116 Cars Fill Up The Pits At Lincoln Park Speedway!
116 Cars Fill Up The Pits At Lincoln Park Speedway For The Gary Ricketts “Buckeye Bob 33” Night
By Kenny Clark
29 UMP mods entered the gates for the $2,000 to win Buckeye Bob 33 in honor of the great Gary Ricketts. Thanks so much to the Ricketts family for getting all the great awards for this race and all the sponsors of Gary’s race with over $2,300 in incentives. The night started with 4 groups of qualifying that were lead by Jordan Wever(16.217), Jimmy Hayden(16.037), Jeff Deckard (15.782) and John Demoss(15.605). This setup the heat races with an invert of 4 and each heat race winner would be put in the dash for a chance at $133 bucks in honor of Gary!!
Heat race winners were Cole Parker, Will Bennett, Jeff Deckard and Michael Fish. Michael Fish stormed to the lead in the dash and won it and he also drew a 5 for the feature invert which put him outside front row with Nathan Voorhies on the pole. The heat races were wild with a lot of action which put some heavy hitters in the B main or done for the night. Michael Fish would take the early lead in the 33 lap A and would lead for the first 6 laps. On lap 7 Will Bennett would take over the lead and started to build a decent 5 car length lead before a caution would come out and bunch everyone back up. By the halfway point James Walters was up to 3rd from the 8th spot and put a move on Michael Fish to take the 2nd spot away. This would put the final 5 laps intense as Walters and Bennett would be side by side for most of the final stage. On the final lap the 34W put a winning move on Bennett and held on at the checkers for the big win!! The 22 of Bennett had a great run with a lot of lap money leading from Lap 7 thru 32. At the checkers it was James Walters, Will Bennett, Jimmy Hayden, Jeff Deckard and Michael Fish in the top 5. An awesome mod show with the Patriot 100 just 2 weeks away!!!
23 sprint cars entered the pits with fast times in 3 groups going to Hunter Oneal(14.029), Matt Thompson(13.545) and Brayden Fox(13.581). Heat races were won by Jake Scott, Shane Cockrum and Gabriel Gilbert. This setup the main event with an invert of 5 which put Matt Thompson and Ricky Lewis on the front row. Ricky Lewis took the early lead but by Lap 2 bicycled and flipped going into turn 1 which ended his night. AJ Hopkins who started at the tail because he forgot his transponder was going to be fun to watch making some great passes early to get him into the top ten by the halfway point. The chief Shane Cockrum just off of a win at Paragon the night before was leading and starting to lap some of the field by the halfway point. With just 5 to go there was a caution and guess where the 04 was that is correct he was up to 3rd and the final 5 laps would be very interesting. AJ got to 2nd with just 2 laps to go but never caught the 24p enough to make a slider attempt so Shane Cockrum took the back to back wins for the weekend. He was followed at the checkers by AJ Hopkins, Matt Thompson, Harley Burns and Shane Obanion. Don’t forget next Friday night the MSCS will be at Bloomington for the Josh Burton Memorial Race and the winner will pay 10,000 dollars.
The MMSA group had 23 entries. Their heat races were won by Brad Strunk, Bryan Brewer and Kayla Roell. Cody Trammel would take the early lead and build a big lead until some cautions and a red bunched up the field. This would give Strunk a chance at a final restart but Cody Trammell was very fast in the 34T and held off Brad Strunk and Kayla Roell for the 20 lap main event. The MMSA group puts on a great show and they are part of the Josh Burton Memorial so this Friday will be a great show for them also in front of a packed house at the red clay.
23 UMP Super Stocks entered the gates at LPS and qualifying was led by Larry Raines(15.581), Austin Phelps(16.432) and Josh Litton(16.177). The 3 heat races were won by Justin Massie, Travis Heramb and Josh Litton. This setup the feature event with an invert of 4 which put Wes McClara and Josh Litton on the front row. At the beginning of the feature Josh would take the early lead but a scary deal happened where his brake pedal broke causing a scary wreck where we are thankful that all drivers were okay. The restart then would have Justin Massie showing a lot of speed and taking the top spot with Wes McClara running a strong 2nd. This would be the way the feature would look for a lot of the 20 laps and with just 5 laps to go the top 3 were within 3 car lengths of each other. Justin running high and Wes running low it appeared the low groove was starting to come in and get faster. With just 2 to go they were only about a car length apart. Justin Massie on the final lap decided to go to the bottom and protect his top spot and get a huge win for the 55 since I believe he has like 8 or 9 2nd’s and finally took a win at the finish line. Congrats to the Massie team for the first win of the year over Wes McClara, Travis Heramb and Austin Phelps.
The Bomber division would have 18 entries for the night and the fast times were Jordan Almanza(17.031) and Matt Raber(16.963). The heats were won by Joey Raber and Gary Hayden. This setup the feature and Gary pulled a 3 for the invert which put Josh Foxworthy and him on the front row. Joey Raber would be really strong in this 15 lap feature and took a commanding lead and would hold on for the win over Tyler Rodgers, Josh Foxworthy, Jordan Almanza and David Bumgardner at the checkers. Another great night in all the divisions and next Saturday will be a huge fireworks show to celebrate the Labor Day Weekend with the “King Of The Non Wing Sprints” . This is a big event because every sprint car that shows up will run a feature. Thanks to all the drivers and fans that came out on a very hot night and we will see you next weekend for the big Josh Burton Memorial Friday at Bloomington and The King of Non Wing Saturday at LPS!! Circle City Pyrotechnics will put on a great show at both tracks next weekend!!!