By Joe Grabianowski
Cody McPherson, from St. Catharines, ON, led a trio of Canadian DIRTcar Sportsman Championship Series drivers across the finish line at Land of Legends Raceway to win the Sportsman portion of the Gerald Haers Memorial. Shane Pecore and Jessica Power finished close behind, claiming the final two steps on the podium.
McPherson won his last Series race in a borrowed car, but he was back in “Old Faithful” No. 7 at the famed Canandaigua, NY fairground for his second win of the 2025 Championship Series.
“We’ve always struggled here, so to get a win is sweet,” McPherson said. “We finished second in the Heat, but we weren’t even close to Murtaugh. I came in and said we gotta change all four shocks. That’s what we did. The last few times we’ve been here, the best we’ve gotten was fifth, and it took everything we had to get that fifth. We knew we had to try something if we were going to win it.”
Those wholesale changes paid dividends for the 40-lap Feature. Starting seventh, McPherson was immediately in close-quarters battles in the heart of the field. After several restarts, the race had a long green flag run until the caution flew in the final two laps. McPherson switched his line and shot by the drivers ahead of him, and began to hunt leader Mike Fowler.
Once McPherson cleared Fowler, it looked like it would be clear sailing, but rival Shane Pecore, from Cornwall, ON, followed him right through to the front. Pecore reeled McPherson in and took several stabs at the lead on the outside.
“I got tight there just running the bottom, but there was a hole on the bottom of Turns 1 and 2,” McPherson noted. “You couldn’t carry too much speed or you’d upset the car, and it would get tight and you’d miss the bottom. After that last restart, I said screw it, I’m going to run the middle and slide myself, and if he goes under me, he goes under me. At that point, I’d already seen him on the top of me, so I figured, ‘What the hell? I’ll try it.’”
The crowd held their breath in the closing laps as Pecore nudged McPherson in the rear bumper while the pair battled out of Turn 4, but both drivers hung on without incident in a display of good sportsmanship.
“I switched up my line to keep him confused,” McPherson said. “He got me, but he lifted. I’ve raced Shane long enough to know he’ll race me clean. I wasn’t too concerned about it. Luckily, we were both able to keep going.”
Pecore had a head of steam when the contact was made.
“I was getting such a good run in, and he switched up lanes where he ran a lane higher going in and tried to diamond it off Turn 4,” Pecore said. “I just got into his bumper a little too much. I let off right away, hoping it wouldn’t go around because it was a good enough shot. Luckily, he kept it under him, and I didn’t look like a bad guy for that. Definitely unintentional.”
Pecore is in a tight points battle for the championship, which looked in jeopardy in the early going.
“We didn’t start too well,” Pecore noted. “I didn’t think we had a really good piece early. I don’t know if we loaded up with fuel too much and made the nose shove the first 10 laps. I started picking up the pace, and once I found the middle, sliding it to the top, we really picked up some speed. I definitely thought I had a little better car than Cody [McPherson] at the end. He’s so good that if you show him a nose, he’ll steal your line. But he races so clean, so it’s a pleasure to race with guys like that. We’ll take a real good points night and keep on plugging away.”
Jessica Power, from Kingston, ON, took full advantage of a wide race track in the final stages to make the podium.
“It was a racy track,” Power said. “I am kind of hit and miss here. All night, I felt a little bit off. I thought for sure during the first half of the Feature that I really didn’t have anything. The last 10 or 15 laps, the car came alive, and it was a good run for us.”
Justin Liechti battled amongst the top three throughout the race before Power took over with a dynamic late-race pass.
“I wasn’t sure if I could make it stick,” Power said. “There was a bump in Turns 1 and 2, and the number 21 [Justin Liechti] hit it, slid up, and I got the launch off the bottom. It opened the door for me, and I didn’t think he’d slip up with such a few laps to go, but it ended up being a good night.”
Emmett Waldron drove up to fourth out of the 12th starting spot, and Justin Liechti hung on for a top-five finish.
Next up, the DIRTcar Sportsman Championship Series helps kick off Malta Massive Weekend at Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Friday, September 19.
RESULTS:
DIRTcar Sportsman Series 40 (40 Laps): 1. 7-Cody McPherson[7]; 2. 0-Shane Pecore[3]; 3. 52-Jessica Power[4]; 4. 4-Emmett Waldron[12]; 5. 21J-Justin Liechti[2]; 6. 92-Tristan Ladouceur[14]; 7. 10G-Austin Germinio[9]; 8. 12G-Matt Guererri[6]; 9. 64-Tyler Corcoran[20]; 10. 10-Karl Comfort[15]; 11. 18E-Gavin Eisele[10]; 12. 41S-Chase Spoor[26]; 13. 78JR-Nigel Pendykoski[24]; 14. 410-Mike Fowler[1]; 15. 35T-Cameron Tuttle[13]; 16. 113-Frank Guererri[23]; 17. 01-Zach Buff[27]; 18. F28-Tyler Stevenson[18]; 19. 16X-Savannah Laflair[28]; 20. B17-TJ Frost[11]; 21. 54-Sullivan Dickey[16]; 22. 10H-Trevor Houghton[30]; 23. 714-Chris Darling[5]; 24. 33-Richard Murtaugh[8]; 25. 1F-AJ Lloyd[25]; 26. 53-Tyler Foster[21]; 27. 72-Hunter Hollenbeck[22]; 28. 28-Mitch Dumont[17]; 29. 44C-Dave Conant[19]; 30. 14-Camdin Cook[29]
Podium: Shane Pecore (left), Cody McPherson (center), and Jessica Power (right) / Joe Grabianowski Photo
