Kish Wins BRP CanAm Super Stock Series Dash

Thorold, Ont…Darren Kish used home track advantage and a front row starting position as leverage to win the BRP CanAm Super Stock Series Dash For Cash at Merrittville Speedway on Monday night.

Merrittville Speedway’s Monday night Victoria Day Special featured a DIRT Motorsports Sunoco Super DIRT Series event for Sportsman stock cars, but included a “teaser” for the fans with the TNT Motorsports sponsored $1200 ten car ten lap Dash for the dirt late model look a-likes of the BRP CanAm Super Stock Series.

“This was fun! I can’t wait to come back here on [Thursday] July 1st for our 30 lap show,” stated Kish, the former Merrittville Speedway DIRT Pro Stock champion. “If the fans liked this, wait until they see about 40 of my best friends go fender to fender for the points race. It will be spectacular! This track is perfect for these cars. There is a lot of room and it is fast.”

Kish of Port Colborne, ONT started his Atkinson’s Delivery Shaw Taurus on the outside of the front row. His dancing partner was Wellsville, NY’s Andy Miller in his Amsoil sponsored Grand Prix. They danced in crowd pleasing formation for just two laps until Kish broke away and built the six car length advantage he held when the checkered flag fell.

Miller held on for runner up honors. “I am happy. He [Kish] has a lot of laps at this track and we learned a lot. I am very happy that we made the trip. The track was great. It was the smoothest surface that I have been on all year. There’s lots of room to race. I had never seen this place before. I really like and can’t wait to come back,” stated Miller, as he prepared for his 2 ½ hour ride back to Wellsville, NY.

Tim Rockwell of Salamanca, NY was a surprise entry in the Dash. However, the bigger surprise was the outstanding third place finish that Rockwell earned. Tim’s racing operation is an all Tim show. He owns the GRT Monte Carlo, built the Chevy engine that powers the sharp orange #32, and sponsors the car via his Tim’s Auto business. When last sighted, Rockwell and his one man crew were headed north after crossing the Peace Bridge. Hopefully, they have since turned south and have made it home to Salamanca. Rockwell’s next race will be about ten miles from his home at the Little Valley Speedway on Sunday May 30.

Fourth place finisher in the Dash was Bruce Miller, Andy’s younger brother. Bruce was delighted with his finish. It isn’t that he considers fourth good enough, but rather that his gamble paid off. On Saturday night Bruce pulled out of the lead in the main at McKean County Raceway with the water temperature gauge pegged on his Strate Welding Supply Intrepid. Investigation of the engine in the garage on Sunday showed no damage and that the apparent problem was simply a faulty gauge. He gambled by only replacing the gauge. The new gauge worked as did everything else for the little guy from Wellsville, NY. This Miller set the tone for the entire evening with a dazzling performance in his heat race win.

Fifth place finisher in the Dash was another surprise / late entry, Kyle Bradigan. Bradigan has moved to Florida and has no definite racing plans for the 2004 season. Back home in Forestville, NY, Kyle’s dad, Dick, spent the winter freshening his Shaw Grand Prix hoping that Kyle would come back north for the racing season. Both dad and son were all smiles after the Dash and looking forward to Sunday’s race at Little Valley Speedway. A guess is that a Little Valley performance similar to the Merrittville performance will help cement plans for a full BRP CanAm Super Stock Series summer schedule.

Rounding out the top ten on Monday night were:

• 6th - Ron Baker of Freedom, NY who had won the night before at Bradford Speedway.
• 7th - Merrittville Speedway co-owner and 15 time track champion Pete Bicknell in Scott Beherns’ Monte Carlo.
• 8th - Former Little Valley and Genesee Super Stock champion Bob Babbitt in the Arrow Mart Grand Prix.
• 9th - Native American Neil Patterson of the Tuscarora Reservation in his new Pogo Engineering powered Rocket Monte Carlo.
• 10th - Batavia speedster Justin Chaddock in the Chaddock Performance Taurus.

The BRP CanAm Super Stock Series is designed to promote the extremely competitive Super Stock race teams that race weekly at Bradford [PA] Speedway, Freedom [NY] Raceway, Genesee [NY] Speedway, and McKean County [PA] Raceway. The cars are perhaps best described as 360 Dirt Late Models. The 2004 BRP CanAm Super Stock Series includes 13 programs with events scheduled at the weekly tracks plus Gasport [Ont] Speedway, Little Valley [NY] Speedway, Merrittville [Ont] Speedway, Ransomville [NY] Speedway, and Woodhull [NY] Raceway. Visit www.brpcanamsuperstockseries.com or contact Gary Montgomery at 315-536-3728 for more information.