Shane Stewart and Dustin Daggett won the twin features during the Night Before the Nationals program Friday at Ohsweken Speedway

By T.J. Buffenbarger
OHSWEKEN, Ont. (September 16, 2011) – Shane Stewart and Dustin Daggett won the twin features during the Night Before the Nationals program Friday at Ohsweken Speedway. Stewart survived a brush with the wall with his right rear tire on his way to victory while Daggett inherited the lead after Robbie Stillwaggon drove off the top of the track in turn two.

In the first feature Collard and Shane Stewart started on the front row after a false start moved Mitch Brown and Jessica Zemken back to row two. Stewart led at the start with Collard and Zemken falling into second and third. Collard and Zemken immediately started battling for second when the caution appeared for Ron Blair, who spun in turn two. Blair was able to restart.

After the restart Stewart pulled away while Johnson moved past Zemken and started exchanging slide jobs with his teammate Collard. The slide jobs continued until Collard made contact with the back stretch wall. While Johnson moved to second Collard had to deal with Chuck Hebing who was charging after starting near the back of the field. On lap nine Collard and Hebing made contact with Collard sliding to a halt while Hebing continued on with some top wing damage, bringing out the caution flag. Collard retired pit side.

After the restart Stewart, Zemken, and Johnson pulled away from the rest of the field. Johnson and Zemken exchanged slide jobs until lap 10 when Zemken made contact that caused Johnson’s left rear tire to go flat, bringing out another caution flag. Johnson was unable to continue. Just before the caution flag Stewart made hard contact with the front stretch wall, but was able to continue without losing the lead.

Hebing started to gain on Zemken and Stewart after the restart when the power steering failed on Hebing’s car and he spun in turn two. Blair had nowhere to go and made heavy contact with Hebing and turned over in turn two. Both drivers were okay, but retired pit side.

After the restart Stewart motored to victory over Zemken, Alain Bergeron, Keith Dempster, and Mitch Brown.

Stillwaggon led at the green flag in the second feature with Daggett racing Kyle Sauder for the second spot. Sauder slid up in front of Daggett on the backstretch and Daggett made contact with the rear bumper of Sauder before taking over second spot. After a caution for April Wilson’s spin in turn two Daggett immediately began challenging Stillwaggon for the lead. Each time Stillwaggon was able to hold back Daggett’s advances using the top of the race track.

With four laps in Stillwaggon pushed the top side a bit too far and slide off the top of turn two, bringing out the caution flag and giving the lead to Daggett. Stillwaggon restarted at the back of the field.

From there Daggett opened up a sizeable lead and Sauder found himself battling with Shawn Donath and Dain Naida for second. Naida made a daring move coming off turn two moving from fourth to second and set out after Daggett using the middle of the track. Daggett though was fast enough to keep Naida at bay winning the feature over Naida, Sauder, Michael Parent, and Donath.

Collard, Stewart, Johnson, Sauder, Stillwagon, and Daggett won heat race events. In the third heat race Chris Steele spun out and Kyle Patrick had nowhere to go, climbed a wheel, and took a fiery end over end flip down the front stretch. Patrick emerged from his car uninjured.

In the special events on Friday night Collard capitalized on Steve Poirier’s misfortune to win the Ohsweken Shootout while Johnson won the Dave MacLeod Mr. Sprint Car Challenge match race event.

Night Before the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals
Ohsweken Speedway – Ohsweken, ON
Friday September 16th, 2011

Heat Race #1 (8 Laps): 1. 7x – Jamie Collard, 2. 1z – Jessica Zemken, 3. 22H – Randy Hannagan, 4. 5 – Keith Dempster, 6. 71 – Travis Cunningham, 7. 42w – Rick Wilson, 8. 10x – Jeff Cook, 9. 31 – Andy Teunessen, 10. 25x – Cory Sparks, 11. 81 – Derek Jonathan. DNS: 32 – Justin Barger. (Top five finishers transferred to the A-Main)

Heat Race #2 (8 Laps): 1. 3g – Shane Stewart, 2. 10 – Mitch Brown,3. 6 – Ben Rutan, 4. 8 – Alain Bergeron, 5. 45 – Chuck Hebing, 6. 51 – Bryan Howland, 7. 52K – Scottt Krueter, 8. 9jr – Tim Zack, 9. 7 – Kyle Moffit. DNS: 90 – James Evans, 30G – Steve Goldner (Top five finishers transferred to the A-Main)

Heat Race #3 (8 Laps): 1. 77x – Wayne Johnson, 2. 35 – Ron Blair, 3. 0 – Dave Dykstra, 4. Jamie Turner, 5. 51L – Lee Ladouceur, 6. 5H – Paul Habeck, 7. 24K – Devon Caron, 8. 3 – Wayne Ashton, 9. 80 – Chris Steele, 10. Kyle Patrick DNS: 49t – Gregg Dalman

Heat Race #4 (8 Laps): 1. 14 – Kyle Sauder, 2. 13 – Kevin Ward, Jr., 3. 14 – Jim Huppunen, 4. 35 – Jared Zimbardi, 5. 15aw – April WIlson, 6. 52L – Daniel Lampron, 7. 98 – Paul Pekkonen, 8. 5c – Conner Mahoney, 9. 45 – Doug Banks, 10. 21 – Matt Lumbert. DNS: 28fm – Steve Poirier.

Heat Race #5 (8 Laps): 1. 89 – Robbie Stillwagon, 2. 33 – Shawn Donath, 3. 07x – Dain Naida, 4. 30 – Adam West, 5. 25 – Michael Parent, 6. 67c – Steve Collins, 7. 38 – Brad Knab, 8. 5m – Brad Malloy, 9. 55x – Kirk Cheney, 10. 52 – Jesse Costa. DNS: 17J – Lance Younge

Heat Race #6 (8 Laps): 1. 2m – Dustin Daggett, 2. 17 – Jared Horstman, 3. 87 – Jason Barney, 4. 27H – Tom Huppunen, 5. 49 – Todd Hoddock, 6. 67 – Chris Durand, 7. 10c – Bob Crawford, 8. ChWa7a – Al Blanchard, 9. 36 – Mike Stelter, 10. 55 – Patrick Vigneault

Feature #1 (15 Laps): 1. 3g – Shane Stewart, 2. 1z – Jessica Zemken, 3. 8B – Alain Bergeron, 4. 5 – Keith Dempster, 5. 10 – Mitch Brown, 6. 0 – Dave Dykstra, 7. 6s – Ben Rutan, 8. 71 – Travis Cunningham, 9. 45 – Chuck Hebing, 10. 35 – Ron Blair, 11. 51L – Lee Ladouceur, 12. 77x – Wayne Johnson, 13. 11 – Jamie Turner, 14. 7x – Jamie Collard, 15. 22H – Randy Hannagan.

Lap Leaders: Stewart 1-15

Feature #2 (15 Laps): 1. 2m – Dustin Daggett, 2. 07x – Dain Naida, 3. 14 – Kyle Sauder, 4. 25 – Michael Parent, 5. 33 – Shawn Donath, 6. 14H – Jim Huppunen, 7. 87 – Jason Barney, 8. 49 – Todd Hoddick, 9. 17 – Jared Horstman, 10. 12 – Kevin Ward, Jr., 11. 89 – Robbie Stillwaggon, 12. 27H – Jim Huppunen, 13. 30 – Adam West, 14. 15aw – April Wilson, 15. 35 – Jared Zimbardi.

Lap Leaders: Stillwaggon 1-4, Daggett 5-15.

2011 Ohsweken Shootout (10 Laps): 1. 7x – Jamie Collard, 2. 14H – Jim Huppunen, 3. 35 – Ron Blair, 4. 2m – Dustin Daggett, 5. 22H – Randy Hannagan, 6. 7 – Kyle Moffit, 7. 71 – Travis Cunningham, 8. 17 – Jared Horstman, 9. 51L – Lee Ladouceur, 10. 35 – Jared Zimbardi, 11. 49 – Todd Hoddock, 12. 14 – Kyle Sauder, 13. 32x – Scott Kreuter, 14. 33 – Shawn Donath, 15. 10c – Bob Crawford, 16. 31 – Andy Teunessen, 17. 28fm – Steve Poirier, 18. 45 – Chuck Hebing.

Dave MacLeod Mr. Sprint Car Challenge

Round #1: 14 – Kyle Sauder def. 33 – Shawn Donath; 14 – Jim Huppunen def. 45 – Chuck Hebing (DQ); 7x – Jamie Collard def. 3g – Shane Stewart; 71 – Travis Cunningham def. 22h – Randy Hannagan (DNS); 35 – Jared Zimbardi def. 32 – Justin Barger; 17 – Jared Horstman def. 38 – Brad Knabb, 2m – Dustin Daggett; def. 51 – Lee Ladouceur; 77x – Wayne Johnson def. 51 – Bryan Howland.

Round #2: 7x – Jamie Collard def. 14 – Kyle Sauder (DQ); 14H – Tom Huppunen def. 71 – Travis Cunningham; 35 – Jared Zimbardi def. 2m – Dustin Daggett (DQ); 77x – Wayne Johnson def. 17 – Jared Horstman.

Round #3: 7x – Jamie Collard def. 35 – Jared Zimbardi; 77x – Wayne Johnson def. 14H – Tom Huppunen.
Final Round: 77x – Wayne Johnson def. 7x – Jamie Collard.