PAUL, SKIAS & BIEBER COLLECT ACE IN SPIRIT POKER SERIES EVENT

Damon Paul raced to his first Spirit victory of the season, earning an Ace for his Poker Series hand in addition to the $1,000 winner’s share of the purse.

The driver from Stony Point, NY is always a threat to win in any race that he enters but the fact that he completed twenty-five laps on Sunday much less picked up the win was just totally amazing.  Paul’s No. 144 had to be towed from Victory Lane.  The left front tire was off the rim.  The rim was bent as was most of the front-end components, all the result of Paul making contact with the inside wall of the track.  On lap eight.

Paul took the lead from polesitter, Preston Lattomus on lap four.  Four laps later, Paul made the hard contact damaging the left front on the car.  “I thought I had bent it,” Paul said.  “I didn’t realize all that!”  Paul held on for multiple restarts that closed in the competition in on the leader at least five times after the damage was done.  Needless to say, Paul did not want to see those yellows.

Paul picked up the win, leading twenty-two of the twenty-five laps.  Lattomus was able to maintain his runner-up spot throughout the race in spite of the heavy hitters that were on his back bumper.  Colin White, Brenden Bright, Christian Bruno and Tim Buckwalter all spent time racing in third but Lattomus was able to maintain his position in what was only his second start at Spirit.   

​Tim Buckwalter won the battle for third in the Barry & Cheryl Greth owned No. 71.  Colin White finished fourth after battling among the top four throughout most of the race.  Christian Bruno brought the Fauci No. 17m home in fifth.

Eddie Strada crossed the finish line in sixth followed by Brenden Bright, Steven Snyder, Tommy Kunsman and Connor Gross.  Bright had charged into the top but faded in the final laps.

45 600 Micro Sprints competed for starting spots in the first race of the Poker Series.

Nick Skias drew the pole for the start of the 270 feature and kept Charlie Palmucci’s No. 16P out in front for the twenty-five lap distance.  Restarts kept bringing the field back together and giving Jason Swavely and Alex Swift another shot at the lead but each time, Skias proved to be the best on this particular night as he raced to his first Spirit Speedway victory so far this season.  The defending 270 champion now has an Ace for his Poker Series hand.

Jason Swavely finished second with Alex Swift taking third.  Dakota Bartlet finished fourth ahead of Anthony Yerger.

Gary Waegel, Jonathan John, Jimmy Wagner, Nate Gibble and Rob Swavely rounded out the top ten.

Five time National Slignshot Champion, Brett Bieber demonstrated how he earned those titles when he held off the challenges of Cody Kline to capture his first win of the 2021 season.  Bieber drew the pole for the start and then grabbed the lead from Amanda Angstadt at the wave of the green.  Kline, who started third – right behind Bieber wrestled second from Angstadt on lap three.  Several times, Kline closed in on the leader but each time, Bieber seemed to find just a little bit more that enabled him to defend his position.  “I just kept changing my line a little bit,” the race winner explained.

Bieber added win number six to his Spirit total followed by Kline, Michael Beckett who recovered from an early race incident to chase down the leaders.  Angstadt finished fourth with defending Slingshot Champion, Ryan Davey taking fifth.

Kenny Harris was a first time Spirit winner in the Xcel 600 Modified feature.  Harris finished second when the Xcel Modifieds raced on the high banks of Bridgeport‘s 4/10th mile track.  On Sunday, the racing moved to the quarter mile track.

Thomas Pychka finished second with Korey Inglin taking third.  Matt Yoder and Justin Scradun completed the top five at the checkered flag.  Eric Whitby finished sixth followed by Christian Smith, Olivia Schmeltzer, David Burns and Ray Gradwell.