
Jim Dale Jr. won his eighth career championship race on Friday in a tribute car to his long time car owner and crew chief Brent Gibbons, left, with the former champion's trademark No. 39 Hallmark Flyer on his familiar No. 00.
Updated Version
Jim Dale Jr. put the number 39 on his 00 car on a night he became Mr. Eight Time.
The Shrewsbury driver led all 25 laps to win the Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modified season championship race on Friday night.
It was his eighth career championship race victory, the most in South Buxton Raceway track history.
And he also clinched his eighth career points title, tying him with Merlin’s Brad McLeod for the most in the 41-year history of South Buxton.
Brandon Thirlby, the UMP Regional points leader from Traverse City, Mich., won the Glencoe Auto Recyclers UMP Late Model championship race by passing Ridgetown’s Dale Glassford coming out of turn four on the final lap to pull off the dramatic win.
Cottam’s Rob Quick won his second career Tirecraft Comp 4s championship race, taking the lead from Denis DeSerrano, also from Cottam, with three laps to go.
Blenheim’s Shawn Jones, who won his third straight points title, also got by DeSerrano to finish second.
Photos By James MacDonald Photo (click on photos for larger views)
It was 40 years ago Friday when Canadians celebrated the country’s greatest moment in sports history - Team Canada’s 6-5 win over the Soviet Union in Game 8 of the Summit Series on Paul Henderson’s last-minute goal.
Forty years and one night later, race fans at South Buxton Raceway witnessed their own piece of Canadian history.
Okay, so it won’t make national headlines across the country … but Canadian pride was as high as the red and white maple leaf on the infield flag pole when a pair of homegrowns drove into the Winner’s Circle in the eighth annual Canadian Fall Shootout.
Blenheim’s Andrew Reaume - driving Kirk Hooker’s No. 38 while his own car is under repair - led all 35 laps to win his third UMP Late Model Shootout.
Louisville’s Jim Fletcher - whose last feature win came in 1998 in the old Street Stock class - led the final 22 laps to win the UMP Modified Shootout.
The wins by Reaume and Fletcher mark the first time that Canadian drivers swept the Shootout.
Brian Ruhlman, of Clarklake, Mich., who won all four of the Modified features since the class joined the Shootout in 2008, settled for a second-place finish, ending his perfect 10-for-10 record in the Modifieds at South Buxton including his heat race win earlier in the night.
David Mielke, of Gladwin, Mich., finished third, with Shrewsbury’s Jim Dale Jr. fourth and Chatham’s Darryl Hoekstra, Fletcher’s teammate, was fifth.
Ruhlman was also the defending Late Model Shootout winner but finished third behind Reaume and Traverse City’s Brandon Thirlby, who won South Buxton’s Late Model track championship a night earlier. Kevin Reeve, of Hanover, Mich., and Ridgetown’s Dale Glassford, rounded out the top five.
Please check back for expanded coverage of the 2012 Canadian Fall Shootout.
Updated will full division results.

















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