10/7/2012
Wayne Helliwell Jr
CHAMPION!!!
Wayne Helliwell Jr. and the Bruce Bernhardt Motorsports team heading into the final American Canadian Tour points event with the weight of the racing world on their shoulders. Leading the championship battle by only eight points over a hard charging Brian Hoar. It all came down to a Sunday afternoon and one 200 lap race. A race in which people ran out of adjectives to describe. Those in attendance used “epic”, “unbelievable”, “unreal”, “storybook” “you can’t script this stuff”, “the best ACT race they have ever seen”, Sunday afternoon was one for record books.
Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY was the setting for the title fight. A track in which eight time champion Brain Hoar calls home. In true story book fashion Hoar and Helliwell could not seem to get away from each other the entire day. It started in practice when they were 1 and 2 on the speed charts. Then came the heat races where they both picked up a +4 in passing points. The 200 lap finally had them lined up nose to tail much like the entire season.
Helliwell who was able to gain 2 points with a second place finish in his heat race moved the points lead to a 10 point advantage heading into the finally. He would roll from the 6th position and Hoar from the 8th position. They wasted no time as they methodically moved their way to the front of the field. Helliwell grabbing the top spot from Jean-Francois Dery on lap 52 to gain those crucial 5 bonus points for leading a lap. When the yellow flew on lap 62 the complexion of the championship battle changed, a strategy call by the RPM race team saw Hoar pit for right side tires out of 3rd place. As Helliwell continued to lead Hoar battled back to the front of the field from 22nd position on the restart.
Helliwell would lead the next 25 laps in till a lap 87 caution would see the Ekeys-4-Cars, Unique Ford Fusion come down pit road along with the majority of the field. The Bernhardt Motorsports team ripped off a great pit stop as the bright orange 27NH came in first and left first off pit road. Restarting in the 14th Helliwell was stuck in major traffic as Hoar would battle his way to lead. While Hoar exchanged the top spot with Jimmy Hebert and Patrick Laperle, Helliwell continued his march to the front taking over 5th place on lap 117. Then grabbing the 3rd spot from Randy Potter on lap 144 and 2nd from the 58VT of Herbert on lap 157.
The leaders would hit heavy traffic with 40 laps to go; as Hoar would take the 5 bonus points for leading the most laps. Helliwell was there pushing him around the half mile speedway. As the duo ran first and second, the championship would be one and lost in a storybook battle for the victory. For 30 laps war was waged; the two drivers that started the season finishing bumper to bumper battled it out for what ACT series director Tom Curly called an “Ali and Frazer type championship fight”.
Helliwell running lower than any car on the track repeatedly pulled alongside Hoar grabbing the lead on lap 166, only to lose it by being blocked in by a lap car. He again would pull alongside the 37VT to retake the lead on lap 174, inching ahead when the caution would fly on lap 177. On the restart Hoar would use the top lane to retake the lead. Helliwell again began to work the low side of the track, pulling to rear quarter panel of Hoar when the final caution flag would wave.
With 10 laps remaining an entire season would come down to one restart. With the title on the line Helliwell launched off the outside of the track to retake the lead for the final time. He would begin to pull away unchallenged. Hoar’s early race strategy to take tires on lap 62 would see him slip to forth in the final run down when fresher tires would prevail. Helliwell would go on to record his fourth win on the tour taking the checkered in the Fall Foliage 200 and win the 2012 American Canadian Tour Championship.
“This is unbelievable”, said Helliwell in victory lane. “We are just a few of guys racing week to week… To beat a team like Rick [Payea] has and a champion like Brian is just unreal. My hats off to Brian, we battled out there and that’s how it should be done. It felt like 200 laps of time trials today. It was as hard as you can go all day. Who would have thought we could win four races never mind the championship… I have to thank all the guys on the crew, my family and all of their support. We have sacrificed a lot to get here today."
“I need to give a tip of the cap to our competitors for being respectful of Brian and I today, said Helliwell. Guys like Jean-Paul [Cyr] who just got out of the way when he saw us battling. It speaks volumes to the character of people we race with in this series. I know I would do the same if the roles were reversed… so I have thank everyone for how they raced us today.”
One of the things Helliwell and Bernhardt are most proud of is they build their own chassis. In a day and age where most people run cars built by large suppliers Helliwell builds and sets up his own cars. The Helliwell family has built their own cars for over two decades. “When you stop and think about it, that we are the only ones running our car and we were able to accomplish something like this is just unreal…, said Helliwell. "Really racing as much as we do allows us to experiment and learn our car, I think being behind the wheel 25+ times a year with the late model has paid off. All that extra racing, extra distance races that people look at us crazy when they find out we raced X-amount of times this year allows us to be prepared for situations like today.”
The Bernhardt Motorsports team capped their ACT season with a victory as they finish the championship battle with 4 wins, 3 second place finishes, a 6th, 7th and a 30th. Finishing outside the top 7 only once with a part failure in round #3 of the season.
Bruce Bernhardt echoed Helliwell’s comments, “This is unbelievable, to beat Brian and that team. They have dominated this series. To be the best you have to beat to best. To come here and not ride around… To go out there and get it for ourselves is amazing.”
Helliwell laughed and in a Hallmark moment said, “We are just a couple of ordinary guys doing extraordinary things….”
The Bernhardt team will head back to Thunder Road Speedbowl to this coming weekend for the completion of 50th Annual Milk Bowl; where they will try and claw their way from a 22nd starting position in the first segment. $160,000 dollars are on the line for the unique three segment race. More details can be found at http://www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com/
Wayne and Bruce would like to thank the following partners for their help in making 2012 possible - 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 / Sunoco Race Fuels / The Brake Man / Joes Racing Products
Follow Wayne:
https://www.waynehelliwelljr.com
https://www.facebook.com/WayneHelliwellJr
https://twitter.com/#!/WayneHelliwell
Leif Tillotson Photo
Article Credit: Jason Lubin
Submitted By: Jason Lubin
