Stop #1 was the Pure Stock Jones 100, at the M-40 Speedway. I believe 35 cars showed up for battle to win the $5000 prize. A few Kazoo stars came down. That may be the only other track, that runs those rules. That's alot of money up top.
The feature had a 16 car inversion, putting Chris Singleton and Matt Noble on the front row. Singleton takes the early lead. Burney Arnett is the first to pull out, and Darwin Wolfe has his car a smokin' good, and he is out. The Mercer 51 car loses a wheel, and that is lap 27. To that point a great 12 car battle for the top spots.
Bad break for the Singleton 42, as he heads to the pits, giving the lead to Matt Noble. Starting around 8th, Cindy Stremme flexes her muscles, and takes a run for the lead, at the restart. By lap 36, her old number, Cindy takes the point. Noble drops back, and out of the race, a few laps later. With Cindy still leading, Art Krontz pulls out on lap 65, running in the top 12. At that point, behind Stremme is Greg Hayes, Brandon Zachary in Hayes's backup [Kazoo} car, Enduro ace Ken Sheffler, in his old Enduro car, and Corey Woods. A great run so far by Sheffler. A very pure stock, but with a pretty good motor.
Back to the green, Hayes gets under the Stremme 53, on lap 68. The top 3 still run under a blanket, with lapped cars all over the track.
Lap 85, a caution, and several top 10 cars have some problems. First, Corey Woods has a flat, then Jeff Rhodes has a smoking car, and then John Long pulls out with a flat. To the green, Cindy gets under the 81 of Hayes, and takes the lead. For 5 laps, the 81 car is outside, Cindy inside, and Zachary on their bunpers. A great battle. To lap 91, Rozner spins the 22 down the frontstretch. No yellow as he gets the car going again, but now the leaders are barrelling in on him. Into 3, Hayes is low, Cindy on the outside. Cindy tried to get under the 22, but contact is made, and Cindy is out with a flat Right Front tire. Hayes holds off Zachary by half a car length at the line, to get the big payoff. Matt Bainbridge was third over Sheffler, Tim Thurston, Woods, Laughlin, and Matt Wannamaker. I think 14 cars finished. An entertaining event. John Ferrier took the 16 car Pro Stock main.
Saturday, my plan was to go to New Paris with the photo books. I have done it for years with the Sprint Cars of HOSS. The forecast was 80 % chance of rain. Radar had some coming, and I hate to put the books out, with rain. I lost pictures when the books got wet at Angola last year. So basically, I chickened out. And of course, it didn't rain a drop. This won't be the first time that happens, and certainly not the last. Too much is at stake with the photos. Starting with the next show, which is M-40 this Friday, I am going to try something different with the setup. This will help if the conditions have rain in the area. It will cut down transporting so many tables. Between the M-40 and New Paris shows this week, I'll know if this works.
Still watching the radar, I ended up going to Plymouth, getting there close to 7. Mid Season race for the Late Models. Car counts were 16 Late Models, including Scott Hantz. 25 Sportsman, with newbies Ron Belt, who raced about 15 years ago, Robert Haisley, and Tim Craig. 22 Minis, 12 FWD's, and 13 Thunder Cars.
The Late Model feature was a 50 lapper, and boy, it was a dandy. The invert put Shane Sanders and Keith Franz on the front row. Shane takes the lead, with the yellow out on lap 22 as the Steve Stacy 95, and Adam Terry get together, with the Terry #4 spinning. Both Franz, and Ronnie Maynard pull out with flats. Micheal Thayer, running a strong 3rd, breaks on lap 29. The green returns, with Sanders still leading, but Scott Hantz, Brian Ross, and Stacy are moving into the top 5 spots. On lap 39, Hantz pulls up to the Sanders car, and a great side by side battle goes on for the next 8 laps. With Ross, right on the bumper of Hantz, Hantz forges to the lead on lap 48. Sanders, giving everything he has, has a battle with Ross for 2nd, with Ross nipping him at the line. Stacy is 4th, over Bobby Stremme, Scott Ross, Rich Boal, Terry, Brian Muick, and Mike Shewchuk.
The Sportsman main had about a 16 car inversion, with Robert Hampton and Steve Holley leading the field to green. Holley takes the lead, but a wreck on the frontstretch, takes out Nick Pressler. Green's out again, and Holley, running a high line leads again. Early outs were Ron Belt, Chris Swihart, and Keith Gunkel, who blew his motor last week, and had a stock 305 in the car, just to get a few points. On lap 14, Brandon Maynard starting from the 8th spot, grabs the lead. A good 10 car pack, is running up front, but on lap 27, Holley, still running 2nd, gets too high in 4, and spins out, collecting Mitch DeWitt. Maynard holds on for his first win of the season, with Billy Rumbaugh 2nd, from 10th, Mike Shewchuk from 14th, Kevin Gunkel from 13th, Rob Hampton, Derik Griffin, Matt Elliot, Stephanie Scott, Tim Craig, John Stretting, Bill Lovely, Paul Fontanelli, Jeff Stetler, Lisa McFadden, and Roger Rubino.
The Mini feature had a 17 car inversion. Shannon uck leads first, then Brett Birk is next. Derik Davis is the 3rd leader, as the lead pack is 15 cars buzzing around the track. Patrick Trainer in his #88, hits the wall, ending his night, with Zack Newgent who is also involved, out a lap later. Lap 23, Cecil VanBlaricom and James Newman tangle while in the top 4, with Newman to the tail. At that time, Derik Davis gets the black for going over his time. The new leader is now Micheal Mast, and he holds on to the win. Folks may remember he pulled in last year for the Season Champ. night, and pulled off that win over 26 Minis. Cecil was 3rd, over Matt Norem, Rich Hensley, Lee Adkins, Drew Davis, Steve Webb, Derik Davis, Dave Biesemeyer, Dale Oliver, Newman, and Joe Kilpatrick from Illinois.
Now to Sunday. The CRA Super Series is back after a 6 year absense. 36 Cars sign in, including David Stremme, and local favorites Brian Ross, who in a Segvich ride, broke, John Long, who also did not race, Donny Klotz, Micheal Thayer, Doug True, Rich Segvich, Corey Pressler in a Shewchuk #6, J.R. Roahrig, and Tyler Roahrig. What was cool, that with 36 cars, only one town was mentioned twice, Fort Wayne, Ind. In hot laps, Mike Kugler tags the turn 3 wall, ending his day. Qualifying was intense as quick time was 12.93, by Open Wheel Ace, Aaron Pierce, with Tommy Cook, 20th, at 13.19 sec. The top 20 were in, with the others to run last chance races. After the last chance races were done, Promoters Tom Smith and Bobby Blount had every car start, that could race. The crowd, at well over 2,000, clapped in approval. The pill draw was 3, putting Illiana Ace Jeff Cannon, and car builer Tim Curry on the front row. The greeen is out, but with the two front row cars, making contact, Micheal Thayer, in his first CRA Start, takes the lead. Man on the move early was J.R. Roahrig. From 8th, he is 3rd by lap 6. The first yellow is a spin by Tyler Roahrig. Scott Hantz tags the #124, and he loses a lap repairing the hood damage. Bad break for the leaders, as Thayer breaks on lap 27, and Tim Currry, is out on lap 30, while still under caution. After taking several laps, to get the cars bunched up, Roahrig is the new leader. What would be nice to see, is with large car counts, to double file them from say 10th, on back. It would bunch up the field much faster. Second is Pierce, with Boris Juckovic, Jack Landis, from 19th, and Zach Taylor, in tow. To lap 91, a couple runners are knocked out including Johhny VanDoorn and Brett Jack. At lap 100, the pit stops took place. Coming out of the pits for the second 100 laps, it was Juckovic, Pierce, Eddie Hoffman, Zach Taylor, Stevie Campbell, Corey Pressler, and Ken Tweedy. Roahrig was 12, and Stremme 15th. Green is out again, and Stremme is a moving. In 9 laps, he cracks the top 10. Boris is leading, but a spin on lap 126, by Jason Shively, bunches the field. To lap 133, and Stremme is now 5th, but he has a great battle for numerous laps with Tweedy, and perhaps, put wear on his tires. The top 3 of Juckovic, Pierce, and Hoffman, remain the same to the end. Landis takes 4th late from Stremme, with Terry Fisher 6th, from 23rd: 7th was Zach Taylor, then J.R. Roahrig, Stevie Campbell, Pressler, Donny Klotz, from 30th, Shively, Jesse Smith, Sean Matthius, and Hantz. A good race, though I am not sure how the pit stoppage on lap 100 was figured. I was busy with my photo books, and did not see or hear, the procedure. With the huge crowd, it is good bet the CRA will return in 2009. I would like to see a Memorial weekend Sunday night show. Holiday weekend, and the track always drew well on that date.
The Minis had a feature only deal Sunday with 21 showing up. The feature was very good with the first leader being Shannon Buck. To lap 5, a hard hit as Lee Adkins, spins on the frontstretch, and gets drilled by Brandon Ross. Both drivers ok, but the cars were pretty tore up. Zach Newgent takes the lead shortly after, as the lead pack is 13 cars. At lap 15, Newgent gets the Black for running under his time, and the next leader was Derik Davis.
Lap 21, another wreck with the top five cars of Steve Webb, Ryne Balsley, and Dale Oliver. Davis gets the green with 4 to go, with Micheal Mast on his tail. A great run by Davis, as he takes his first ever A main, over Mast, Rich Hensley, James Newman, Darin Harel, Dave Biesemeyer, Patrick Trainer, and Kevin Davis.
The CRA FWD race was really good with 29 starters. The CRA division has not had more than 14 cars at any show, but with opening the rules a bit, have the Plymouth, Illiana, and Grundy County cars join, a record starting field was assembled. The field breakdown was 8 CRA, 14 Plymouth, and 7, Illiana and Grundy. The winner was Tim Dilg from Sharonville, Ohio. A great race with Dilg, Eric Kiser, and Robert Reed, weaving through traffic. Favorite Greg De St. Jean was the first one out. Kiser was second over Jim Weber.
Lotsa drivers attending the show tonight including Keith Francz, Rick Slusher, Steve Stacy, Rich Boal, Cindy and Bobby, and Lou Stremme, Hank Miller, Roger Rubino, Aj. Woodward, Shane Sanders, Adam Terry, Craig Everage, Dave Coleman, Bill Lovely, Shane Eldridge, to name a few. This weekend will be a busy one as M-40 Speedway will host the 8th Annual Hall of Fame Ceremony. Getting inducted are Larry Allen, Jeff Bloom, Dude Weaver, Dave Sabaj, Ozzie, Dewayne Dimit, Dave True, and Fred Sibley. They will each get a plague, in front of the fans, and FOX 28 Sports. Hey, for this show, the general addmission will be $5. Yes, that's right. In fact, that will be the price for the remainder of the year, except for a show or two. Coolers are welcome as the show also has the Late Models, Pro Stocks, and Pure Stocks. Yes, Hot Dogs will also be a dollar bill. Then Saturday, the books are going to New Paris Speedway for their Old Timer's Night. As well, the Late Models go 77 laps for the Pat Riley Memorial race. It is autograph night, too, plus the Street Stocks, and Minis. It's late, so see ya M-40 and New Paris.