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The 2007 SOS (Southern Ontario Sprints) season, like its predecessors, was one of great shows, good car counts with new and old faces in victory lane. It was a season of early domination by Rick Wilson, where he owned the months of May and June and then surprisingly he did not return to the victory circle during the rest of the season. We also saw several newcomers that served notice that they would be forces to be reckoned with in the future. Like all racing seasons it was a time of great joy and broken hearts.
The SOS season opened on May 12 at Brighton Speedway with 24 cars on hand and popular local favorite, Rick Wilson returning to Victory Lane. Craig Downie got his season off to a fine start with a strong runner-up finish. Downie was bracketed by the Wilson family as Rick’s son Kyle would pick up 3rd spot in the final tally.
Two weeks later Rick Wilson returned to Victory Lane at Ohsweken, while Rob Pietz who had started beside Wilson in the 6th row recorded a solid runner-up finish. The race saw 32 sprinters in the Ohsweken pits. The runner-up finish for Pietz would represent his best SOS result to date. Pietz would also finish the season as the track champion at Humberstone, in the inaugural season of that track’s sprint car series. Kevin Job ended the hunt in 3rd position.
June 8 would not see an SOS return to Ohsweken as rain would be the order of the day.
When the series returned to Brighton on June 9 Wilson ran his total to 3 wins in a row. Glenn Styres did give “The Joyceville Jet” all that he could handle and the battle came right down to the finish. Warren Mahoney added further excitement, by making it a 3 car battle for the lead, then proceded to made it even more exciting for himself when he flipped in turn 2 ending his night. John Burbridge had an outstanding run and the 2nd year sprint driver came home with a fine 3rd place finish.
June 23 at South Buxton saw Wilson run his feature win streak to 4 – but again it was no cakewalk. Wilson’s pass of Joe Middlemiss was not a thing of beauty, but the win was his, over Kyle Patrick. Warren Mahoney claimed 3rd spot in the feature in his Clintar sponsored #25. The victory was probably not the highlight of the night for Wilson – instead it would probably be when his daughter April captured her first ever checkered flag in her heat race.
The Wilson freight train finally pull into the station, on July 7 at Brighton with 2006 SOS Rookie of the Year, Joe Middlemiss scoring his first ever sprint car feature win. Wilson’s feature win streak was now halted at 4, but he did manage a runner-up finish – just ahead of Glenn Styres.
July 14 saw the return of Kevin Job to victory lane at South Buxton. The win was Job’s second in SOS competition. Keith Dempster scored the runner-up finish for himself and the Styres team. Kyle Patrick wound up 3rd in the #42. Styres himself managed a 5th place finish and picked up the SOS points lead, surrendered by Wilson who was honoring a prior commitment and racing closer to home.
The final South Buxton SOS event of the season took place on Aug 4, and went to 2005 series champion Adam West. For the Ridgetown racer it was his first ever feature win at his “home” track. He was followed by Keith Dempster and another “local” Kyle Patrick. It was also on this night that Lockport New York’s Derek Jonathon, a series newcomer began a heat race win string that would continue up to and including the last night of the season.
August 10 saw former SOS champion, Keith Dempster return to victory lane at Ohsweken in his Glenn Stryres owned car, at the Styres owned track. In victory lane Keith honoured and remembered his former car owner, the late Dave MacLeod who had been instrumental in Dempster’s return to sprint car racing. Kyle Patrick had another strong run with a runner-up finish, ahead of Warren Mahoney. The night saw an incident that reinforced the wisdom of the installation of a new back stretch catch fence when Mark Swain cleared the backstretch guardrail in an unsuccessful attempt to join the backstretch grandstand patrons. Swain emerged from the hi-jinx without injury but his, fine rookie campaign was concluded.
Kevin Job scored his second win of the season at Brighton on August 11. The win concluded a rather hectic day for Job that saw him start the day in Europe! It was the first win for the jet setting Job in his new Renspets.com machine purchased from Mike Woodring. Wishing Job was further delayed in Europe was John Watson scoring his best ever SOS feature finish, 2nd place in a ride provided by Daryl Turford. Bob Crawford continued his annual tradition of a strong season long performance with a 3rd place finish.
The season highlight for many teams is the Annual Labour Day Classic at Brighton Speedway. Copping the first night’s action was a very content and satisfied Dick Mahoney. Bob Crawford was runner up while Jeff Daniels had his best run to date with a 3rd place finish.
Joe Middlemiss scored the win on night 2 of the doubleheader weekend, ahead of Warren Mahoney and Kyle Patrick. For Middlemiss it was a great win in what may have been one of his final rides in a sprint car – at the time of this writing his equipment from the 2007 season has been sold. The night’s 2nd heat saw Styres and Wilson in a bit of WWE type action – which could easily have taken away Styres title chances. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed, with both drivers coming back with steady runs, finishing 7th and 8th .
Kyle Patrick wound up the SOS season by scoring a win in the seat of the Patrick Welding #33. Kyle was chased to the finish line by Kevin Job and Glenn Styres. Styres’ run cemented the SOS Championship for himself. Job’s run would be negated by an issue that was found with his cylinder heads. This did turn out to be a good thing though, because he was able to correct the problem in time for the next week’s Canadian Sprint Car Nationals when he would score an outstanding 3rd place finish. Following the race his car passed tech with flying colours, fully removing and doubts regarding his capabilities as well as his team’s.
In November, the series crowned Styres as its champion at the Best Western Cairn Croft Inn – located in Niagara Falls. This capped an emotional week for Styres as only days before the World of Outlaws had announced at their annual Banquet, that Styres was their Promoter of the Year. Warren Mahoney was the series runner up with James
Whittaker scoring the rookie of the year title presented by series founders Jon Banas, Hector Belliveau, and Larry Atkinson.
Sadly, for all of us, it saw the final season for some SOS officials and competitors – we hope to see them all return in 2008, if only as friends. Their efforts, though frequently thankless and in many ways unrewarded will be remembered and appreciated. It is the results of those people and those that came before them that laid the groundwork for what we have today and it allows us to approach the 2008 season with a great deal of optimism. For all our friends that will not longer play such a big a part of our racing – We hope you had the time of your lives!!!
by
Pete Turford
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