At the drop of the green flag, 29 drivers and 30 laps stood between Tristan Ladouceur and a victory. But the Alexandria, ON driver found the speed he needed on the outside to finally take home his first career DIRTcar Sportsman Series checkered flag.
“It feels good to finally check one of these off,” Ladouceur said. “It feels like it was a long time coming. We’ve had a lot of podium finishes with the Series. I am just so grateful to finally be on top.”
Ladouceur had an incredible season in Hoosier Racing Tire Weekly Championship competition at Mohawk International Raceway, winning 11 out of 11 Features in 2026. Luckily for him, Can-Am demanded a similar Mohawk mindset.
“We started fourth, and I was able to get to the top early,” Ladouceur noted. “I knew that there wasn’t much out there, but it was similar to what we have at Mohawk. I had to make my moves really early. After that, I got to the bottom, and we just had a really great car.”
Ladouceur got out in front with a sweeping high-side move. However, his lead did not stretch far.
“I was looking at the screen going on the front stretch, for sure watching for the #18 [Eisele],” Ladouceur said. “I knew that it would be really hard to make a pass on the outside, so I had to be patient and pick off the lapped cars one by one.”
Hometown hero and second-place finisher Gavin Eisele, from LaFargeville, NY, started third and gave chase for the duration of the Feature, but could not make an effective run on the race-winner.
“I had a really good car but wasn’t great on the bottom so I moved up to the middle,” Eisele said. “The holes were helping me get a good run down the hill. I felt really good in three and four in the middle.
“We were even speed-wise with Ladouceur, so I knew I had to get it done on a restart. I thought I got a really good run, but I didn’t quite clear him to get down in front of him. Great race. The track was pretty fun.”
Third-place Tyler Corcoran, from Central Square, NY, started sixth and raced himself onto the podium. Despite the success, he felt the car showed more speed than the result.
“After passing Richard [Murtaugh] in the Heat Race, we felt very confident with as good as this car has been,” Corcoran noted. “We finished fifth Thursday, second last night, and third tonight. We’ve been really good. Overall, we can’t complain when you finish third to these guys.
“We developed a really good package at Utica-Rome, and it’s transferred over well to Can-Am and now hopefully Oswego for Super DIRT Week. Everywhere we go, we’ve been good, so hopefully we can keep that going next week.”
Derrick McGrew Jr. finished fourth with Mike Fowler rounding out the Top 5.
UP NEXT: The DIRTcar Sportsman Championship Series returns to action on Friday, Sept. 18, at Mohawk International Raceway, joining the DIRTcar 358 Modified Series.
DIRTcar Sportsman Feature (30 Laps): 1. 92T-Tristan Ladouceur[4]; 2. 18E-Gavin Eisele[3]; 3. 64-Tyler Corcoran[6]; 4. 26-Derrick Mcgrew Jr[2]; 5. 410-Mike Fowler[9]; 6. 52-Jessica Power[11]; 7. 9-Logan Brown[10]; 8. 44-Mason Rogers[12]; 9. 2-Greg Henry[14]; 10. 33M-Richard Murtaugh[5]; 11. 03-Joshua Jock[1]; 12. 82-David Hackett[21]; 13. 16-Matt Barbour[17]; 14. 92-Frank Sibley[18]; 15. 54-Sullivan Dickey[16]; 16. 07W-Taylor Wason[28]; 17. FOX28-Tyler Stevenson[8]; 18. 621G-Trevor Gibbons[15]; 19. 33B-Bodie Marks[20]; 20. 3-Stephen Bushey[23]; 21. 711X-Connor Crane[13]; 22. 916-Nick Brundige[30]; 23. 714-Chris Darling[27]; 24. 51-Bryan Preville[29]; 25. 28$-Brian Harber[24]; 26. 12-Owen Bird[19]; 27. 16H-Tucker Halliday[26]; 28. 10-Trevor Houghton[22]; 29. (DNF) 78JR-Nigel Pendykoski[25]; 30. (DNF) 14-Camdin Cook[7]
