WILLIAMS, REINHARDT, SWIFT & DAVEY PICK UP SPIRIT VICTORIES

 

 

 

After Mother Nature watered the track, the Friday night racing program at Spirit Speedway’s quarter mile was completed for all three divisions of racing.

PJ Williams raced to his second Friday night victory of the 2019 season by holding off the challenges of former track champion, Luke Thomas for more than half of the race.

The top four competitors  – Williams, Thomas, Steven Bracall and Whitey Kidd – kept it close throughout the entire race, racing side by side and nose to tail and sometimes three abreast.  There was no time to take a breath during the Ace Overhead Door Company 600 Micro Sprint twenty lap feature event.

Williams led the way from his pole position start.  After a battle with Bracall, Thomas took over second on lap one with Kidd following in third.  2018 Track Champion, Mike Rutherford raced into the top five on lap eight.

Bracall battled his way to third on lap fourteen with a pass by Kidd.

With three laps to go, Thomas executed a slide job to take the lead from Williams but Williams battled back to regain the lead as they exited turn four.   Williams raced ahead to the checkered flag with Thomas hot on his trail.  Bracall took third over Kidd with Rutherford completing the top five.  Colins Bustard raced to a sixth place finish over Gary Bozowski, Jon Keller, Brandon Pavel and Kyle Spence who recovered from an earlier caution to finish in the top ten.

Lee Reinhardt raced into the lead from his outside pole start at the wave of the green in the first of the Twin 15 feature events for the JS Weld-Rite/Mongoose Chassis 270 Micro Sprint action.

Alex Swift took over second before a lap three caution and chased Reinhardt to the checkered after fifteen laps.  Ken Andreas finished third with Nick Walton racing the Huesser No. 20 to a fourth place finish ahead of Steve Coslop.

For the second fifteen lap event, the top nine were inverted for the start.  Bobby Butler took the lead at the wave of the green, racing in a 270 instead of his normal 600 Micro sprint.  Butler first raced ahead of Mike Rutherford until a lap seven caution saw Alex Swift race up the inside to take the lead while Butler & Rutherford raced each other for position.

Walton raced into second on lap eight and chased Swift to the checkered flag at the end of fifteen laps.  It was Swift’s fourth win of the season.

Trailing Swift and Walton to the finish line were Rutherford, Luke Fogg and Reinhardt.

Ryan Davey captured his third win in three races after a battle with Chuck Palmucci in the twenty lap Slingshot feature.

Palmucci lead the first seven laps before Davey took the lead on a lap eight restart.  Palmucci returned the favor on a lap twelve restart and looked like he was racing to his first win but mechanical failure caused Palmucci to slow on the final lap. Davey inherited the lead and raced to the checkered flag over reigning track champion Dave McCullough, Tomas Mowery, Ryan Harris and Dave Morrell.