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20 economist suntribune sports thursday july 4 2002 stoufmle downed in final but gains berth at nationals the stouffville jones pools midgets experienced deja vu when they took to uie ball diamond last weekend to compete in the midget boys elimina tion softball tournament in oshawa two years ago as bantamaged players and playing host to an elimi nation tournament the stouffville crew lost its first game but rallied to win the next seven before succumbing to kitchener in the final at last weekends event the jones pools midgets lost their opening con test but they overcame that bit of adversity and stormed back to post eight straight wins before losing the final game to the scarborough wolverines 2- 1 in the deciding game of their double elimination tournament final for the stouffville entry though all was not lost as the secondplace finish let it advance to the canadian champi onships which are in napanee from aug lltol8 in reaching the final stouffville lost tits first game to chepstow 82 before beating kitchener 42 burgessville 5- 0 preston 101 waterloo 20 elmira 7- 0 grafton 70 and chepstow 10 in the semifinal in the championship stouffville faced the previously undefeated scarborough wolverines and emerged with a hardfought 10 win to force a deciding game in the double knockout format however fatigue it- was the teams tenth game in three days and a failure to capitalize on scoring opportunities in the final two innings surfaced as scarborough claimed a 2- 1 victory mennos eliminated in quarterfinals the stouffville mennos advanced to the quarterfinals of the labatts challenge softball tournament in r sound before they were elimi nated with a 21 loss to the north huron knights wingham on sunday after losing their first two games of the tournament to eventual tourna ment champion port elgin 40 and toronto teamwork 90 the mennos came back to defeat the shakespeare falcons 62 requiring to defeat its next oppo nent by three runs in the event of a tiebreaker to determine the final play off spot stouffville responded with an 115 win overwiarton h facing the melborne thunder in a wild card game the mennos prevailed 75 and advanced to the quarter finals overall i think we did okay said mennos coach art burkholder the guys had a good time and thats what itvaflabout stretching it to the limit atto sharks third baseman dave doyle stretches to the limit in an attempt to field this ground ball that was hit by a star choice batter during a b division contest saturday during the annual buttermakers ball tournament at memorial park among division winners in this years competition were kibosh b division the outlaws c division and the wizards d division mad hopes to improve on seventhplace effort gormley resident will be racing in front of family and friends this weekend during molson indy after stepping onto the victo ry podium in two of his last three races jonathan macri was hoping to do it again at the cart grand prix of chicago last sunday unfortunately for the 20- yearold gormley resident a trip to that elusive stand was not in the cards as he steered his vehi cle to a seventhplace finish after starting the weekend placing third in the friday prac tice session and sixth in the saturday practice session macri fell back to 10th in qualifying the pl racing team laboured to find the right setup but found itself more than a halfsecond behind eventual winner ryan hunterreay from a lothplace start macri pounced on the competi tion and gained two spots his ntn bearingsmiller genuine draft battlefield rentals swift was quicker compared to his qualifying car as evidenced by posting the fourthfastest lap of the race however the onemile oval seemed to disappoint as macri found himself duelling for eighth ninth and 10th place for the entire race macris biggest break came just two laps before the conclu sion when he caught the eighth jonathan macri intends to take a slightly different approach when he races in toronto this weekend and seventh place drivers who were themselves being held up by back markers macri vaulted to seventh where he would fin ish despite the performance macri accentuated the positive tenth isnt where you want to qualify and as drivers learned very quickly chicago motor speedway is not an easy track to pass on we improved lap times no doubt its a tough go when you start in the midpack but things turned out well overall we walked away with some good points and the car is in one piece this is important because we have toronto to look forward to next week and the last thing we want is a car in need of extensive repair obviously we were looking to do a lot better here but weve done okay in all ive moved up to eighth place in the standings with some patience we should be back in front at toronto as for the upcoming race a molson indy weekend support race at 330 pm saturday macri enters the 35lap event with an air of confidence noting his familiarity with the street course should be an advantage i raced here in 1999 and 2000 in the ford 1600 championship and last year in the atlantic so i know the track well its bumpy and being a typi cal street course you have to negotiate surface changes from asphalt to cement the real challenge is han dling the transition from asphalt to cement proper setup will be absolutely integral if we want to challenge for a podium finish he revealed while macri is looking for ward to racing in front of family and friends he says it can be a bit of a distraction macri how ever hinted he will take a differ ent approach this time around last year didnt go too well i spread myself too thin trying to thank and acknowledge all the fans for their support spending quite a lot of time shaking hands and conversing i simply lost focus this year im committed to focusing on the race and driving hard for the win obviously i will show my appreciation to the fans but only after ive completed my work on the track through six races macri occupies eighth place in the standings with 47 points and is 26 behind leader michael valiante a satisfying result for gibbons while peter gibbons goal in mondays cascar canada day shootout presented by dodge at cayuga speedway was to take the checkered flag a fourthplace finish was a satisfying feat taking to the 58mile oval at nelles corners with some of the top nascar drivers the stouffville resi dent had a hint of what was in store during the time trials when his lap time of 21582 seconds placed him on the front row of the second 50lap qualifying race beside nascar racing star ted musgrave in that qualifier gibbons held the lead for the first 11 laps until he was passed by musgrave and eventually settled for second place which gave him the fourth starting spot for the main event gibbons got off to a good start in the 100lap feature race as he moved into second place by the second lap and sat behind the pole sitter don thompson jr however he experienced problems with his right front tire late in the race and eventually lost two positions nascar dri ver matt kenn- seth passed gibbons turner and thompson to win the event we had a good run going i peter gibbons experienced tire problems in late going of race was running hard with donny thompson jr and we both ran out of tires matt kenseth saved his tires he was real smooth out there com mented gibbons the fans sure got to see a good race and i am glad that we were a part of it gibbons returns to action this saturday when the cascar circuit is part of the toronto molson indy weekend starting at 430 pm taws sixth at steustache ashley taws raced her be anything with barbie at walmart vehicle to a sixthplace finish in a canadian formula ford championship race at steustache quebec last sunday the 18yearold stouffville resident qualified eighth for the 32lap feature race and acknowledged she had trouble in coming to terms with the tight 1930kilo metre track i had some difficulty with this track its slow and rough and you have to be violent with the car to get through the cor ners i found it difficult to push any faster taws is now gearing up for a busy week in toronto as the canadian formula ford championship heads to themplspn indy toronto for race four sunday at 4 pm ashleytaws experienced difficulty with racing conditions