7/31/2012
Wayne Helliwell Jr
Holding On - A sixth place at the Ridge
The Bernhardt Motorsports team and driver Wayne Helliwell Jr. are fresh off a top 5 finish in New England's biggest short track event the TD Bank Oxford 250. As they looked to carry the momentum into another Maine oval, the American Canadian Tour rolled into Beech Ridge Motor Speedway for round #6 of the 2012 championship.
The team was looking to continue their streak of 12 straight top 3 finishes since the 3rd week of May. Helliwell would carry a 19 point lead over Joey Pole heading into the event with the remainder of the top 4 in points within striking distance of the taking the top spot.
Rolling from heat #1 with fellow championship contenders Brian Hoar and Pole; Helliwell would start 4th with the +/- passing system in effect. Wasting no time he would take over the number two spot from Ricky Rolfe and go on to finish the heat with a +2 for a top 10 starting position for the feature event.
Battling mother nature with impending rain the field would hurry to the green flag. The 150 lap event quickly became a 75 lap shootout as everyone hoped to at least make it to the halfway point; making it an official race. As the field took the green flag among a lite drizzle; Helliwell would ride around the 10th position for the first 50 laps.
A yellow on lap 69 would regroup the field and allow Helliwell to start his march to the front. Battling the likes of Hoar, Pole, Parent and Eddie McDonald over the next 45 laps. He would make the move on lap 110 to take the 5th position as Brian Hoar would go three wide with Helliwell in the middle. Just two circuits later the yellow would fly for rain on lap 112. The caution and the checkered flag would wave at the same time. Helliwell would finish in the 6th position and maintain his overall series points lead by 16 over race winner Austin Theriault.
He was not overly pleased with the outcome of the event but was glad they were able to get the race in as the make-up date conflicted with their Canaan Fair Speedway schedule in two weeks. “I’m glad we got it in, but not happy with a 6th… We couldn’t afford a rain out tonight, said Helliwell. “I commend ACT and the track in doing what we needed too to get this thing in today.”
Getting the race completed was important as an announcement during the drivers meeting Saturday night that the next ACT race at Sanair Superspeedway would be held at night time; the Bruce Bernhardt owned team now plans on missing two feature events at the Canaan, NH speedway on august 11th and could not afford more.
Helliwell felt that their mediocre performance was quote “lame” and felt that they got lucky in the overall picture in winning their first American Canadian Tour Championship. “We were off today, we got a shit set of tires and they were coming apart on us even after the heat. We were moving forward when that yellow came out to end it, but I’m not sure the tires would have made the race… They are junk. If a 6th place finish is an off day for us in this series with the caliber of talent in it, I’ll take it every week... We have to win races in this series to win this title. Top 10’s will not get the job done anymore. Look at the ground Austin [Theriault] made up on us tonight, you have to win…
Helliwell and the Ekeys-4-Cars, Unique Ford Fusion team head back to their regular rotation of racing at the Canaan Fair speedway this coming Saturday night. As the American Canadian Tour series takes a week off before heading north of the border to Saniar Superspeedway on August 11th.
Our 2012 Proud Partners - EKeys-4-Cars / Unique Ford / Bernhardt Automotive / A Handy Company / DTB Tax / C&M Distributing / Carbonneau Insulation Co / Hillside Country Store / IICCEEE / Ford Racing / Schoenfeld Headers / The Brake Man / Joes Racing Products
Follow Wayne:
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Eric LaFleche/VLF Photo: http://victorylaneforum.smugmug.com/2012ACTLateModels/ACT-at-Beech-Ridge-Motor/24441434_VbzrWv#!i=1993535392&k=dTmk8sz
Article Credit: Jason Lubin
Submitted By: Jason Lubin
