Elliott Wins Pole, then Grisdale Triple        Crown Championship

Although he was never mentioned in any of the track promotion leading up to the final Grisdale Triple Crown Race, in the first two races David Elliott had won one pole, led both races and was only 2 points behind the series leader. At the end of race three, David had also added his name to the list of Triple Crown Champions.

The team had worked very hard during the previous week to repair the body damage from the races on July 30th. When the trailer door opened, the bright yellow body had been replaced by 95% black...a look that surprised fans and competitors alike.

David started fifth in the first heat and quickly moved into second behind points leader Shawn Chenoweth. The two finished the race in those positions, padding Shawn's point lead to 3 points over David. In the second heat race, David started sixth and climbed to third by the end of the race. With Shawn finishing fifth in the second heat, David was only one point behind heading into the evening's 75-lap feature race. With two solid finishes in the heat race, David earned the pole for the feature - his second pole of the three-race series.

Twenty-one cars took the green flag for the feature and David quickly began pulling away from the field. The first 53 laps were run caution-free and David had built nearly a straightaway lead on the second-place car of Paul Howse.

"We really didn't want that caution," said David after the race. "The car was really fast and the lapped cars were very cooperative about giving us the outside lane to pass."

The remaining 22 laps were one heart-stopping moment after another for the #37 team. Two more cautions quickly flew. On the third restart, Paul Howse got the jump on David and passed him for the lead going into turn 1.

The caution flew again and David lined up on the outside of the front row for the restart. When the green flag flew, the #37 didn't take off with the other cars.

"The car is in second gear when we run under caution," explained David. "Normally I shift into third gear when we get the one lap to go signal...I forgot on that restart."

With cars stacked up behind David, the caution flew again so the field could restart properly. Howse again got a good jump, allowing Jason Shaw and Steve Laking to follow under David. David was on the outside of Laking coming out of turn two, when Laking blew a right-front tire and veered sharply right. David was able to slow the #37 Pennzoil Impala enough to avoid contact with Laking's #44 and not be pinched into the wall.

After the caution, David restarted in 3rd and was able to get past Shaw on the restart to reclaim second place. With three laps to go, the #22 of Bill Lassaline took a wild ride along the front stretch wall bringing out another caution.

Howse took advantage of an every-changing restart line and got a big jump coming to the final green flag. Fortunately, the jump was so good that David was able to slide down in front of the third place car of #78 Mark Watson.

Although David was quicker than Howse, he knew that a second-place finish locked up the Grisdale Championship, so he stayed on the bumper of the #8 all the way to the finish.

"After all the adversity and politics of the past week, it was good to get back to racing," said David. "The car was awesome, the crew did a great job and everything just fell into place. Now that we have the Grisdale title, we'll work on adding another track championship to the resume."

The late models have the weekend off this weekend, but we are back at Flamboro Next Saturday August 20th for their memorial Night, and if everything goes as planned we will be at Sunset Speedway to race their invitational 75 lap Late Model event on the 21st!

Hope to see everyone there!!