Corey Wheeler came away victorious Saturday night at Brockville-Ontario Speedway, scoring the DIRTcar 358 win in the 100-lap, $10,000-to-win, Fall Nationals.
William Racine and Erick Rudolph occupied the front row to start the night’s matchup, followed by Wheeler and Ryan Arbuthnot behind them. At the drop of the green flag, Racine shot out in front to pace the field with Rudolph following close behind. Racine held the lead until Rudolph made his way around him on Lap 25 to find clean air.
The Ransomville, NY driver commanded the lead for majority of the race, remaining largely unchallenged until 15 laps remained. Williamson followed behind in second, and Wheeler remained close to the front in third. After Williamson and Rudolph made contact in Turn 1, Wheeler was given space to shoot out in front. It was all that the Cornwall, ON driver needed, as he stayed steady for the remaining 15 laps to score his first DIRTcar 358 Series win.
“Sometimes you need a little luck to get these big wins,” Wheeler said. “When I saw Mat (Williamson) and Erick (Rudolph) get together, I just went for it and it worked. It really is a dream come true.”
Williamson was able to untangle himself from the contact and break free, following behind Wheeler. He held on to finish runner-up and officially capture the 2023 DIRTcar 358 Modified Series title.
“Second place isn’t bad, congrats to Corey (Wheeler) and his team, it’s a cool win for them, and we’ll take it.”
Arbuthnot rounded out the podium, finishing in third-place.
“I kinda got one lane there at the end and everyone was just hanging on,” Arbuthnot said. “A top three is still a good night.”
Kyle Dingwall came in fourth place and Brian McDonald finished in fifth place to round out the top five.
DIRTcar 358 Championship (100 Laps): 1. 47S-Corey Wheeler[3]; 2. 6-Mat Williamson[5]; 3. R70-Ryan Arbuthnot[4]; 4. 66-Kyle Dingwall[14]; 5. 151KB-Brian McDonald[8]; 6. 25-Erick Rudolph[2]; 7. 25*-Steve Bernier[7]; 8. 124-Mario Clair[17]; 9. 5-Amy Holland[11]; 10. 54R-William Racine[1]; 11. 39-Ryan Bartlett[27]; 12. 41-Samuel Charland[24]; 13. 17-Tristan Draper[12]; 14. 01-Chris Raabe[15]; 15. 70A-Alex Payne[19]; 16. 15B-Brianna Ladouceur[18]; 17. 91-Felix Roy[22]; 18. 18JR-Louis Jackson Jr[23]; 19. 117-CJ Castelletti[29]; 20. (DNF) ONE-David Hebert[9]; 21. (DNF) 77E-Ryan Stabler[13]; 22. (DNF) 44-Johnathon Ferguson[20]; 23. (DNF) 23-Joey Ladouceur[25]; 24. (DNF) 12-Darren Smith[16]; 25. (DNF) 11S-Steve Lewis[30]; 26. (DNF) M1-David Marcuccilli[6]; 27. (DNF) 35M-Mike Mahaney[10]; 28. (DNF) 31-Lance Willix[21]; 29. (DNF) 19-Tim Fuller[26]; 30. (DNF) 63-Jarrett Herbison[28]
