Rick Ellis inched even closer to the top of the driver points standings in the Late Model Division at Laird International Raceway on Thursday night.
Ellis, who is currently trailing Michael Gold in the points standings, began his night with a second place finish in heat one to Gold. Heat two saw George Wilson take it ahead of Jeremy Van Hoek and Monday night’s feature winner Rob Sartini.
In the Late Model feature event Ellis took charge and managed to hold of Gold long enough to take the win in the feature which helped him gain ground in the points standings on the front-running Gold. Rod Bolduc, who won the Late Model fast car dash ahead of Bolduc and Gold, finished the race in third spot.
Because Ellis was not a part of the fast car dash, the $500 bounty that has been placed on Gold was not collected.
In the Modified division, Larry Ebare was the winner after finishing third in both heat races. Ebare finished ahead of Randy Hache and Kevin Oicle. Oicle had a strong day as well as he won both heat races in the division.
The Modified division saw the top three stay the same for both heat races as Oicle finished first, with Shawn Ritchie finishing second and Ebare finishing in third spot.
The Factory Stock division saw Ritchie, doing double duty on the night in both the Factory Stock and modified divisions, take the feature race along with a first place finish in the second heat. John Fragale and Chris Mcdougal placed second and third respectively in the feature while Steve Kent won heat one.
In Pure Stock, it was status quo through the feature race as well as the two heat races as the top three stayed the same for all three races.
Len Bibeau placed first in the two heats before winning the feature, while Joe Addison and Bill Butler placed second and third respectively to Bibeau in all three races.
The Stock Four division saw Scott Henning take top spot in the feature ahead of Gord Hunt and Dave King. In the heat races, heat one saw Steve Baraluk take the win, while Hunt and King finished second and third. Heat two saw King take the win with Henning and Tyler Evoy rounding out the top three.
Action at LIR continues next Thursday as the season begins to wind down. Action kicks off with the trials beginning at 6 p.m. and the races starting at 7 p.m.