Press release provided by the RUSH Late Model Series.

Trenton’s Charlie Sandercock celebrated a historical dirt racing win with his TEEM 57 on U.S soil as he captured the Battle of the Bay finale on Saturday night.

The RUSH Dirt Late Model Series presented headed to Winchester Speedway in Virgina as 42 cars were on hand for the final night of the fifth annual “Battle of the Bay” Speedweek.  Several rain showers throughout the afternoon and early evening tried to put a damper on the event, but track owner Greg Gunter pushed on and had the track ready to go about four after the scheduled start time. Fifteen new cars on Saturday night brought the total count to 61 different cars from seven states plus Ontario, Canada that competed in Speedweek. It was the first time since the inaugural Speedweek that all four nights were completed. Winchester has completed their Speedweek event all five years with 41 or more cars.

Sandercock has won Flynn’s Tire Touring Series events in two Canadian provinces, but had never won one across the border in the United States. That changed on Saturday night as Sandercock passed Bryce Davis on lap four and survived several restarts throughout the 30-lap event to become the first Canadian to ever win a feature in the 88 years at the historic Winchester Speedway.  Sandercock’s fourth career Tour victory at four different speedways was worth $3,000; meanwhile, after mechanical gremlins in his heat race, Kyle Hardy charged from 23rd to third to earn his second $1,000 3C Graphix “Battle of the Bay” Speedweek title in three years.

“Hats off to the track crew for sticking it out as it didn’t look promising for a while,” acknowledged the 37-year-old Trenton, Ontario racer. “Track conditions worked out for us and I can’t believe this happened. There are a lot of racers that were behind me and I knew I couldn’t give up until the last lap was done and here we are. I’m a high side kind of driver and always prefer it. I feel more comfortable than rolling around the bottom. The track kind of came to us tonight. It’s huge for me to cross the border and come down here and win whether it’s Virginia, Pennsylvania, or New York. I’ve raced with these guys for a long time and there’s a lot of stiff competition. We qualified for all four features and made three dashes- I didn’t think we’d do that good this week but here we are (in victory lane) finishing it off.”

For the second straight race, Davis took the early lead before third starting Sandercock used the outside to take the lead on a restart on lap four. Seventh starting Joe Martin cracked the top five on lap five. Sandercock meanwhile pulled away on lap seven, while Russell Erwin challenged Davis for second. Sandercock opened up a half-straightaway lead when he caught lapped traffic on lap 10. A caution for Charles Smith’s spin slowed action with 12 laps scored. When racing resumed, Martin continued moving forward taking third from Erwin with Mike Wonderling following. Martin ran down Davis and caught him on lap 18 then pulled alongside in a side-by-side battle on lap 19 before Dale Hollidge slowed to bring out the caution.

Back under green, Martin, Wonderling, and Erwin battled hard for runner-up with Martin going around in turn four as three others were collected. For the second straight race, Davis lost power losing several positions as Wonderling, Erwin, and Hardy moved into positions two through four on lap 21. Hardy continued his way to the front getting under and past Erwin for third on lap 27. The following lap, Erwin found himself in a three-wide battle down the frontstretch when contact was made sending Erwin into a violent series of flips. Erwin climbed out on his own power and was further evaluated by medical personnel. Erwin was selected as the TBM Brakes “Tough Brake of the Night”.
Sandercock would keep Wonderling and Hardy at bay over the final two laps to secure his first Tour win since July 13, 2019 at LeRPM Speedway in Quebec. The Deerhaven Powersports/Belleville Fabricating-sponsored #57 crossed the finish line first by a margin of 0.338 seconds.

Wonderling earned $1,500 for his career best Tour finish in second. “We finished ninth the first night then went off on the hook and didn’t make the feature the last two nights, but tonight we ended on a good note,” explained the 49-year-old Wellsville, NY racer. “Charlie (Sandercock) was really good and I don’t think he lifted on those restarts. On that last one I wished we had more laps to go because I could pull up alongside of him. Congratulations to Charlie. I’ve raced with him quite a bit; he’s a good guy. Also to Kyle Hardy, who raced me clean. When I heard he was third on that restart I thought I better get up on the wheel. I know he has a lot more laps around here than I do.”

Trenton’s No.11 Kyle Sopaz also participated in the four-day Rush Late Model series that welcomed drivers to Delaware International, Georgetown, Potomac and Winchester Speedways.