Since there are no results posted anywhere yet, I'll write more than usual. I didn't get full results, so you'll have to settle for first & second.
Once again, too many choices left many sprint teams having to decide where to run. As far as Belleville is for many of them, we were probably lucky to get the 15 cars we did. Unfortunately, Jake Martens had problems and never got to run a lap. Still, the cars here were fast and this wasn't the only class.
One question on everyone's mind was, could Luke Cranston continue his streak and win yet another sprint feature. It was a tall order as he was now up against some stiff competition in a 360 instead of the 305 he'd been in for the last three wins.
In his heat, Cranston won a fairly close race over Tyler Drueke while running his smaller 305 wing. The way he runs Belleville, he doesn't seem to need the extra down force and it's a lot less resistance to fight. The way Jack Dover looked in the 2nd heat though, he was going to be very hard to beat and CJ Johnson looked really fast as well. When they came out for the feature, Cranston had his larger wing on, having been told he had to make the change. C Ray later told me it was partly that the smaller wing gave an edge and partly due to safety concerns, but he stressed that the smaller wing had a wickerbill which they aren't supposed to run. When I was talking to Luke about it, he wasn't grousing and whining about it. He was being very sportsmanlike about it as he always seems to be.
As it was, Dover did dominate, but CJ was right up close and Don Droud Jr had moved up to 3rd with Cranston finishing 4th.
When I went down inside the track, I'd counted 18 Late Models, but when they ran heats, there were supposed to be 25 according to the lineup (there were 2 scratches in heat 3). They came late or have a secret place to pit. As a result, there are a couple of cars I never did get names for.
The heats had some close action that promised an exciting feature, but nobody was expecting what happened. Terry Boushee, starting outside front row, spun in turn one on the start, bounced off the rail, and came down in front of almost the entire field. They started at least 20 cars, and only 7 made it around to where I was standing in turn four. Most were able to restart, but several were pretty severely torn up. Thankfully, no one was injured.
When the survivors got restarted, NCRA points leader Tommy Weder Jr, in his first visit to the High Banks, took the lead and I don't think he ever lost it. John Anderson was right on his tail for much of the race but was never able to get around him. Then one lap Weder came by and there was no Anderson. I didn't see what happened, but when he came around during the yellow, his car was a good deal shorter than it had been. Chase Junghans was next to try Weder, but he had no better luck and Weder went on to the win and locked up his points championship as well.
One big surprise of the night was the fact that the mods ran the night with very few engine problems. While there are often about ten blown motors here, there were only a couple that I saw for sure. Unfortunately for the popular local driver Brandon Blochlinger, he was one of them.
Dan Powers and Jon Thompson had a great duel for the lead with Powers holding on for the win.
One final note, the cruisers showed that while this is a fun class, safety still needs to be taken seriously. A car rolled coming out of turn 4 (running clockwise) and the field ran more than a lap before stopping. Regardless of why, that needs to be kept in mind as it could easily have gotten someone hurt.
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| Jack Dover was really fast tonight. Stu Snyder said he talked Jack into coming to Belleville. |
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| The track looked a little heavy early, but there were a lot of laps to be run. |
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| Take a good look at the 10 of Jill Roberg. It didn't look quite as nice later. |
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| Jon Freeman waiting to hot lap. |
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| Luke Cranston sporting the small wing early. |
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| Jeff Stasa |
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| If anyone has pics of Mike Peters from the 1981 Jayhawk Nationals, let him or me know. He'd really like some. |
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| Jason Schroeder (5) and Adam Gullion |
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| They were racin in hot laps. |
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| Just after going by me, Kirk Coleman (3) smacked the rail hard a couple of times. |
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| I never got a look at the other side of the car, but this doesn't look very good. |
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| Brian Kenkel (33) and Scott Koskovich |
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| Gary & Joe Gorby |
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| Tommy Weder Jr (02) and Jimmy Segraves |
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| Earl Kinderknecht and Dean Moore |
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| Big mob at the start of the 1st sprint heat. |
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| This looked closer live than it does here. |
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| That's Jason Danley in the 82. |
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| Marc Robe and CJ Johnson |
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| The cruisers have such colorful numbers. |
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| They also chase people on the infield more than any other class. |
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| Drawing for the High Banks Hall of Fame's grill. Yup, that is a grill. |
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| Let the madness begin. |
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| Look closely. Can you spot the ding in the fender of one of these cars? |
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| Feature time. |
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| This was the second start that got waved off. |
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| Dan Powers (4) and Jon Thompson put on quite a show. |
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| Don Hodge came off pretty fast. I was between him and the action on the track. |
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| Shortly after this, Brandon Blochlinger (2) pulled in. |
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| Jack Dover & trophy queen Tasha Reeves |
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| After the big 1st lap pileup, Justin's crew had him taped up & ready to go again. |
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| Add caption |
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| One of the last restarts. |
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| Right after this, John Anderson...... |
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| .....split these two cars when they were much closer than this, and then...... |
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| ......this happened & ended his night. I still don't know what happened. |
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| Weder |
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| Tommy Weder Jr. |
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| Dan Powers and posse. |
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| Remember Jill Roberg's car? This is what was left of it. |
One last thing. I just wanted to tell Stuart Snyder it was good to see him and I'm really glad he's on the mend and doing so well. I know I'll be seeing him back on the track.
