignac, Dale Reinhart, Tim Tolton, David Balych, and Dave Hodgkinson. Unfortunately, Wally Wilson failed to take the green flag as a result of fuel pump issues.
Kelly Balson won the second heat for his first career OSCAAR Modified heat victory ahead of Aaron McLean, Cory Horner, Chris Milwain, Gary Elliott, Marty Monette, Marshall Schrenk and Adam Hagen.
Gary Elliott won the third heat ahead of Milwain, Reinhart, Tolton, Hagen, Schrenk and Hodgkinson. Wilson tried to make the green, but ran into the same issues once again.
Cory Horner won the fourth heat ahead of Gignac, Harper, Emms, Balych, Balson and McLean. Monette rounded out the field after making significant contact with the turn two wall.
Come feature time, Gary Elliott and Luke Gignac led the field to green, with Gignac grabbing the early advantage as Elliott slipped back through the field. Harper moved up into the runner-up spot, followed by Emms and Reinhart. The leaders would find themselves in lap traffic through the late stages of the race, and that didn’t pan out. Harper would go up the track, making contact with Balson, resulting in Balson some damage.
Gignac would get a good late race restart, holding off the charge from Emms and Reinhart to score the win.
For Luke Gignac, it allows him to take the points lead with his third straight top-five. AJ Emms finished second for his second runner-up of 2017, followed by Reinhart with his first career top-five. Gary Elliott rebounded to finish fourth for his first top-five of 2017, with Kawartha Speedway winner Cory Horner rounding out the fast five.
Aaron McLean finished sixth for his best career OSCAAR finish, followed by Tim Tolton, Adam Hagen, David Balych and Marshall Schrenk. For Tolton, Hagen and Schrenk, it marked their best finish of 2017 to date.
John Harper and Kelly Balson finished 11th and 12th, following their incident, with the season opener feature winner Chris Milwain placing 13th after mechanical problems. Dave Hodgkinson finished 14th as his team continues to battle first-year gremlins, followed by Marty Monette who pulled off on Lap 2 as a result of the earlier damage. Notably, it was nice to see Monette back out as his team blew a motor in the May season opener.
The OSCAAR Modified drivers will now shift their focus to this weekend at Sauble Speedway as they look to put on another show, perhaps producing a fourth straight different feature winner in four races.
By: Ashley McCubbin
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