by Jim Cribbs

Like father, like son was the theme of the night for the Mike Bledsole Mechanical Heating & Air Late Model Stock division.  Brandon Setzer, the son of Late Model great Dennis Setzer, took the top starting spot.  To his outside was the car of Chris Denny, winner of the season’s first Late Model race.  The second row of starters was comprised of Chuck Lawson and Thomas Beane his outside in the fourth place starting spot.  The fifth place starting spot belonged to last year’s track champion Terry Dease with Daniel Moss to his outside.  The seventh and eighth place starting positions belonged to Camden Gullie, son of short track specialist, Jason Gullie, and Dean Fogleman, respectively.  Tripp Massengill, second place finisher and pole winner in the night’s earlier Limited Sportsman race, started in ninth.

As the race started, Denny took the lead from Setzer momentarily but Setzer squeezed back in front.  Intense pressure from Lawson’s front bumper led to Denny getting loose, forcing his car to fall to third behind Lawson, all of this action in the first few laps.  Lap four saw Beane and Dease running side by side for fourth with Moss doing his best to get by those two.  Beam, on 35 lap older tires than those two, fell back to sixth, leaving Dease in fourth and Moss in fifth.

The first caution of the night came on lap 15 when the car of Fogleman grenaded a motor.  That problem resulted in the car of Gullie sustaining right front damage, after bouncing off Fogleman’s car in the blinding smoke.  After a lengthy pit stop repairing the damage, Gullie returned to the race still on the lead lap.  Caution laps not counted in a 75 lap race.  Lining up for the restart, with Setzer holding the top spot, the cars of Lawson, Denny, Dease, and Moss, occupied second through fifth respectively. Beane had to settle for restarting in sixth, with Massengill outside of him.

As the cars came to the green, Lawson appeared to momentarily jump the start.  Realizing that, he slowed a bit, inadvertently allowing the cars of Denny and Dease to go by, one on each side of Lawson.  From there, loose, sideways race cars continually changing positions gave fans the fender to fender action they came for.  Unfortunately for Beane ended up retiring his car with only a third of the race completed.  After things settled down a bit, a caution flag on lap forty brought the field back together.   Setzer was still in the lead, Dease was in second, with Lawson and Denny behind them in third and fourth.  Moss and Massengill occupied the next two spots as the fifth and sixth place cars.  Gullie brought up the rear.

A sloppy restart led to a re-do.  On the next restart, the top four cars of Setzer, Dease, Lawson and Denny were all over each other, bumper to bumper, fender to fender.  Two laps later, Moss had to retire his car with apparent engine problems.  At the checkered, it was Setzer with the win, having finished second to Denny in the first race of the season.  Dease finished second, followed by Lawson, the third place car, and Denny in fourth.  Massengill took the fifth spot, with Gullie taking sixth.

Limited Sportsman division began their 35 lap race with Tripp Massengill starting in the top spot and Daryl Carver to his outside as the second place starter.  Carver started in his backup car, having wrecked his primary in the first race of the season.  On the next row, third place starter Barry Beggarly, Jr was flanked by Jerry Hinesley, the fourth place qualifier.  Row three belonged to Brent Evans, the fifth place starter and Richard Hayden in sixth.  The next three spots were occupied by Tracey Chambers, Austin Purnell and Corey Purnell, in that order.

As the green flag fell, Carver bolted to first in front of Massengill.  The car of Beggarly began to back peddle through the field, apparently having a mechanical issue, leading to his exit from the race eleven laps in and a ninth place finish.  Corey Purnell had his own problems, ending up parking his machine on lap 19, finishing ahead of Beggarly in eighth.

As the race unfolded, Massengill continued to hound Carver for the lead, with those two staging an intense side by side battle for the last third of the race.  At the checkered, Carver prevailed for his first win of the season.  Massengill settled for a second place finish with Hinesley behind him for third. Hayden held on for a fourth place finish and Evans behind him in fifth.  Chambers and Austin Purnell did their own share of jousting.  Eventually, Chambers prevailed giving her the sixth place spot over Purnell, who wound up seventh.

In Victory Lane, Carver thanked the other drivers for their hard charging, sometimes fender rubbing, but courteous driving.  Overwhelmed by emotion, Massengill was quite appreciative of his finish.  Missing-in-action from tonight’s event was the winner of the last Limited Sportsman race and a recent Ace Speedway winner, Boo Boo Dalton.

Smokey Dave’s BBQ Mod4s twenty lapper provided some fender bendin’ action.  Michael Cooper started on pole with Harold Summey on the outside of row one.  Behind them were the cars of Corey Purnell and Mike Herron with Herron on the outside.  Starting fifth through seventh were Randy Ayers, Timmy Wilder and Dennis Capps, in that order.  With three laps of green flag racing completed, the car of Herron had a problem, putting him out of the race.  After a brief caution on lap eleven, the field took the restart with Cooper out front, followed by Summey, Purnell, Wilder and Capps, who had recovered from a lap down thanks to the Lucky Dog Pass.  Ayers restarted last one lap in arrears.  One lap from the finish, the cars of Summey and Purnell came together coming out of turn 4, bringing out the caution and putting them out of the race.  On the restart for a green-white-checkered finish, the car of Cooper was out front, Wilder behind him, followed by Capps and the lapped car of Ayers.  However, Cooper missed a gear on the restart, giving Capps an opening to take the lead and the win. Cooper settled for second followed by Wilder in third and Ayers in fourth, one lap down. 

The Quality Collision Solutions of Graham Grand American Modifieds roared to life with Gary Young Jr out front, having taken his second consecutive pole this season.  Richard Thomas occupied the outside front row, with first-time OCS starter Issac Wright and Jonathan Cook behind those two.  When the checkered flag flew at end of thirty laps, Young, Jr had his second consecutive win, followed by Thomas in the second place car and Cook in third.  Wright ended up fourth, followed by Larry Cook in fifth.

Once again, John Comstock did a dance on the Martin family in 20 laps of competition for the Hill’s Complete Carpet Care Super Mini-Trucks.  Comstock started on pole with Wesley Martin, Kiser Martin and Jeffrey Martin occupying the second through fourth place starting positions.  Devon Parrott started fifth followed by, yes, you guessed it, another Martin named Scott in sixth.  As the race started, the Martins battled as Comstock held the lead.  A competition caution was deployed on lap 12.  The following restart saw leader Comstock falter just a bit, allowing Wesley Martin to get by, then Kiser Martin grabbed the lead.  From there, Kiser and Comstock were side by side for several laps with Comstock getting back out front three laps from the end.  At the finish, Comstock had his second consecutive win.  The Martin family settled their differences with Kiser taking second, Scott in third, Wesley in fourth and Scott in sixth, with Parrott sandwiched between those two for fifth.

Twenty-five laps of Pure Stock racing provided few surprises as Danny Winstead, last year’s track champ, went from green to checkered to pick up his second consecutive win.  Bobby Clayton was the second place finisher, followed by Trevor Winstead and Tyler Tolar, in third and fourth respectively.  James Kerr and Les Aliff rounded out the field, a distant fifth and sixth.