North Santa Rosa

Mid-Season Championship has plenty of fireworks for fans at Southern Raceway

 The top-points drivers from six different classes came out to battle it out for bragging rights in the Mid-season Championships on Saturday at Southern Raceway.

The Durrence Layne Street Stocks provided the most excitement as Howie Reeves and Frank Wilson battled it out to see who would visit victory lane.

Despite starting on the pole, Wilson would take the second spot as both cars came to the start-finish line to complete lap number one.

Reeves appeared to use up his tires as he jumped out to a six to eight car length advantage over Wilson until lap 22 when the veteran race from Harold managed to take the lead.

But Wilson did not keep the lead for long.

Coming off of turn four, Wilson’s car got loose and while he reigned it back under control, both Reeves and his son J.C. Wilson got past him and remained there for the final two lap of the feature.

Reeves took the checkered flag for the win followed by J.C. Wilson.

Frank Wilson had to fend off a challenge from Justin Hamilton, but by the last lap he was comfortably ahead of the fourth place finisher. Jesse Smith rounded out the top five.

In the Pure Stock Division some driver’s worse “nightmare” became a reality.

Jay’s Tally Warrick started the 25 lap feature on the outside of row six and worked his way up to the lead by lap 10.

Warrick would check out on the field cruise to his seventh win of the season and finish with a 15 car length advantage over Chandler Shaw.

Jake Moore, Jessica Donaldson and Jason McDaniel would survive the nine cautions during the race to round out the top five.

During post-race inspections Shaw’s car was disqualified and moved Tucker Byrd up to the fifth spot.

Byrd participated in and won the Pure Stock B-Main to start Saturday’s action to earn a spot in the 22 car field.

Byrd would start tail end of the nine car, 10 lap B-main and cruised to victory. Rounding out the top five in the B-mail were Justin Adams, Lane Heaton, and Aaron Tugmon.

Jack Rodrigues would just miss out on edging out Tugmon for the final transfer spot.

In the Vintage series the top two drivers in the field – Ricky Haugen and Kraig Crossley – accounted for 10 wins so far in 2018.

By the time the dust settled, the other 16 drivers watched Haugen and Crossley put on a clinic when it comes to racing the open wheeled replica cars.

Crossley and Haugen battled for the lead until Crossley gained the momentum coming off turn four to take the lead on the opening lap.

While Crossley tried to pull away, Haugen was right on his back bumper and keeping the winner of the last two vintage events in his sights.

On lap eight Crossley slipped just enough to allow Haugen to take the lead and from that point on it was all Haugen, who claimed his eighth win of the season.

On lap 13 a red flag was flown for the car of Jerry Jordan who lost control and barreled rolled down part of the backstretch after coming off turn two. Jordan was okay.

For the final 12 laps of the 25 lap feature the drivers were competing under a green flag which set up more drama as the cars came to the stripe.

Coming off turn four Hunter Ward and Kevin Mitchell made contact. Mitchell spun while Ward continued on to cross the line in third place followed by Bobby Resmondo and Mitchell who ended up spinning across the finish line.

Ward was penalized for driving through the Mitchell car and was placed on the tail end of the lead lap, which gave Aleck Alford the fifth and final position.

In the stinger division Thomas McMullen entered the race as the point’s leader, but he could not closed out the deal as he ended finishing second to Charlie Simmons, who took win number three on the year.

The race was slowed by one red and one yellow flag.

Racing came to a halt on lap six when Jeremy Buchanan ended up on his roof on the front stretch. Buchanan was okay, but the flip ended his evening.

Rounding out the top five were Dave Smoot, Russell Estain and Lee Fuselier.

Smoot would be disqualified for failing post-race inspection and thus Josh Douglas was moved up to fifth.

Ironically for Douglas, he earned the fifth spot while in the pits as he brought out a caution on Lap 22 which ended his night.

In the Open-Wheeled Modifieds it was the Ryan Fowler show as he battled Nathan Ingersoll for the lead in the early laps, but would later check out on the field.

Ingersoll, who was competitive for most of the night, left the track with issues on lap 20 of the 25 lap feature.

Osman Jones would finish second followed by Joey Bartlett, Kevin Mitchell, and Lucas Morris.

In the 602 Sportsman Late Model feature Taylor Jarvis and Colton Leyendecker battled for the lead in the opening lap, but before the cars could finish the opening lap Jason Douglas spun at the bottom of turn one on the three-eighths mile track.

Jarvis would suffer a flat tire on the first unofficial lap and had to go to the pits for a new tire, while Leyendecker and Johnathon Joiner would become the new front row.

Leyendecker and Joiner would battle it out for a few laps until Leyendecker got loose coming off turn two and Joiner took the lead for good.

Leyendecker would end up finishing second while Joe Richbourg, Josh Kimmons, and Kevin Mitchell would round out the top five.

Racing action at Southern Raceway will resume on July 7th with racing action in the late models, pure stock, street stock, vintage and stinger divisions. Race fans can also use the evening to help cram the van with school supplies to help students in the upcoming school year.

Southern Raceway is located at 9359 Nichols Lake Rd. Gates open at 4 p.m. and racing starts at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Admission is $10 for adults, military and seniors is $9, students (13-18) $7, and children (6-12) $5, and kids 5 and under are free.

Visit Southern Raceway on the web at www.southernraceway.com or on Facebook @southernraceway.

 

Posted by on Jul 3 2018. Filed under Events, Local. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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