Winter Nationals Capped Off With Masters Championship for Laughy

For Calgary, Alberta’s Ira Laughy, INEX Winter Nationals finished on a strong note.

Laughy won the final three features to ultimately take home the 2016 INEX Winter Nationals Masters championship at Orlando Speedworld. Laughy’s worst finish was second, scoring runner-up finishes to Tim Brockhouse on the first two days of competition. St. John’s, Newfoundland driver Phil Fowler was 19th overall for the week in the point standings after a mechanical failure put him out of the final day of racing early. With only two days on the board after a blown motor on Tuesday, Moncton, New Brunswick’s Gary Bursey was credited with 24th place in the standings.

Nicholas Naugle entered Day Five with the point lead in the Semi Pro division but would leave Orlando Speedworld with a second place finish in the week long standings. Naugle started on the pole for the feature but was quickly passed by Tyler Truex. Naugle pressured Truex for the top spot but a bump exiting Turn Four sent Naugle’s #88 car sailing into the outside wall while Truex kept control of his race car. Naugle would limp his car home to an eighth place finish on the final day while Truex would go on to win the race and the championship. Cory Hall brought his car home seventh on the final day, which put him eighth in the standings for the week. Will Farrell was 15th on Friday and 16th overall for the week.

Braden Langille capped off the week in the Young Lions Legends division with a third straight second place finish. The feature was a wild affair as Gio Bromante and Brody Pope, the two championship leaders, retired from the race in consecutive cautions with crash damage. It opened up the door for eventual feature winner Eddie Fatscher to take the championship. Langille, who started off the week with two DNFs, finished only 31 points back of the champion in fifth place.

Austin MacDonald and Sam Rogers battled to top five finishes in the Outlaw division feature on Day Five of Winter Nationals. MacDonald would come home fourth and Rogers fifth, meaning MacDonald would edge the sophomore Bandolero driver in the standings by three points. Michael Cormier finished seventh on Friday which locked him up sixth in the standings. Josh Langille was eighth and Nathan Blackburn was tenth on Day Five, which put them eighth and 11th in the week long standings, respectively.

Nathan Langille was ninth and Owen Mahar 15th in the final Bandolero Bandit feature of the week. Both finished in the top ten in the standings for the week, with Nathan Langille placing sixth and Owen Mahar ninth.

We will have a final wrap-up from the INEX Winter Nationals later on this week.