A season of thrills and spills continued at Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway this week. As the track celebrated Kid’s Night, the racing was anything but child’s play. The 125 & 4 Stroke Division kicked off the night. Kenny Bushey and Mike Coen made up the front row, with plenty of quick cars behind them. Two of the quickest went to the back early as Austin Graby and Brent Shearer made contact and came to a stop in turn four. The first four cars crossed the start-finish line before the caution flew, meaning the lap results would stand and there would not be a complete restart. Bushey and Coen again comprised the front row, while Mike Glass and Matt Fernsler would roll off in row two. Mike Miller and Justin Harrington would hold their initial starting spots. Harrington was very quick on the restart, quickly gaining two spots. He would be forced to give one back however, as Eddie Nocera and Terry Ellex crashed in turn four. The ensuing restart saw the biggest pile-up in terms of car count, as most of the field crashed in turn four. Fernsler and Bushey made contact while battling for second, coming to a stop and nearly blocking the track completely. 18 of the 24 starters were involved in some way, with 11 coming to a stop as a result of the accident. A clean restart would follow, with Harrington claiming the lead on Lap 6. Fernsler would also get around Coen and try to chase down Harrington. Caution would fly again with 15 laps remaining for Darrin Miller who stopped against the outside guardrail in turn two. Three laps later, caution would fly again for the rear bumper debris of Kassidy Michael. On the restart, Eddie Nocera flipped down the front stretch ending his night. A single file restart would be on tap, and Marty Brian was the star of that show. While everybody else ran the bottom, Brian was on the high side and gaining ground in a hurry before Mike Miller’s stopped car brought out the caution with nine laps remaining. The restart would be the final one of the race, as Harrington took off and went untouched for his second win of the season.
The 270’s would take to the track next, with Mike Uhrich and Mike Rutherford on row one. Jonah Meck got turned just past the start-finish line, and tipped lightly on his side. Meck would be quickly turned upright by the track safety crew and would continue. Caution flag number two fell on attempt number two of the initial start. Several cars made contact including Nate Gibble, Johnny West, and Mike Miller. The field would double up again hoping the third time was the charm and the race could get underway. Unfortunately, caution three had other plans and came out for the spinning cars of Christi Sweigart and Clinton Hauser. This would mean a single file initial start, and Uhrich was able to get away from Rutherford by several car lengths. The leaders were working lap traffic during a long green flag run when Meck came to a stop in turn three, with mechanical troubles ending his night. Uhrich got away clean on the restart, but had trouble off turn two allowing Rutherford to get by and take the lead with 11 laps remaining. The scariest moment of the night occurred one lap later as Bradley Brown and Nick Skias battled for fifth. Brown, running the high line he has worked to perfection so often; got squeezed by Nick Skias who drifted up the racetrack off turn two. Brown may have been in Skias blind spot, but the contact was inevitable and massive. Brown climbed the catchfence for the second week in a row, landing very hard on his roof and tumbling down the back stretch. As the car was beginning to come to rest, Trent Eberhart made an evasive slide maneuver to the inside, contacting Brown’s car near the top of the roll cage. While the safety crew made quick work of getting to the driver, Brown was alert and talking to the EMT’s. He was able to get out of the car under his own power, but requested an ambulance ride to the hospital due to neck pain. Imaging results were negative, and Brown was released early on Sunday morning. The restart with ten laps to go had Rutherford at the front of the field, while Uhrich lined up to his outside. Heath Hehnly and Nick Skias started in row two. Hehnly made the inside move to claim second, while Skias rode the high side to third. Jason Swavely was running in the sixth position and battling Uhrich for fifth when mechanical gremlins stopped his machine in turn three with five laps remaining. Skias tried throwing haymakers at Rutherford for three straight laps, but nothing was able to work. Rutherford claimed his second 270 win in a row by nearly one second over Skias.
The Sportsman took to the speedway next, with a full twelve car invert selected by a random draw. Courtney Kupp and Clinton Hauser would make up row one for the initial start. The front of the field was able to get single file quickly, but only turned two complete laps before Michael Spadafora came to a stop on the back straight. On the restart, Toby Blumenshine and Jason Swavely went to quick work advancing their positions from the back of the top ten. Another huge crash occurred with 21 laps remaining, Chad Kreiser suddenly slowed off of turn two, and Nate Gibble made massive contact with the stricken car. Gibble launched off the left rear of Kreiser’s car and went through a series of flips until coming to a rest near the entry to turn three. Gibble and Kreiser were done for the night. Kreiser would also make a trip to the hospital after leaving the racetrack and was diagnosed with a broken foot. Hauser would restart as the leader and made a quick getaway. Jason Swavely made easy work of Brett Sholley and caught the race leader two laps later. Swavely swapped lines going into turn one and made easy work of the leader. Corey Schmuck Jr was running fourth and battling Sholley when he spun in turn four, bringing out the caution flag at the halfway point. Swavely and Hauser would restart up front, but there was no contest at the drop of the green as Swavely was able to rapidly distance himself from the rest of the field. David Ravel went for a wild ride in turn four, ending his night on the hook. Still with 11 laps to go, the restart order would be the same. Unfortunately, the outcome would be the same as well. One lap was completed before Michael Spadafora flipped coming off of turn two. The restart was more of the same, with Bret Cronrath spinning in turn four; but this time Schmuck was also involved and tipped over. Both cars were able to continue. Without a lap being scored after the restart, Hauser broke on the restart and collected Toby Blumenshine. Blumenshine was able to keep the car rolling and was able to keep his position. After four attempts, lap 14 finally went into the scorebook; showing Swavely as the race leader. The remaining laps clicked off in a hurry, with Swavely opening up a lead over two seconds with three laps to go. Swavely would claim the win, with a great recovery by Schmuck who crashed twice and still finished fifth.
The Hyper Racing 600’s were the finale for the night, and fortunes changed for the field as the witching hour approached. There were no pumpkins in this feature however. Tyler Ulrich and Jesse Snyder would lead the field to green. Zach Light made a nice recovery from a wild crash one week ago to start third, and on his outside was last week’s winner Heath Hehnly. Ulrich jumped out to the early lead, while Hehnly dispatched Light and Snyder to claim second. The bottom hadn’t worked for most of the night, but Nick Skias was able to make his way towards the front in the car normally driven by Joe Kepple. Slide Job City was in full effect as cars battled throughout the field. The only caution flag of the race flew on lap 14 as Holden Eckman came to a stop on the inside of turn two. Ulrich and Hehnly would pick up their battle from the front row, while Mikey Smith moved from the sixth starting position to run third at the caution. Two laps after the restart, Hehnly threw a haymaker at Ulrich and made it stick off turn two to claim the race lead. With six to go, the gap was already over one second. Smith was able to take second and Ulrich faded late. Hehnly took his second win of the season, while Smith came home second in his debut at Lanco, and Light completed his fantastic night coming home in third.
Next Saturday night, The Clyde returns to action with Back To School Night. Five divisions of racing are on the schedule, with the All-Star Slingshots making their second appearance of the season. Gates open at 4:30, and hot laps take to the track at 6:00. Every lap of racing action will again be available on the National Racing Network. Coming up on July 25 is the annual Clyde Martin Memorial Race which will pay $750 to win in all four classes. August 8th will see the return of the NOS Energy USAC National Midget Tour. Also on the bill that night will be the finale of Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek presented by Rodota Trucking and Excavating which will pay $5,000 to win, and $10,000 total across the top three finishing positions. Now more than ever, there has never been a better time to live the excitement that is Lanco!