Richard Murtaugh had never seen Brockville Ontario Speedway before Saturday’s Fall Nationals.
That didn’t deter the Fulton, NY driver, though, as he passed Jacob Nadeau on Lap 23 and never looked back to score his fourth DIRTcar Sportsman Series victory of 2025.
Murtaugh finishes the points-paying season with wins in two of the last three races. However, the car he brought to Brockville was different than what he won with at Super DIRT Week 53.
“[The car] wasn’t phenomenal,” Murtaugh said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. This is a totally different car than I’ve been running. But apparently, I left something loose because I was all over the place.
“To get a Super DIRT Week win and then to come here and win this is unbelievable.”
Emmett Waldron led the field to the green in the 50-lap Feature, aiming for his first Series championship. The Savannah, NY driver quickly drove away from his competition, but his fortunes changed when he reached the back of the field.
On Lap 13, Waldron’s chances at the 2025 title slipped away, as he collided with Travis Houghton, a lap car, giving Waldron a right rear flat tire.
The incident handed the lead to Jacob Nadeau, who was searching for his first career Series victory. It also allowed Dominick Merkley, Murtaugh, and Series points leader Shane Pecore to move into the top five.
When the race resumed, Nadeau held the lead before a pair of cautions flew. The first came on Lap 17, when three cars spun on the backstretch. The other was for Merkley on Lap 23, who had a mechanical failure while running in second.
That next restart was the opportunity Murtaugh needed, as he used his momentum on the outside lane to swing past Nadeau through Turns 3 and 4 to take the lead on Lap 24. From there, no one could touch Murtaugh, who rocketed to his seventh career Series win.
“I was just kind of going for it,” Murtaugh said. “The car just kept getting worse, and worse, and worse. I knew I had to make something happen there and kind of went for it, and here we are.”
Nadeau crossed the line second and said he was content with his run despite losing the lead to Murtaugh.
“I’m very happy,” Nadeau said. “The car is perfect. Thank you to all of my team for making this possible this weekend.”
Pecore rounded out the podium to clinch his second DIRTcar Sportsman Series championship, and first since 2019. The Cornwall, ON driver said his team overcame adversity during the championship season, which included staying out of trouble in the final event.
“This one is for the crew,” Pecore said. “I’ve got so much great help. Just so many great people on this hot rod. We haven’t been on tour since 2019, and then once our home tracks got back on the DIRTcar banner, it was time to come back and see what we could do.
“We had a lot of bad luck but did a lot of championship-level shit this year. We hurt a motor at [Albany-Saratoga] and still finished ninth, and I think five out of the eight races we drew in the last row. We definitely had a good car tonight but wanted to be cautious.”
Tristan Ladouceur finished fourth, and Matt Barbour rounded out the top five.
UP NEXT: The DIRTcar Sportsman Series will race on one of the biggest stages with a visit to The Dirt Track at Charlotte for the World Short Track Championships Oct. 30-Nov. 1.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision.
DIRTcar Sportsman Feature (75 Laps): 1. 33-Richard Murtaugh[7]; 2. 95JR-Jacob Nadeau[3]; 3. 0-Shane Pecore[8]; 4. 92T-Tristan Ladouceur[10]; 5. 16B-Matt Barbour[4]; 6. 35B-Brennan Moore[11]; 7. 43-Jeff Beaumier[14]; 8. 8KL-Karl Letendre[17]; 9. 35D-Dylan Moore[22]; 10. 4-Emmett Waldron[1]; 11. 48D-Sylvain Dupuis[15]; 12. 79-Chris Hale[25]; 13. 44-Ryan Barrett[23]; 14. 72B-Brandon Beauregard[13]; 15. 23D-Michael Dillon[16]; 16. 3-Adam Rozon[21]; 17. 18J-Jordan Wood[26]; 18. 88-Fire Swamp[12]; 19. 16X-Savannah Laflair[24]; 20. 24-Doug Walsh[28]; 21. 9-Logan Brown[27]; 22. 12T-Trey Ladouceur[5]; 23. 52-Jessica Power[18]; 24. 10-Trevor Houghton[20]; 25. 98H-Domonick Merkley[2]; 26. 17T-Trent Wallace[19]; 27. 12K-Kyle Kudrinko[29]; 28. 35PL-Nathan Lambert[30]; 29. (DQ) 88L-Jeffrey Lapalme[6] 30. (DQ) 88K-Dylan Kirkland[9]
