By: Clayton Johns/Insta-Insulation Racing
September 7 2016
Oakland, Ontario – The final night of points racing at Ohsweken Speedway brought to a close a long championship chase for the Insta-Insulation Racing Team. Brad Herron and Karl Sault both brought home runner-up finishes to start the month of September.
Sault has a chance to win the Ohsweken Thunder Stock championship on the final night, but needed a little help to achieve the feat. He lined up 18th for the main event and quickly picked his way through the field.
Sault drove the Great Lakes Brewery/Waterous Holden No.81 to the top-five on lap eight. With two laps to go he made it to second and challenged eventual winner Ryan Dinning until the last lap and finished second. It was one spot better than point leader Dave Bailey, but not enough to overcome the gap.
“Karl finished second overall in the points, which is a really good season,” said team owner Alex Schuts.
Herron Claims Runner-Up Finish
Brad Herron tied his season-best with a second-place finish in Crate Sprint Car action. Herron was second in his heat race and lined up third for the 25-lap main event.
It didn’t take long for the Miska Trailer Factory/Climatizer Cellulose No.12 to make a bid for the lead as he challenged Josh Shantz on lap 18 and took over the top spot on lap nine. He grew the lead to a full second advantage over Shantz with 10 to go by running the outside lane.
“With about four or five to go I could feel the top starting to go away in corners one and two. It was one of those games of what end do you want to get beat?,” Herron questioned. “I could move the wing and fix one and two, but then I was going to be way too tight in three and four.”
In the closing laps, Herron found his way in to lapped traffic and met a lapped car at the same time as second-place runner Jesse McDonald. Herron had to slow to avoid contact and McDonald took the lead.
“We got the lapped car right at the wrong time. Jesse and I got it at the same time and we were a sitting duck from there,” Herron said. “I think if we had another lap I would have had a run for him, but if I would have had three less laps it would have been a different story too.”
Nonetheless, Herron was happy to see positive results from a number of changes.
“We took a huge swing. Even going back to last week, we put a completely different setup in than what we had been running. This is something radically different than what we had been running all year. I wish we would have found it somewhere around June,” laughed Herron.
His teammate Alex Schuts drove a strong race in the Insulthane Extreme/Middleport Mechanical No.5. He raced as high as ninth in a good battle with Aaron Turkey and Eric McGlone before a broken nose wing forced him to settle in to the 11th spot.
“I fell back after I saw the nose wing and started taking it easy,” Schuts said. “The cushion was nice. It felt great. It was one of the top three races I think I’ve had that I really enjoyed running.”
In Mini Stock action, Lofton Schuts’ night ended early when he was pinched in to the outside wall during the B-Main, damaging the car’s front end.
All cars from the Insight Graphics and Millards Chartered Professional Accountants supported team will be back in action at Ohsweken during non-points events September 9 featuring Monster Trucks and during the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals on September 16 and 17.
“We’ll try a couple of different things with our setups, but we want to get our sponsors names out there. That’s our primary goal,” Alex Schuts said. “We’re going to have some of our big sponsors out on the 17th for the Nationals, so we’re looking forward to entertaining them.”
SEASON STATS
Brad Herron: 17 Starts – 0 Wins, 8 Top-5s, 16 Top-10s
Alex Schuts: 16 Starts – 0 Wins, 0 Top-5s, 2 Top-10s
Karl Sault: 14 Starts – 1 Wins, 11 Top-5s, 12 Top-10s
FOLLOW US
Website: www.instainsulationmotorsports.ca
Facebook: facebook.com/HerronRacing.
The Insta-Insulations Motorsports team is proud to partner with a dedicated group of sponsors, including Elastochem Insulation Extreme Spray Foam, Miska Trailer Factory, Middleport Mechanical, Climatizer Cellulose, Great Lakes Brewery, Insta-Insulation, Insta-Panels, Lake Erie Warehousing (Simcoe), Insight Graphics, Millards Chartered Professional Accountants, Expressway Volvo, Waterous Holden Amey Hitcheon LLP, Fence and Deck Perfection, Action Transmission, Baeumier Approved, Hotline Apparel, Lintec Label and Print Solutions, Brant Auto Painting, Rondex, Brantford Nissan and NAPA (Brantford, Tilsonburg, Delhi, Norwich).