Jesse Kennedy Scores First OSCAAR Super Late Model Victory at Barrie Speedway

While it marked the first time in four years that the OSCAAR Super Late Models had raced at Barrie Speedway, it also marked the first time ever that Jesse Kennedy found feature victory lane.

“We struggled all day with a tight car,” Kennedy says. “We threw everything, but the kitchen sink at it to get it to turn. It was obviously better. I honestly didn’t think I had much for Brandon at the end. I got a good start on the outside and… we just kind of pulled it off.”

In the first heat, it’d start off with Mike Hillier running into mechanical problems, making contact with the wall and collecting Rudy Oppersma. The second caution would then come out when rookie Rob Poole would spin Mike Beyore in turn two, and that’d be followed up with a third caution when Poole spun Kyle Passer in turn four. Shawn Chenoworth would go on to take the win in his first start of the year, followed by Tony Tiemersma, Beyore, Poole, Oppersma and Kyle Passer.

In the second heat, Jim Bowman would go for a single-car spin. Four-time series champion Glenn Watson would take the win, followed by his nephew Brandon Watson, Ian Bourque, Todd Campball, George Wilson and Bowman.

In the third heat while battling for the lead, Rob Clarke and Charlie Gallant would go for the spin. Jeff Dunford would assume the lead and go on to take the win. Jesse Kennedy finished second, followed by Gary Passer and Quinn Misener.

Tony Tiemersma would take the win in the fourth heat, followed by Chenoworth, Beyore, Poole, Oppersma and Kyle Passer.

Brandon Watson would win the fifth heat, followed by Glenn Watson, Bourque, Wilson, Campball and Bowman.

On the first lap of the last heat, Clarke would go for a spin, collecting Gallant while Dunford had mechanical problems. Kennedy went on to win, followed by Gallant, Gary Passer and Msener.

Virtue of his qualifying effort, Brandon Watson would start on pole, followed by Jesse Kennedy, Shawn Chenoworth, Tony Tiemersma and Glenn Watson.

There’d be a caution right away on the start of the race as Tiemersma would go for a spin after getting hit from behind by Mike Beyore as Watson did not get a good start. Chenoworth would have to make a pit stop, virtue of getting damage on the start from G. Watson. This would set the running order with B. Watson first, followed by Kennedy, G. Watson, Beyore and Ian Bourque.

The second caution would come out on lap two as when Chenoworth was pulling off pit road, Jim Bowman would make contact with him and go for a spin. By this point, G. Watson had passed Kennedy for second while Bourque passed Beyore for fourth.

On the restart, the Watsons would battle side-by-side for the lead with G. Watson clearing B. Watson on lap five. On the same lap, a caution came out for Kyle Passer spinning in turn one, setting the Watsons back up side-by-side. On the restart, B. Watson would manage to around G. Watson.

The fourth caution came out when Tiemersma would go for another spin while trying to get around the lapped car of Kyle Passer. By this point, Charlie Gallant had gotten by Beyore for fifth.

The fifth caution came out when Bowman went for another spin. Then on the restart, there’d be another caution when Rudy Oppersma pushed Beyore into the inside wall on the backstretch.

With 35 laps to go, the seventh caution would come out when Rob Clarke sent Gallant for a spin. This would allow George Wilson to crack the top five while Kennedy made the pass for second G. Watson behind B. Watson while Bourque ran fourth.

At the halfway mark on lap 25, Wilson passed Bourque for fourth while rookie Rob Poole was up to sixth. Wilson would continue his climb by passing G. Wilson for third on lap 28.

On lap 32, Jeff Dunford would bring out the eighth caution with a flat tire. There’d be more mechanical problems as Rob Poole would break a rear end on lap 39, ending his night and bringing out the ninth caution to clean up the oil. By this point, it was still B. Watson over Kennedy while G. Watson had made his way back by Wilson for third with Bourque in fifth. Tiemersma had also made his way back up to sixth after his early problems.

With 10 laps to go, Kennedy would make the pass on B. Watson after getting a good run on the outside on the restart.

“Earlier with (Glenn) Watson, I kind of let him go. I said ‘maybe he can do something with Brandon’,” Kennedy says. “He kept backing up to us so I said ‘guess we have to go’. So I was saving some tires for that last ten-lap heat there.”

He would go on to lead the final 10 laps to win his first ever OSCAAR feature. B. Watson finished second to go with his win at Sunset with Wilson third after being disqualified at Sunset.

“After that last restart, our car kind of faded away. We must have had some marbles or some speedy-dry on our tires. It just got really loose,” B. Watson says. “I couldn’t get that car to turn off the corner one bit.”

G. Watson and Tiemersma rounded out the top five.

“The car was really tight so it was a tough night for us,” G. Watson says.

Bourque finished sixth, followed by Gallant, Todd Campball and Dunford.

Ashley McCubbin (149 Posts)

Ashley McCubbin got into NASCAR at the age of 5 and then started writing articles at the age of 10. She is in her third year at Guelph-Humber University in the Media Studies program. Besides writing articles, she runs her own photography/website design business. You can check that out at http://www.sunsetinformative.com, follow on twitter @SS_Informative or like the facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/SunsetInformative.