CASCAR: Vanderwyst and Gibbons take Twin 100 victories at Delaware
3 September 2000
LONDON, ON - A pair of 100 lap Sprint Races were held at Delaware Speedway Park on Friday evening. Together, they set the majority of the starting grid for Sunday's CARQUEST 300 CASCAR Castrol Super Series National Championship finale. Pete Vanderwyst christened his brand new Loctite Pontiac Grand Prix with a victory in the first heat race, while defending CARQUEST 300 race winner and National champion Peter Gibbons won the second. In the first 100 lapper - dubbed the AutoPlace 100 - Don Thomson Jr. started on the pole and led the first 42 circuits, before his clutch slipped on a restart. The Ayr, ON racer was able to rejoin the field after pitting and mounted a furious charge back to third, where he would eventually finish, behind Vanderwyst and Ancaster, ON racer Neil Fair (Skoal Inc. Chevrolet). The Blue Streak 100 also featured a field of 20 CASCAR Late Model racers and saw Al Turner line up on the pole for the start of that race. Turner's Blue Streak Intrepid showed the way for the first 62 laps before a flat right-front tire took him out of contention. From there, it was Gibbons' race and he led the rest of the way to the checkered flag to further cement his lead in the National championship standings. Going into Sunday's race, he enjoys a 29 point gap over Thomson. In earlier time trial action to determine the front-row starters for Sunday's feature race, Thomson captured the pole by lapping the half-mile Delaware oval in just 19.496 seconds. The Home Hardware Chevy driver will line up alongside second-starting Al Turner, who won the Super Series race in May at the London-area oval. Turner circled the speedway in 19.673 seconds. In all, 40 drivers participated in the time trial and qualifying Sprint races on Friday night. The top 26 starters were determined on Friday evening. A Final Qualifiers' race will be held at Delaware Speedway Park on Saturday evening to set the remainder of the 38 car starting field for the CARQUEST 300; Canada's oldest, richest and biggest stock car race. by Inside Track Communications.