Belyea Salvages Top Five Finish at Can Am

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Belyea Salvages Top Five Finish at Can Am; Tough Night at Brockville With ODLM Series
Craig Revelle – Finish Line Web Design

August 23, 2011



With a busy weekend lined up, Greg Belyea and his Excel Tower Service Racing team were looking forward to rejoining the Ontario Dirt Late Model Series for their final two events as they made their way through Eastern Ontario with stops at Brockville Speedway on Saturday and Cornwall Speedway on Sunday. Before joining up with the ODLM Series, Belyea had the usual Friday night stop at Chapman’s Can Am Motorsports Park to deal with first.



Belyea arrived at Can Am on Friday afternoon, looking to regain their point lead that they have had for most of the season. He entered the night just four points out of the lead. After a crash in his qualifying heat, the night looked like it was going to end early for Belyea, with no time to fix the damages. It wasn’t long before another competitor (Dean Patterson) came over to Belyea’s pit area, and after hearing that the car was done for the evening, he insisted that Greg use his car for the feature. Belyea drove the car to a fifth place finish, keeping him in contention for the championship.



“I do not know Dean Patterson all that well, and when he offered up his car for the feature I had to consider it carefully”, says Belyea. “The thought of what would happen if I get in a wreck crossed my mind, and when I mentioned that to Mr. Patterson he told me not to worry. I really have to thank Dean for everything he does for our sport, and for offering us his car for the feature”.



The rest of the weekend, Belyea had the Ontario Dirt Late Model Series on his schedule with stops at Brockville Speedway on Saturday and Cornwall Speedway on Sunday. Belyea was fast early, setting the second fastest speed overall out of the 30 car field in practice. In his qualifying heat race, he started from the sixth position and quickly began moving up through the field. By lap three he was into a qualifying spot, but just one lap later he was involved in a spin in turn two, and had to restart from the rear. With handling issues during the qualifier, Belyea was forced to run the B-Main. He started at the rear of the field again, and charged to second place, solidifying his spot in the 30 lap main event. Belyea rolled off the starting grid from the 16th position. Again he started moving up through the field and was up to 12 for a lap two restart. Belyea escaped major damage in a multi-car pile up in turn one on lap ten that brought out the red flag, and when the race resumed, he was now up to eighth place. On lap 21, Belyea’s car drifted high off the banking and lost several positions and finished the race with a disappointing 13th place finish.



The final race in the ODLM Series was set for Cornwall Speedway on Sunday night. With a persistent rain falling all morning, Cornwall officials made the decision to cancel the racing program. Belyea ended the ODLM Series third in overall points.



This coming weekend, Belyea will be back at Chapman’s Can Am Motorsports Park on Friday night, looking to gain some valuable points as he chases Lee Gill for the 2011 track championship. Belyea is currently 16 points out of the lead, with just two points races remaining.



Greg Belyea and Excel Tower Service along with the Brighton Speedway would like to remind everyone about the Great Crate Race taking place at the Brighton Speedway on September 17th, 2011. The unprecedented $5000 to win Late Model event will see cars from all over Ontario, New York State, Pennsylvania and beyond battle for a purse of more then $20000. For more information, visit www.finishlinewebdesign/greatcraterace.



For more information on Greg Belyea and the Excel Tower Service racing team, please visit our website, www.exceltowerracing.com.