2017 600 Micro Champion, Matt Smith used a late race pass to secure his second win of the 2018 season while Andrew Locuson used lapped traffic to take the lead in 270 action on Friday night in Ace Overhead Door Co. action at Spirit Speedway on Friday night. Scott Miller earned his first win of the season in i2M Four Cylinder Competition while Lee Allen dominated in the first Eight Cylinder competition of the season.
Gary Borzowski led the way for the first four laps and several cautions of the Ace Overhead Door Co. 600 Micro Sprint feature before Jon Keller raced the Ed Barber owned No. 99B into the lead on lap five. Keller was fast as he held the lead over Kyle Spence while Matt Smith and Mike Rutherford battled for third with Kenny Miller III completing the top five.
Smith secured third and then set his sights on Spence, taking over second on lap thirteen. Keller had stretched his lead by the time Smith reached second but the reigning champion began to shorten that lead. With four laps to go, Smith was challenging Keller, using the outside line, when the caution flag waved. Keller led the way on the single file restart but Smith changed his tactics and raced to the inside to take the lead as he and Keller exited turn four with three laps to go.
Smith took the win with the Courtland Manor sponsored No. 33 with Keller finishing second. Spence finished third followed by Rutherford and Miller to round out the top five. PJ Williams, Steve Bracall, Joe Dopke, Borzowski and Nick Walton followed to collect top ten finishes.
Alex Swift had the John Blanda No. 15 out in front in the Ace Overhead Door Co. 270 Micro sprint feature in search of his first win of the season. Andrew Locuson moved into second on lap three and was challenging Swift for the lead when the caution waved with four laps scored. Swift led the way on the restart and pulled away from the field when racing returned to green flag conditions.
Swift raced into lapped traffic at the half way point in the race and that’s when Locuson began to gain on the race leader. Three laps later, Locuson challenged and took the lead.
Locuson raced to the checkered for his second win of the season with the Double Down chassis No. 21. Swift finished second followed by Nick Skias, Mike Rutherford and Ken Andreas who recovered from an earlier caution to race to a top five finish. Steve Coslop, Logan Diehl, Luke Fogg, Ryan Wozunk and Ken Miller Jr. completed the top ten at the finish.
Kristy Hicks picked up her third win of the season in the Remax Connection Novice 600 feature event, continuing her perfect record over second place finisher, Jason Muldowney.
Joe Garey, Sr. had stretched his lead to a straightaway during the i2M 4 Cylinder Enduro feature event while Rick Burnham and Scott Miller battled for second. Miller finally made the pass for second which ended up being the pass for the win as Garey headed to the pits with mechanical issues just four laps from the finish. Miller picked up his first win of the season over Burnham and Joe Garey, Jr.
Reigning 8 Cylinder Champion, Lee Allen picked up the win on Friday night after leading a three car battle early in the race over Scott Riggleman and Tom Wolf who followed Allen to the checkered flag.
Racing returns to Spirit Speedway next Friday night with the Ace Overhead Door Co. 270 and 600 Micro Sprints, 600 Novice, Slingshots and 4 Cylinder Enduros with racing getting underway at 8pm.
ACE OVERHEAD DOORS 600cc MICRO SPRINTS (20 laps) – 1. Matt Smith, 2. Jon Keller, 3. Kyle Spence, 4. Mike Rutherford, 5. Kenny Miller, 6. P.J. Williams, 7. Steve Bracall, 8. Joe Dopke, 9. Gary Bozowski, 10. Nick Walton, 11. Justin Murphy, 12. Sam LaMothe, 13. Richie Keller, 14. Nick Sapp, 15. Travis Hill, 16. Mike Linderman, 17. Brandon Pavel, 18. Kristy Hicks, 19. Danny Buccafusca, 20. Jermain Godshall, 21. Tyler Lindsay, 22. Nash Ely, 23. Colin Bustard, 24. Damon Paul, 25. Corey Andersen, DNQ – Nick Havens, Jason Muldowney, Rebecca LaMothe, Dave Damaio, Billy Calvert, Mark Landwher
ACE OVERHEAD DOORS 270cc MICRO SPRINTS (20 laps) – 1. Andrew Locuson, 2. Alex Swift, 3. Nick Skias, 4. Mike Rutherford, 5. Ken Andreas, 6. Steve Coslop, 7. Logan Diehl, 8. Luke Fogg, 9. Ryan Wozunk, 10. Ken Miller, Jr., 11. Tom Landwher, 12. Brandon Shipley, 13. Jonathan John, 14. Billy Gray, 15. Devin Porch, 16. John Wagner, Jr., 17. Ross Holler, 18. Sean Huesser, 19. John West, 20. Ryan Krushinski, 21, Jacob Hendershot, 22. Kyle Weiss, 23. Mark Landwher, DNQ – Rich Keller, Bill Gunning, Ryan Heim, Buddy Schweibinz, Tyler Grau
REMAX CONNECTION 600cc NOVICE (8 laps) – 1. Kristy Hicks, 2. Jason Muldowney, 3. Ed Wolf
i2m FOUR CYLINDER ENDUROS (20 laps) – 1. Scott Miller, 2. Rick Burnham, 3. Joe Garey, Jr., 4. Joe Garey
EIGHT CYLINDER ENDUROS (30 laps) – 1. Lee Allen, 2. Scott Riggleman, 3. Tom Wolf, 4. Derek Jones, 5. Gary Landis, 6. A.J. Jadacki, 7. Kevin Flores, 8. Jonathan Bronne, 9. Scott Purcell.
