McConnell wins on the ice again!! 21st March 09
The big money winner at Dawson Creek, Shawn “Mad Dog” McConnell is still only 5th in the Series overall therefore missed out on a Heat 1 appearance which saw Venegas start from the favoured inside gate position and never looked back as he won from Kerrigan who held off a 4-lap challenge from both James “Demolition” Mann and Anthony “British Bulldog” Barlow.
Heat 2 was McConnell’s first appearance when the race was stopped as Eddie Martinez didn’t make it to the 1st turn and was placed on the handicap line for the re-run when McConnell took an awarded win after the race was stopped on the last lap when David “Victor” Meldrum spun out taking Eddie Martinez out as well; 2 starts for Martinez and two visits face down on the ice was not the kind of start he wanted but fortunately neither man nor machine was injured.
In the 2nd group of qualifying heats, incidentally an all US race or more accurately the battle of the Californians, turned out to be the best race of the night by far as once again Venegas had drawn the inside gate position. However McConnell starting on the outside gate 4 was not spooked and by the end of the 2nd lap had got into a position where he could challenge Venegas and on lap 3 executed a most breathtaking brilliant inside pass off the 2nd turn and down the back straight for a superb second qualifying heat win and leaving Venegas in 2nd place ahead of Krazy Kelly Kerrigan.
Barlow must have been watching that race as in the very next heat he also made a win from the outside gate and in the process secured a place on the front row in the Main Final to his 2nd win of the qualifiers and thus secure his place in the Main Final, while Mann held off the challenge of Warburton for 2nd place.
In the Last Chance Kerrigan on the middle of the Front Row popped out of the gate ad was never in real danger from either Mann or Martinez and it was those 3 who joined the Main Final on the Back Row as McConnell had gate 1 on the Front row inside Charlie Venegas and Anthony Barlow.
Venegas missed the gate and chased Barlow hard down the back straight and was somewhat hard as he t-boned Barlow on the middle of the 3rd / 4th turn and with the race being stopped was put on the very back handicap line for the re-run.
In the re-run it was McConnell who looked a Winner all the way as Barlow maintained 2nd place throughout with fellow Brit Mann picking up the 3rd rostrum place as the best Venegas could do was to come through to 4th place by the end of 6 laps (it was actually 7 as the Start Marshal Neil miscounted!) which meant that at the end of a great nights racing Barlow picked up 2 more Championship points than Venegas and is now just 9 points behind the Leader whilst McConnell moves up into 4th place, a tremendous achievement considering he has only competed in 5 of the 10 Rounds held so far and is now 14 points adrift of 3rd place James Mann.
Heat 2 was McConnell’s first appearance when the race was stopped as Eddie Martinez didn’t make it to the 1st turn and was placed on the handicap line for the re-run when McConnell took an awarded win after the race was stopped on the last lap when David “Victor” Meldrum spun out taking Eddie Martinez out as well; 2 starts for Martinez and two visits face down on the ice was not the kind of start he wanted but fortunately neither man nor machine was injured.
In the 2nd group of qualifying heats, incidentally an all US race or more accurately the battle of the Californians, turned out to be the best race of the night by far as once again Venegas had drawn the inside gate position. However McConnell starting on the outside gate 4 was not spooked and by the end of the 2nd lap had got into a position where he could challenge Venegas and on lap 3 executed a most breathtaking brilliant inside pass off the 2nd turn and down the back straight for a superb second qualifying heat win and leaving Venegas in 2nd place ahead of Krazy Kelly Kerrigan.
Barlow must have been watching that race as in the very next heat he also made a win from the outside gate and in the process secured a place on the front row in the Main Final to his 2nd win of the qualifiers and thus secure his place in the Main Final, while Mann held off the challenge of Warburton for 2nd place.
In the Last Chance Kerrigan on the middle of the Front Row popped out of the gate ad was never in real danger from either Mann or Martinez and it was those 3 who joined the Main Final on the Back Row as McConnell had gate 1 on the Front row inside Charlie Venegas and Anthony Barlow.
Venegas missed the gate and chased Barlow hard down the back straight and was somewhat hard as he t-boned Barlow on the middle of the 3rd / 4th turn and with the race being stopped was put on the very back handicap line for the re-run.
In the re-run it was McConnell who looked a Winner all the way as Barlow maintained 2nd place throughout with fellow Brit Mann picking up the 3rd rostrum place as the best Venegas could do was to come through to 4th place by the end of 6 laps (it was actually 7 as the Start Marshal Neil miscounted!) which meant that at the end of a great nights racing Barlow picked up 2 more Championship points than Venegas and is now just 9 points behind the Leader whilst McConnell moves up into 4th place, a tremendous achievement considering he has only competed in 5 of the 10 Rounds held so far and is now 14 points adrift of 3rd place James Mann.
posted by Andy at 12:53 AM
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