Joel Dick wins his first title at Buxton

By Michael Bennett

Leamington's Joel Dick and Cottam's Denis DeSerrano came up short in their division points races but washed away any disappointment by winning their division season championship races on Saturday night at South Buxton Raceway.

Dick led all 25 laps to win the Schinkels Gourmet Meats UMP Modified championship race, the first title of his career at South Buxton.

DeSerrano drove to his third championship race victory of his career, outdueling division points champion Shawn Jones of Blenheim in the Tirecraft Comp 4s.

Dick, who started on the outside of Shrewsbury's Jim Dale Jr., won the drag race to the first corner and never lost the lead.

"We've had a lot of bad luck lately, but it all came together tonight," said Dick.

"It's a great way to cap the year."

Dick was in the thick of the points race until a six-week stretch starting in mid-July when four DNFs (did-not-finishes) allowed Dale Jr. to open a huge lead in the standings.

Dale Jr. clinched his seventh career points championship earlier in the night with his second-place finish to Dick in the second heat race.

The two drivers almost mirrored each other in the final stats. Dale Jr. had six wins and 10 top-five finishes in features and 15 total checkered flags while Dick had five wins, 10 top-fives and 16 total flags.

Dale Jr. finished 90 points ahead of Dick in the final standings.

Windsor's Dan McIntyre finished ninth in the championship race, his father Emerson McIntyre was 14th and Leamington's Paul DeGoey 15th.

DeSerrano started the season by winning the first two Comp 4 features and ended it with three straight victories, capped by Saturday's championship victory.

In between, however, Jones won 10 straight features which was enough to win his second straight division title by 19 points over DeSerrano.

The two drivers went door-to-door for 16 laps, trading the lead five times until Jones wound up in the wall with four laps to go.

"I wished he would have been out there for the finish," said DeSerrano.

"We battled pretty good. It would have been exciting."

Jones said he felt something break in the motor before tagging the wall, ending his championship race hopes.

"I thought I was going to get him, I was trying as hard as I could … it was a lot of fun," Jones said.

It was the second straight week the two drivers put on a clean side-by-side battle.

"It's a lot of fun racing him," the 44-year-old DeSerrano said of the 19-year-old Jones.

"We respect each other and race clean."

Earlier in the night, Jones won the first heat race for his track leading 23rd flag of the season and DeSerrano won the crack-the-whip as he finished with nine flags.

Merlin's Steve Shaw Jr. moved into second after the restart but couldn't run down DeSerrano over the final four laps.

DeSerrano's father Norm DeSerrano, of Kingsville, finished fourth on the track but was upgraded to a third-place finish when Chatham's Randy McKinlay was disqualified in post-race inspection.

Tilbury's James Beaulieu finished fifth and Jerry Rivait 12th.

Essex's Gerald Martin was in position to win both the Sport Stocks points title and championship race victory but wound up getting black-flagged for an uncharacteristic incident under caution.

Martin was leading with eight laps to go when he was tagged from behind by Merlin's Eren Vanderiviere in turn two, bringing out the caution.

Martin pitted to repair a flat tire from the incident while Vanderiviere was penalized to the back for the restart.

While the cars were still under caution, Martin came out of the pits and promptly rammed into the back of the No. 29V, driven by Chatham's Jay Fox, apparently mistaking that car for Vanderiviere's No. 29.  To read more go to www.leamingtonpostandshopper.com.