Fans who braved the record breaking low temperatures to attend last Saturday night's racing program were rewarded with some of the finest races recorded so far this season, especially the big 45 lap feature event in which Norm Mackereth of Mississauga, Ontario overcame a late race surge by Jimmy Shampine to get the big $1500 win. For Mackereth, it was his initial feature victory of the season and for that matter, he became the first Canadian entry to record a triumph so far in the 1972 season.
When the green flag came down, there was the usual mad scramble for position. Ken Andrews in the 55 and Doug Syer in the 72, charged from their starting spots to take first and second place early in the event. Behind them a huge battle errupted among Jim Winks, Jim Cheney, Kempton Dates, Fred Graves, Don MacLaren, Norm Mackereth, Jim Shampine, Baldy Baker and John Logan. Mackereth threaded his way through traffic making some brilliant moves to assume the number three spot. Laps later he charged by Syer for second and went on to do battle with Andrews. Lap after lap, Ken came up with every trick to keep his orange 55 ahead of the Hot Wheels car 40 of Norm.
Finally on lap 18, Mackereth slipped under Andrews between turns three and four and began opening up a fine lead on the rest of the field. Andrews held on for second but had all the competition he could handle. It was the 55, 8ball, 72, 7, 19, 28, 37, 5, and 93 all fighting away for that number two spot. Andrews looked to be running a perfect groove but on lap 35 Shampine ducked underneath coming off turn two to assume the number two spot. Shampine then set sail for Mackereth and each lap closed in on the leader. With two laps to go, Jimmy had pulled to a car length of Norm, but the 40 was just running too good and Jimmy really made no serious challenge.
Down to the checkered flag came Stormin' Norman Mackereth with his "Hagen-Howard Chevy" a good two car lengths ahead of the 8ball of Jimmy Shampine of Clay, New York. Ken Andrews put down every challenge to take a fine third place with the 55, while former feature winner Baldy Baker took fourth spot with the blue 93. Rounding out the top five was Michigan ace Johnny Logan with the Max Dowker Special car 7.
Other feature finishers in order were: Doug Syer 72, Kempton Dates 28, Fred Graves 37, Don MacLaren 5, Jim Cheney 19, Jim Winks 59, Bob Seelman 74, Ronnie Wallace 90, Jim Muldoon 23, Ron Buckner 36, Dennie Wheeler 96, Ronnie Matteson 80, Lou Dabrowski 04, Ralph Denson 67, Sam Carista 30, Red Barnhart 66, Bruce Kraft 87, John Burkholder 1 and Bernie Grant 17.
Heats were taken by Norm Mackereth, Baldy Baker and Jim Shampine with the semi-final victories going to Ken Andrews and Doug Syer. The consolation race was won by John Logan.