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Jason VandeKamp (Paul Phillips Photo)

Thunder City’s Halfway Motors Heartbeat Hot Sauce $10K goes to VandeKamp after Saturday’s third-night finale

THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO (June 22) - Jason VandeKamp left Canada $10,000 richer Saturday night, as he drove away with the Halfway Motors Heartbeat Hot Sauce Invitational win in the WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds, topping a field of 60 Mid Mods on hand for the event.

In other WISSOTA Dirt Track Series action, Dave Cain grabbed the victory in the Modifieds, Rick Simpson in the Super Stocks, and Kyle Bolt in the Street Stocks.

The WISSOTA Street Stocks started the feature portion of the program, with Brendan Makkinga and Jonah Bolt bringing the field to the green. With one lap in the books, Makkinga was the leader, just ahead of A.J. Kellar, with Jonah Bolt and Kyle Bolt right behind.

A couple of laps later, Makkinga and Kellar were side by side for the lead, pressured as well by Kyle Bolt. Bolt needed just one more lap and he drove off into the top spot, leaving Makkinga in second, Kellar in third, Tylar Wilson in fourth and Jonah Bolt in fifth. A caution regrouped the field.

Bolt led the restart, with Makkinga, Kellar, and Wilson fighting hard for second and third. As Bolt pulled away out front, Makkinga put distance on the side-by-side battle for third between Wilson and Kellar; Wilson took the spot. Jonah Bolt was solid in fifth, as the field fought three wide behind him for top-10 spots.

Two cautions during the final two laps of the feature regrouped the field for a dash to the finish. Bolt drove back off to the lead and the victory, with Makkinga and Wilson side by side for second in the last turn. Wilson grabbed the spot, Makkinga was third, Kellar was fourth and Cory Ward evaded a final-turn melee to break into the top five.

Rick Simpson, Danny Young and Cole Chernosky (Paul Phillips Photo)

Danny Young and Rick Simpson led the WISSOTA Super Stock field to the green, with Simpson and Young side by side for the lead, tailed closely by Cole Chernosky. Chernosky displaced Young for second, and looked ahead to Simpson, while John Toppozini was fourth and Shawn Polonoski was fifth.

Following a restart, Toppozini picked his way forward into third, with Chernosky trying to track down Simpson in the lead. Polonoski and Young held top-five spots. Another yellow regrouped the field.

With the field back under green, Simpson continued to build upon his advantage, before another caution with 17 laps complete brought the field to a standstill.

Simpson was back out front under green, with Chernosky holding second. Toppozini was third, ahead of Young and Polonoski side by side for fourth. With just a few laps left, the caution was back out for another dustup in the field.

For the restart with three laps to go, Simpson led Chernosky in second, with Young, Toppozini and Polonoski two and three wide for third. Simpson drove on to the victory, with Chernosky second at the stripe. The three way battle raged to the start/finish line, with Young taking third, Polonoski was fourth, and Toppozini completing the top five.

Dave Cain, Brandon Copp and Tyler Vernon (Paul Phillips Photo)

It was a bit of deja vu in the WISSOTA Modifieds, as Dave Cain and Brandon Copp were back out front and set to do battle for the second straight night in the class. It was more of the same, as Copp and Cain were side by side for the top spot, with Copp having a slim early advantage. Tyler Vernon and Tanner Williamson were side by side for third, while Polonoski was fifth.

Copp began to pull away slightly as the backmarkers came into view, with Cain second, under pressure from Vernon and Williamson close behind.

Copp had driven out to a healthy lead, only to see Cain close back in quickly as another set of lapped cars were ahead of him. Cain pulled even with Copp down the frontstretch, and they were side by side with now Cain having the slight advantage to complete the lap while navigating lapped cars. It was a near miss at the halfway point of the race when one of the lapped cars spun directly in front of the leaders, with Cain and Copp narrowly avoiding the spun racer, but Williamson having nowhere to go. He was able to continue, but had damage.

Cain was the leader for the restart, with Copp choosing the high side of row two for the restart, with Vernon to the inside. Cain had the advantage for the restart, with Copp using the ultra high line to try to gain the edge. Vernon was able to pressure Copp to his inside for position before another caution regrouped the field.

Back under green, Cain and Copp continued their weekend-long side-by-side battle, with Copp way up top and Cain racing through the middle and along the bottom. Vernon was third, Cody Wolkowski had moved into the top five in fourth, and Polonoski was fifth. A huge wreck in the back of the pack filled the frontstretch and the field was back under caution.

Cain pulled away into the lead following the green, with Copp continuing his assault on the high line to try and gain some sort of advantage. Cain began to pull away from Copp, with Vernon closing in on Copp from third. Wolkowski was right on the bumper of Vernon in fourth.

With 26 of 30 laps complete the field was strung out among the top five, with Cain pulling away to the eventual victory. Copp played bridesmaid this day in second, Vernon held off Wolkowski for third, and Brandon Pelepetz was fifth.

Nick Koehler and Vernon were the pacesetting front row for the start of the $10,000-to-win feature in the WISSOTA Midwest Mods. Jamie Davis and Jason VandeKamp filled out the second row. Koehler was the early leader, with Vernon under fire from VandeKamp and Davis in fourth. Will Moelter was fifth. One lap later VandeKamp moved into second, drawing closer to Koehler, but still not in a position to make a pass.

With 11 laps complete of the 50 scheduled, the front of the field began to make its way through the back of the field. This allowed VandeKamp to close in and make the pass on Koehler for the lead.

VandeKamp saw his lead increase - and quickly decrease - as the field battled through lapped traffic. Koehler remained in second, with Vernon third, and Moelter fourth.

The running order remained much the same for the middle portion of the race, with VandeKamp comfortably in the lead, even through lapped traffic and putting half the field in his arrears. VandeKamp’s lead was several car lengths at the end, and he scored the huge $10,000 victory. Koehler was second, ahead of Vernon, Davis, and David Simpson in the top five.

SUMMARY

WISSOTA Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 2C-Dave Cain[1]; 2. 22-Brandon Copp[2]; 3. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[3]; 4. 224-Cody Wolkowski[6]; 5. 12P-Brandon Pelepetz[7]; 6. 316-Shawn Polonoski[5]; 7. 12-Tony Caissie[8]; 8. 33C-Cole Chernosky[9]; 9. 621-Colin Chaschuk[11]; 10. 88-Tanner Williamson[4]; 11. 15-Adam Dennhardt[19]; 12. 3D-Kevin Monteith[10]; 13. 4A-Dawson Allen[16]; 14. 1-Greg Foglia[14]; 15. 7M-Wagner Macleod[21]; 16. 146-Dan Bertrand[20]; 17. (DNF) 85-Jeff Davis[15]; 18. (DNF) 66X-Denny Trimble[23]; 19. (DNF) T23-John Toppozini[13]; 20. (DNF) 32C-Curtis Stieh[17]; 21. (DNF) 99-Brody Strachan[18]; 22. (DNF) 9-Riley Matthews[22]; 23. (DNS) 51-Joel Cryderman; 24. (DNS) 27-Scott McKinnon

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[2]; 2. 12P-Brandon Pelepetz[3]; 3. 316-Shawn Polonoski[7]; 4. 3D-Kevin Monteith[6]; 5. 4A-Dawson Allen[4]; 6. 1-Greg Foglia[8]; 7. 7M-Wagner Macleod[5]; 8. (DNF) 27-Scott McKinnon[1]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 224-Cody Wolkowski[1]; 2. 22-Brandon Copp[5]; 3. 12-Tony Caissie[4]; 4. 621-Colin Chaschuk[6]; 5. 51-Joel Cryderman[8]; 6. 32C-Curtis Stieh[3]; 7. 146-Dan Bertrand[2]; 8. 9-Riley Matthews[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 88-Tanner Williamson[2]; 2. 2C-Dave Cain[6]; 3. 33C-Cole Chernosky[4]; 4. T23-John Toppozini[1]; 5. 85-Jeff Davis[3]; 6. 99-Brody Strachan[5]; 7. 15-Adam Dennhardt[8]; 8. (DNS) 66X-Denny Trimble

WISSOTA Super Stocks:

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 77-Rick Simpson[2]; 2. 33C-Cole Chernosky[3]; 3. 37A-Danny Young[1]; 4. 316-Shawn Polonoski[8]; 5. T23-John Toppozini[4]; 6. 22R-Nathan Roy[5]; 7. 76-Doug Koski[10]; 8. 88A-David Allen[6]; 9. 81B-Doug Bolt[17]; 10. 37J-Tyler Wade[20]; 11. 37-John Garrity[7]; 12. 498-Tanner House[9]; 13. 15G-Andrew Groom[11]; 14. 19-Larry Both[15]; 15. 51-Aaron Sacek[23]; 16. 24-Josh Oleksuk[21]; 17. 95-MacKenzie Holmwood[22]; 18. 07-Jeremy Britten[12]; 19. (DNF) 219-Ryan House[19]; 20. (DNF) 25-Mike Plas[24]; 21. (DNF) 61-Tom Smart[14]; 22. (DNF) 99-Kyle Paradis[18]; 23. (DNF) 66B-Bradley Maynard[16]; 24. (DNF) 08-Norm Staal[13]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 37A-Danny Young[5]; 2. 88A-David Allen[3]; 3. T23-John Toppozini[7]; 4. 07-Jeremy Britten[4]; 5. 08-Norm Staal[6]; 6. 66B-Bradley Maynard[8]; 7. 219-Ryan House[1]; 8. 51-Aaron Sacek[2]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 33C-Cole Chernosky[3]; 2. 22R-Nathan Roy[4]; 3. 76-Doug Koski[2]; 4. 37-John Garrity[8]; 5. 61-Tom Smart[6]; 6. 99-Kyle Paradis[5]; 7. 24-Josh Oleksuk[7]; 8. 95-MacKenzie Holmwood[1]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 77-Rick Simpson[4]; 2. 498-Tanner House[1]; 3. 316-Shawn Polonoski[5]; 4. 15G-Andrew Groom[2]; 5. 19-Larry Both[6]; 6. 81B-Doug Bolt[7]; 7. 37J-Tyler Wade[3]; 8. 25-Mike Plas[8]

WISSOTA Midwest Modifieds:

A Feature 1 (50 Laps): 1. 16V-Jason VandeKamp[4]; 2. 13-Nick Koehler[1]; 3. 40JR-Tyler Vernon[2]; 4. 85-Jamie Davis[3]; 5. 70-David Simpson[8]; 6. 27M-Corey Mehrwerth[6]; 7. 17B-Ashley Boyum[7]; 8. 21-Wyatt Boyum[10]; 9. L1-Shane Howell[11]; 10. 3M-Scott McKinnon[12]; 11. 23J-Gavin Paull[17]; 12. 3D-Kevin Monteith[13]; 13. 86EH-Tanner Ulakovic[9]; 14. RED1-Dan Wheeler[15]; 15. 40-Tanner Henderson[14]; 16. 15K-Jeff Kelly[21]; 17. 17K-David Kivi[16]; 18. 32C-Curtis Stieh[18]; 19. 67-Glen Brown[19]; 20. 97-Mark Earl[24]; 21. (DNF) 87-William Moelter[5]; 22. (DNF) 66-Bill Speak[20]; 23. (DNF) 3DJR-Kyle Monteith[22]; 24. (DNF) 47-Don Craig[23]

B Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. L1-Shane Howell[1]; 2. 3M-Scott McKinnon[11]; 3. 3D-Kevin Monteith[12]; 4. 40-Tanner Henderson[17]; 5. RED1-Dan Wheeler[9]; 6. 17K-David Kivi[8]; 7. 23J-Gavin Paull[6]; 8. 32C-Curtis Stieh[4]; 9. 67-Glen Brown[19]; 10. 66-Bill Speak[15]; 11. 15K-Jeff Kelly[14]; 12. 3DJR-Kyle Monteith[10]; 13. 47-Don Craig[23]; 14. 97-Mark Earl[16]; 15. 88-Andrew Opas[7]; 16. 18-Hunter Brink[20]; 17. 11-Kevin Armstrong[22]; 18. 10D-Patrick Davis[18]; 19. 6-Joel Macleod[24]; 20. 26-Paul Hari[21]; 21. (DNF) M20-Travis MacArthur[13]; 22. (DNS) 33C-Cole Chernosky; 23. (DQ) 00-Trenton Woodbeck[3]; 24. (DQ) 16-Garrett Paull[2]

C Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 67-Glen Brown[2]; 2. 18-Hunter Brink[7]; 3. 26-Paul Hari[1]; 4. 11-Kevin Armstrong[8]; 5. 47-Don Craig[3]; 6. 6-Joel Macleod[5]; 7. 44-Bryce Melanson[18]; 8. 21R-Ross Siiter[19]; 9. 80-Doug Wakefield[12]; 10. M17-Matthew Mitchell[10]; 11. 15F-Greg Foglia[23]; 12. 27B-Dave DeVente[4]; 13. 9-Reuben Thomas[16]; 14. 14C-Colby Petrunak[20]; 15. 03-Jami Oshust[17]; 16. 95-Connor Moro[13]; 17. 13H-Ted Horst[21]; 18. 3X-Jesse Thompson[6]; 19. 32S-Connor Stieh[22]; 20. 56-Keith LaPlante[14]; 21. (DNF) 723-Wayne deBruin[9]; 22. (DNF) 89-Kolby Reed[11]; 23. (DNF) 99D-Ben DeFoy[15]; 24. (DNS) 57JR-Robert Squitti

D Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 21R-Ross Siiter[4]; 2. 14C-Colby Petrunak[3]; 3. 13H-Ted Horst[6]; 4. (DNF) 32S-Connor Stieh[5]; 5. (DNF) 15F-Greg Foglia[7]; 6. (DNF) 57JR-Robert Squitti[13]; 7. (DNS) 99J-John Coppock; 8. (DNS) 0-Wayne Gaudrea; 9. (DNS) 12-Allan Hyand; 10. (DNS) 99-Brody Strachan; 11. (DNS) 18W-Brad Walker; 12. (DQ) 17-Rob Groom[1]; 13. (DQ) 31J-Mike Jacques[9]; 14. (DQ) 2-Dan Tocheri[11]

WISSOTA Street Stocks:

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 77-Kyle Bolt[4]; 2. 55-Tylar Wilson[5]; 3. 426-Brendan Makkinga[1]; 4. 54X-AJ Kellar[3]; 5. 32-Cory Ward[7]; 6. 96W-Darren Wolframe[9]; 7. 1JT-Justin Tougas[11]; 8. 35-Nathan Henny[6]; 9. 9E-Cameron Ellis[13]; 10. 2B-Jonah Bolt[2]; 11. 23-Steven Piilo[15]; 12. 88-Steven Hitchman[12]; 13. 17-Don Mitchell[22]; 14. 17A-David Mitchell[17]; 15. S13-Mike Stover[10]; 16. 25-Kathryn Stieh[14]; 17. 317-Austin Polonoski[18]; 18. 2-Charlie Merkley[23]; 19. 69R-Shawn Reid[19]; 20. 16-Teagan Britten[16]; 21. (DNF) 555-Johnny Staal[8]; 22. (DNF) 6R-Spencer Reid[20]; 23. (DNF) 24-Andrew Piilo[21]; 24. (DNF) 12K-Chase Kivi[24]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 77-Kyle Bolt[3]; 2. 426-Brendan Makkinga[8]; 3. 88-Steven Hitchman[2]; 4. S13-Mike Stover[6]; 5. 16-Teagan Britten[7]; 6. (DNF) 24-Andrew Piilo[1]; 7. (DNS) 12K-Chase Kivi; 8. (DQ) 73-Freddy Henny[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2B-Jonah Bolt[5]; 2. 96W-Darren Wolframe[3]; 3. 555-Johnny Staal[6]; 4. 317-Austin Polonoski[4]; 5. 69R-Shawn Reid[1]; 6. 81-Mason Reid[2]; 7. (DNF) 12SB-Scott Gregory[7]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 55-Tylar Wilson[2]; 2. 54X-AJ Kellar[7]; 3. 9E-Cameron Ellis[3]; 4. 1JT-Justin Tougas[6]; 5. 6R-Spencer Reid[5]; 6. 17-Don Mitchell[1]; 7. 29-Ricky Reid[4]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 35-Nathan Henny[2]; 2. 32-Cory Ward[4]; 3. 25-Kathryn Stieh[3]; 4. 17A-David Mitchell[1]; 5. 23-Steven Piilo[8]; 6. 9-Jack Williamson[7]; 7. 2-Charlie Merkley[5]; 8. T53-Sacha Torkkeli[6]

B Feature 1 (8 Laps): 1. 24-Andrew Piilo[7]; 2. 17-Don Mitchell[2]; 3. 2-Charlie Merkley[5]; 4. 12K-Chase Kivi[9]; 5. 9-Jack Williamson[1]; 6. T53-Sacha Torkkeli[6]; 7. 12SB-Scott Gregory[8]; 8. (DNF) 29-Ricky Reid[4]; 9. (DNS) 73-Freddy Henny; 10. (DNS) 81-Mason Reid