Luke Whitteker rained out in North Carolina

 

Craig Revelle – Finish Line Web Design                               

IROQUOIS–It has been a bit of a slow start to the 2012 season for Luke Whitteker and the Whitteker Motorsports team.  They have been hard at work in their Iroquois, Ontario shop, and are fighting to find some consistency and gain some momentum as the season heats up.  This past weekend, the team had events planned at Mohawk International Raceway, Brockville Speedway and Cornwall Speedway, but Mother Nature would play a pivotal role in the schedule.

The first stop on the schedule was Mohawk International Raceway in Hogansburg, New York.  Despite a forecast of rain, the area stayed relatively dry until late afternoon when track officials were forced to cancel the evening’s events.

Rain was again in the forecast for Saturday, and while it did rain in the area most of the morning, the Speedway avoided the worst of it, and their racing program was on as scheduled. 

In his qualifying heat race, Luke started from third place, but struggled early, and finished the race in fourth.  

After making some adjustments to the car, Whitteker lined up for the 30 lap main event from inside of row three in fifth place.  

In the early stages of the race, Whitteker had moved up to third, but settled into fourth place after a series of cautions and a red flag for a major crash in turn three and four.  

At the checkered flag, Whitteker crossed the finish line with a fifth place finish.

Just before noon on Sunday, the wet weather again prevailed  and the Cornwall Speedway made their decision to cancel their racing program.

This coming weekend, Whitteker will be back at Mohawk International Raceway on Friday night, Brockville Speedway on Saturday and Cornwall Speedway on Sunday night.  

Early in the season, Whitteker sits eighth in points at Mohawk, 12th at Brockville Speedway and at Cornwall, after just one regular event, he is 12th in points.

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The Morrisburg Junior B Lions had no success this past weekend when they skated into Rideau Division territory against the Gananoque Islanders on Friday night in Morrisburg and the South Grenville Rangers, in Prescott on Saturday.

Friday night the Lions lost to the Islanders 7-2, and then, on Saturday, they were handed a 5-3 loss by the Rangers.

With the two weekend losses, the Lions fall further back in the St. Lawrence Division standings and now trail the fifth place Alexandria Glens by five points.

The Casselman Vikings continue to dominate the St. Lawrence Division with 31 points, while the Char–Lan Rebels have bumped into second place with 25 points.

Friday night in Morrisburg, the Islanders were held to a first period 1-0 lead on a goal  by Wyatt Cota.

They got it rolling in the second period with an unassisted short-handed goal from Chris Smith at 3:35 and then increased it to 3-0 at 5:51 of the period.

Peter Ketcheson, with help from Steven Savage and Chris Rutley, put the Lions on the scoreboard with a power-play goal at 7:32 of the second.

The Islanders answered to make it 4-1 with 5:49 left on the clock, but the Lions kept working at 16:53 Nicholas Pilon scored while the Lions were short-handed to cut the gap to 4-2.

Unfortunately, that was it for the Lions, as the Islanders went to work and nabbed Mikael Dion for another three unanswered third period goals for the 7-2 win.

Saturday night in Prescott, the Rideau Division’s fourth place South Grenville Rangers showed no mercy as they went up 2-0 over the Lions in the first period and increased it to 3-0 in the second.

They made it 4-0, early in the third period, before the Lions were able to get on the scoreboard at 7:35 with a short-handed goal from Clarke Veenstra assisted by Ty Hodgson.

One minute later the Rangers made it 5-1.

In the last 10 minutes of the third period, the Lions got it together for two goals.

Clarke Veenstra counted the first at 11:05 with Sylvester Bzdyl and Peter Ketcheson providing the assists and Brandon Chaffe scored on the Lions power-play, unassisted at 14:35.

Ryan Cooper was in the Lions net for the loss.

Coming up, the Lions travel to Athens on Sunday, December 9 for a 7:30 p.m. match against the Rideau Division’s first place Aeros.

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  In two games over the holidays, the South Dundas Atom B House Lions added two points on two ties to their regular season standings which see them in the fourth place spot of the […]