July 17, 2005 - Bowmanville Ontario.
The Tribospec / Sunoco Lubricant Ontario Legends Series made their first visit of two visits to Mosport Speedway Saturday with the top three drivers only 5 points apart. Andy Warbutton (24 Shoeless Joe's) and Steve Navratil (55 Super Tint Inc.) tied for the points lead and Bruce Grimes (88 Tascor Construction) five points behind them.
Once again the weather didn't co-operate, after the first 2 heats the rain started and put every thing on hold but Brian Bassett, Mosport Race Director, and his crew were determined to get the racing in. After a lengthy delay the racing began but on a shortened schedule to make up time. The Legends were going right to their 20 lap feature.
The feature started with the top 3, in points, all starting at the front of the outside row, rookie driver Chad Windsor (5 Wright Excavating) had the pole, Grimes 2nd, Kevin Fletcher (1 Its a Wrap) 3rd, Navratil 4th, Jim Cuthbertson (D S Martin Mechanical) 5th and Warbutton 6th.
Navratil was able to get on the inside behind Windsor by turn one and then pass him for the top spot by the end of the first lap. Grimes and Warbutton, still back in 3rd and 4th were fighting for position and trying to get by Windsor at the same time, this allowed Navratil to open up a 5 car length lead. After getting by Windsor, Warbutton and Grimes, battled for the next few laps with Warbutton taking 2nd spot but this allowed Navratil to open up the lead to 12 car lengths.
The next 10 laps Warbutton set his sights on Navratil and closed up the gap. The last 5 laps had Warbutton knocking on Navratil's back bumper almost getting by. As the checkered flag fell the 2 were glued together with Navratil getting the win, Warbutton 2nd, Grimes 3rd, Jim Cuthbertson 4th and Kevin Fletcher rounding out the top 5. ..... Results
It was another caution free feature with hard fought battles throughout the whole field. The sound of applause and cheers filled the stands as Steve Navratil picked up his trophy.
In a post race interview Navratil said "As the crossed flags were shown (indicating the half way point in the race), I could see Warbutton coming and wished that it was 2 to go. Navratil said "Andy made me work for the win."
The win nudges Navratil to the points lead with 589, Warbutton with 585 and Grimes 575.
The Tribospec / Sunoco Lubricant Ontario Legends Series will return, for their last visit this year, to Mosport Speedway August 6th but their first of three appearances with the CASCAR SUPER SERIES this year.
The Ontario Legends are off next week but return to Peterborough Speedway July 30th.