Good as Gold on Canada Day at Laird

Thursday was one of those nights for Michael Gold.

The 21-year-old won the longest race in Laird International Raceway history Thursday night in convincing fashion.

In honour of Canada Day, Laird hosted a twin 40 lap feature in the late model division among other features on Thursday night and the 80-lap feature stole the show.

The late model division began to entertain the crowd with some of the fastest qualifying times of the season early on as Rod Bolduc and George Wilson both managed qualifying times under 15 seconds.

In fact, Bolduc's qualifying time of 14.883 seconds is the fastest qualifying time this season. The top four finishers in the late model qualifying were separated by less that two-tenth's of a second.

The key to this race was that it would be split into two races. The racers would begin the second half of the race in the same position that they finished the first race in.

Gold, who entered the race in a tie with Jason Praysner for top spot in the late model point standings after picking up some missed qualifying points from earlier this season, started the 80-lap race in fifth position, behind Bolduc, Wilson, Praysner and Hiiemaa.

Wilson took the lead off the green flag and began a heated battle with Gold for the lead and top spot heading into the second half of the race, which had a $1,000 purse going to the winner.

On lap 20, Bolduc, who had the fastest qualifying time, found himself in trouble as he blew a tire and did not return to the race.

On lap 37, Wilson, who had led the entire race up to that point, found himself with car trouble. The problem turned out to be a shredded throttle linkage in his engine.

With Wilson pulling himself from the first half, in hopes of making a return in the second half, Gold took the opportunity and ran with it, taking over the lead from Wilson for the final three laps of the first half. Gold finished the first half of the race ahead of Rick Ellis, Hiiemaa, Paul Seabrook and Laird rookie Jeremy Van Hoek.

In the second half of the race, with Gold holding top spot from the first half, Wilson made his return, albeit with a three-lap deficit to make up. The second 40-laps saw Gold have to battle Praysner early on to hold the lead, although Praysner was relegated to the back of the field when he made contact with Gold's car, causing the leader to spin out on lap 58.

Gold saw a few battles along the way, but managed to hold off the pack to take home the win with Hiiemaa taking second and Dave Seabrook taking third.

Wilson did manage to make up one lap after passing Gold late in the race as Gold let the veteran pass him while still keeping position to hold on for the win.

Gold commented on Wilson's unfortunate engine trouble that caused him to drop back in the field after leading for much of the first half of the race and also commented on letting Wilson pass him during the second half of the race.

"I though I had him on the inside," Gold said of Wilson. "Things happen though. Everyone gets a break. (The rest of the race) I just knew I had to keep the inside closed. (In letting Wilson pass me) when two guys are racing together, it slows you down."

Gold added that he was never really sure how close Hiiemaa was to him in the second half of the race and was concentrating on holding the lead and keeping himself in contention to win the race, which he ultimately held on to do.

In other feature races held on Thursday night, the factory stock division saw Steve Kent continue his winning streak in the division as he took his fifth straight race finishing just ahead of second place Kevin Pace. David Slingsby finished in third spot.

In the Pure stock division, Cottage Park, Michigan native Ray Golladay took home the checkered flag, while Butler Bill finished in second spot.

The Modified division saw Kevin Oicle take the win with Jim Gort Jr. finishing second and Larry Lebare finishing third.

The final feature of the night saw Mike Baraluk finish first in the Stock four division feature.