NSS: Boutilier Takes Race, Come from Behind Championship

The objective was simple for Prime Brook, Nova Scotia’s Ross Lewis. After winning the first heat race of the afternoon which put the #88 on the pole for the NAPA Sportsman Series finale at Riverside Speedway, all he had to do was finish ninth, regardless where his other competitors finished to wrap up his first series championship.

Things are never as easy as they seem though.

After a last lap dust-up in the Highland Home Building Centres 75, Lewis went from battling for a top five spot in the race to finishing 14th on the afternoon. Up front, it was Aaron Boutilier taking the checkered flag over Andrew Hicken of Brudenell, PE and Dave Timmons of Inverness, NS. With Boutilier gaining 31 points on Lewis in the feature and the Porter’s Lake, NS native coming into the feature 26 points behind, it was enough for Boutilier to come from behind to take his first NAPA Sportsman Series championship by five points over Lewis, unofficially 802 to 797.

Phil Barkhouse Jr. of Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, who won the other leg of the series and finished fifth on Saturday, finished third overall in the standings. He will unofficially finish four markers out of Lewis for the second place spot in the standings.

Official standings to follow soon.

Photo by McCarthy Photographic