With U.S. Late Model Series Win
By Total Sports Quinte
Trenton’s Charlie Sandercock became the first Canadian to win the RUSH Dirt Late Model Series’ Battle of the Bay Speedweek in the United States.
According to a release from the RUSH series, Sandercock has won Flynn’s Tire Touring Series events in two Canadian provinces, but had never won one across the border in the United States. That changed April 15 as Sandercock passed Bryce Davis on lap four and survived several restarts throughout the 30-lap event for that first feature win by a Canadian driver in the 88 years at the historic Winchester Speedway in Virginia.
Sandercock’s fourth career Tour victory at four different speedways was worth $3,000.
Forty-two cars were on hand for the final night of the fifth annual “Battle of the Bay” Speedweek. Several rain showers throughout the afternoon and early evening tried to put a damper on the event, but track owner Greg Gunter pushed on and had the track ready to go about four hours after the scheduled start time. Fifteen new cars on Saturday night brought the total count to 61 different cars from seven states plus Ontario, Canada that competed in Speedweek. It was the first time since the inaugural Speedweek that all four nights were completed. Winchester has completed their Speedweek event all five years with 41 or more cars.
“Hats off to the track crew for sticking it out as it didn’t look promising for a while,” the 37-year-old Sandercock stated in the release. “Track conditions worked out for us and I can’t believe this happened. There are a lot of racers that were behind me and I knew I couldn’t give up until the last lap was done and here we are. I’m a high side kind of driver and always prefer it. I feel more comfortable than rolling around the bottom. The track kind of came to us tonight. It’s huge for me to cross the border and come down here and win whether it’s Virginia, Pennsylvania, or New York. I’ve raced with these guys for a long time and there’s a lot of stiff competition. We qualified for all four features and made three dashes – I didn’t think we’d do that good this week but here we are (in victory lane) finishing it off.”
Sandercock placed fourth in the Late Model division last year at Brighton Speedway. The 2023 season kicked off Saturday, May 6, 2023.
Check out Sandercock on Facebook at
Charlie Sandercock Racing.
Stay tuned to www.brightonspeedway.com and the Speedway’s Facebook page where more details will be posted as available.