‘Back to back’ wins for Reaume
SOUTH BUXTON – Andrew Reaume pulled off a ‘Double Earnhardt’ on Saturday – winning feature races in the No. 3 and 88 cars. The Blenheim driver won his third straight feature race, and fourth of the season, in his signature No. 88 Castrol UMP Late Model car to cap Saturday’s stock car racing at South Buxton Raceway.
Earlier in the night, Reaume was behind the wheel of Louis Clements’ No. 3 car in the Lube Tech Sport Stock class and drove the black Monte Carlo to Victory Lane. “That’s a first … and that was a lot of fun,” Reaume said of his double win night as he hoisted the special guitar trophy from the late model feature sponsor on Country 92.9 FM Night At The Races.
Clements spent the weekend at Michigan International Speedway asked Reaume to drive his car for points. It was only his second time in a Sport Stock car, While he had no trouble adjusting to the unfamiliar No. 3 ride, “it took me awhile to get use to my car,” Reaume said.
“After being in Louis’ car, it took me about five laps to get used to how fast my car was!” he exclaimed.
Saturday was the fourth time the No. 3 and 88 cars have visited Victory Lane this season, and by coincidence, the wins all came on the same nights – May 31, July 26, Aug. 2 and Aug. 16.
And another coincidence, Reaume had to come from the back to win both features Saturday.
He started shotgun in the 18-car Country 92.9 FM Late Model feature after breaking a spindle and getting a DNF in his heat race. After working his way to mid-pack, Reaume went to the back again as a result of a collision with Leamington’s Justin Coulter. “I got a little impatient and got bit,” he said of the incident.
But he quickly stormed through the field a second time, taking advantage of the misfortune for a couple of the leaders before passing Chatham’s Jim Jones for the lead with four laps to go.
“It’s pretty satisfying winning like that,” Reaume said of having to come from the back twice.
“The best thing is how good the car looks,” he said, patting the fenders. “When you start at the back and have to work through traffic like that, the big thing you don’t want is to tear it up. But looks like we got through pretty good,” said Reaume as he gave the car the once-over.
The same couldn’t be said for some veteran late model drivers from Chatham who watched chances for a win slip through their hands. Brad Authier had the car to beat as he led the early laps in his bid for his first feature win since 2006. But his hopes all but ended on lap 11 when his brakes locked on a restart as he entered turn one, forcing him off the end of the track. “That was really disappointing because we had a car that could have won,” said Authier, who rebounded for a fourth-place finish.
Joe Field inherited the lead as he battled his long-time friend Kirk Hooker door-to-door before they made contact coming out of turn two. “Joe had to swerve for a slow car and I was full throttle coming out of the corner and I got him,” Hooker said of the incident, which ended his night with a broken radiator. That was a bad deal for both of us … one of us was going to win,” added Hooker, who finished 14th while Field came back on the track to finish ninth.
This gave the lead to Jones, also looking for his first feature win of the season, but he finished second after Reaume’s late pass. Thamesville’s Dale Glassford also rebounded from a series of incidents to finish third and maintain his points lead while Brett Reaume finished fifth.
Despite his win, Reaume actually dropped one spot to fourth behind Jones. Glassford still sits first in points, 30 ahead of Authier with one full points’ night left in the race. Andrew Reaume started near the back of the 17-car Clarke Drainage Contractors Sport Stock field, inheriting Clements’ spot in the invert from his Aug. 2 win.
And another co-incidence, Reaume survived a spinout en route to his first back-to-the-front victory of the night. Reaume worked his way into second and was working the leader Todd Wellman on the inside of turns one and two when they made contact, bringing out a caution.
Officials ruled that Reaume was the victim of the collision and was put in the lead while Wellman had to go to the pits with front-end damage. He would eventually finish 11th.
Joel Dick of Leamington was second, followed by Kingsville’s Rob Young, Essex’s Doris Lajeunesse and Kingsville’s Jim Ellis. Reaume’s victory enabled Clements overtake Wellman for the points lead. With the points going to the car, Clements turned a three-point deficit into a 35-point advantage, thanks to Reaume’s feature and pursuit wins and second in the heat. Wellman was sixth in the heat and scratched from the pursuit.
Reaume dedicated his two wins to Frank Levesque of Essex, a former South Buxton Raceway late model driver who drowned in Florida last week. Saturday’s other two feature races also saw the same cars in Victory Lane as the Aug. 2 date.
Leamington’s Paul DeGoey started in the sixth row, took the lead on lap five and went on to win his second straight and fifth Schinkel’s Gourmet Meats UMP Modified race. DeGoey was presented the Country View Golf Course Cup and an extra $100 from the Hooker family. “I think Kirk was happier that I won than I was,” DeGoey said, as Hooker’s race team handles the weekly maintenance for his No. 1D modified.
“It was nice to keep it in the family,” DeGoey smiled, while accepting his trophy and cash from Hooker’s daughter Taylor-Mae and son Jake. Mike Demars of LaSalle was second, followed by C.J. Field of Chatham in third, as the 16-year-old Chatham driver had the best night of his rookie season, which included his first checkered flag in the heat race.
Rob Quick of Cottam won his second straight and fourth feature win of the season in the Garage Restaurant Comp 4 class, as he also collected an extra $100 for his efforts. Clinton Van Dyk, a 15-year-old Blenheim driver, was second, followed by Nate McNally of Charing Cross, Brandon Windsor of Leamington and Norm DeSerrano of Kingsville.
Quick took over the points lead, taking advantage of Denis DeSerrano’s first DNF of the season. Quick has a 21-point lead over DeSerrano, who finished in the top five in each of the first eight features.
Prior to the racing program, track owner Scott Mihalco announced the regular season will be extended two weeks into September, due to the number of rainouts this season. The championship night will still be held on Aug. 30, but non-points racing will be added on Sept. 6 and 13.
From Michael Bennett / South Buxton Raceway
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