ONTARIO SHORT TRACK ROUND-UP

Lee Ladouceur On a Winning Streak in the Action Sprint Tour

Stories by Bryce Turner

It’sbeen a busy start for touring series in Ontario; here’s an update on some of the divisions. The Action Sprint Tour East was the first AST series to take the track in 2023. Mathieu Bardier dominated the 20lap opener at Brockville Ontario Speedway, grabbing his second series win.

A few weeks later, the tour returned to Brockville, where Lee Ladouceur was running double-duty. The driver participated in both a 358 Modified race and the Action Sprint Tour crate sprint car event. He had the fastest car in the AST race and went on to score his first series win.

Ladouceur kept the momentum going, winning the next two races to make it three victories in a row and five consecutive wins, overall, at Brockville.

Action Sprint Tour West

The Action Sprint Tour West season began at Ohsweken Speedway, where Mack DeMan took advantage of a restart with five laps to go, grabbing the lead and winning by more than two seconds over Lance Erskine, who led early in the race.

The series then visited Merrittville Speedway, where Mike Bowman led the field to green and stayed up front, through a pair of restarts, en route to victory. Bowman and

DeMan brought their early season success to the next race, at Ohsweken, where Bowman took the lead with six laps to go, grabbing the win ahead of DeMan.

Bowman utilized a restart to take the lead in round four, back at Merrittville, and went on to record his third straight win. Bowman holds a 12-point lead over Al Sleight in the west standings, while Ladouceur has a slim four-point lead over Bardier in the east.

Outlaw Midgets

Mike Bradley got off to a strong start in the Outlaw Midgets. The Thornton, ON driver scored the victory in the first three races of the season, at Sunset, Peterborough and Full Throttle speedways. He then finished fourth in the following two races, at Sauble Speedway.

Jeff Blackburn initially finished first in the opener, before being disqualified in post-race inspection. He would fare better in his next series starts, where the Newmarket, ON driver swept the Sauble races, which were held on consecutive days. In the standings, Bradley leads Nick Spiez by 18 points.

CAN-AM TQ MIDGETS

A pair of drivers got off to a fast start in the Can-Am TQ Midgets. Jeff Blackburn won three of the first five races, with his victories coming at Flamboro, Sunset and Sauble speedways. The other two wins went to defending champion Cory Whittam, who took the checkered flag at Flamboro and Sunset. Two races were rained out in the early summer stretch, while Daniel Hawn and James Stanley recorded victories in the series’ most recent events.

Great Lakes Legends

The Great Lakes Legends Series saw some early season parity, with four different winners in the first five races. Kenny McNicol won the opener at FTMS and returned to victory lane in the third event, at Grand Bend Speedway. Greg Rudzik picked up the checkered flag at Michigan’s Flat Rock Speedway, while Jordan Latimer and Cole McFadden won the most recent series races.

Ontario Pro Challenge

The Norris family dominance continued through the first four nights of action for the Ontario Pro Challenge. Defending champion Mike Norris and his dad Tim each recorded a victory on nights one (Flamboro), three (Full Throttle) and four (Flamboro), while Tim and daughter Emma each got a win on night two (Flamboro). Tim has yet to finish worse than second and leads the standings by nine points over Mike. IT