This will be another "working next morn at the crack of dawn" report, so I'll make it brief. Looked like Mother Nature was getting ready to throw her worst at it tonight, but the Delaware brass decided to push on anyway, and it was a good job they did. The race card went off excellent with one rain delay during the heats.

LM Triple Crown Race 1

The race started with the fast guys at the front. 28-Robblee on the point with Lindsay alongside. Robblee grabbed the early lead and didn't really look back....but that was OK because the juicy stuff was happening at the back of the pack. While Robblee was in front, the second pack formed up well behind him with 52-Sheridan, 20-Lindsay, 22-Ramsay, 81-Greisel, 37-Elliott, and 21-Pritiko all bumper to bumper behind the 28.

There was some rough stuff that got Elliott around to bring out a caution, then a couple of laps later Elliott ended up in the backstretch fence with a pretty hard hit. Didnt see much of it, but Elliott was none too pleased with both Pritiko and 72-Thompson.

Now things started getting ugly (doesnt this usually happen in the 2nd race?) There's a big mess in the 3rd turn when Pritiko gets around and 10X-Shepherd plows into him full bore. Kind of an odd accident...not much damage to the 21, but the 10X looked totalled and needed the flatbed and a red flag to bring it in.

Now at the restart, the order is pretty much the same minus Pritiko and Elliott. Robblee is still holding the lead but Sheridan is not letting him get away this time. Theres an interesting moment when 33-Grover goes around in 1, apparently with help from Griesel, but sits there with no caution as the pack rounds turn 1 and bears down on him. Fortunately he didn't get slammed. Then, a lap later, 69-Rawlings goes around and the yellow is out before he even stops moving. Not sure what's up there. SO now under caution, Grover goes onto pit road, as does Greisel, and as they are pulling out there's a little bout of brake-checking and bump drafting down pit road. Obvoisly these guys arent happy with each other.

Now at the restart, both of them are at the back and that's where all eyes were, and up front there's some more contact that sends 72-Thompson around for one more caution.

In the end its 1st to Robblee, 2nd to Sheridan, 3rd to Lindsay (all running nose-tail) then 4th to 27-Box and 5th to 22-Ramsay.

Demar Aggregates Trucks.

Great run by the Hosang 16 truck tonight, piloted by Chad Rijnen for the evening. He had the lead in the early going and held it until the halfway point when 56-Showler caught him, passed, then checked out on the field. WIth those 2 running 1 and 2, the battle, and a furious battle it is, is going on for third and the principal combatants were 55-Adraeinsen, 99-Koricina, 33-Fothergill and 01-Bloemendal. Great battle as Fothergill uses all his tricks to get around Adraeinsen but can't do it, at one point drifting high and allowing Bloemendal to slip under.

1st to Showler, 2nd to Rijnen, 3rd to Adraeinsen, 4th to Bloemendal, 5th to Fothergill.

MRA / Powerade Modifieds

24-Richmond jumps out to the lead from the pole, but only hangs onto it for a couple of laps as 88-Shipway charges up from the 3rd row to grab the lead. Shippy's in a rocket tonight and leaves everyone in the dust, except for 3-Cox who gets thru the field and begins to reel him in...but not nearly fast enough.

1st to Shipway, 2nd to Cox, 3rd to 82-Demelo, 4th to 1-Newman, 5th to Richmond

Late Model Triple Crown Part 2 - 25 laps

Much to our surprise, and to the credit of both teams, both 37-Elliott and 10X-Shepherd answered the bell for the second race. Great thrashing for both teams in getting those cars out because it looked after the first race like they weren't going to make it. 10X was missing most of the right side of his car and Elliott was missing most of the front of his.

Long story short, is the story of a 1st time Delaware Feature winner. This is an inverted start, so 81-Greisel gets out in front from the pole while the fast guys have to fight their way up. However once Robblee got feee of the pack, most of the folks on the hill thought it was game over for the 81 car. Greisel proved us wrong. Robblee was right with him, trying high and low. Greisel slammed the door a couple of times but Robblee is the master and managed to back out just at the right moment to avoid any heavy contact. On the last lap there was a bit of contact and Robblee checked up and almost gave up 2nd in a drag race with 22-Ramsay. This was a good race, and thankfully unmarred by the sort of shenanigans that happened in the first leg.

1st to Greisel, 2nd to Robblee, 3rd to Ramsay, 4th to Sheridan and 5th to Mat Box

Hearty congrats to the Sauble Boys and the 81 car. Always great to see a first time winner and you guys have always run better in the new car than your finishes indicate. Awesome job.
Kudos as well for Robblee, who could have stunk up the show by dumping the 81, but didn't. Great run by Sheridan as always, and Kudos to both Mat Box and Jamie Ramsay who have been very consistent this year, and are just on the verge of joining Robblee and Sheridan as top dogs in the LM division.

Notes

Top quote of the night: When asked by pit reporter Jamie Maudsley how the car was working in practice and into his time trial, Lloyd Rawlings eloquently stated, "It sucks"  😉

Notably absent tonight were Kennedy, Watson and Verhoeven, and if I heard correctly, Doerr was piloting Christie's 5 car again this week.

Also, just wanted to send a shout out to the Silverthorn clan. Heard through the grapevine that you guys suffered a terrible loss in the family and we're thinking about ya's.

MRA Fundraiser  
A note here from the Modified Racing Association (MRA) Was talking to Bill Robinson tonight and he asked me to pass along that the MRA guys are going to be having a display up top next week featuring Justim Demelo's 82 mod. Now the MRA guys being up top is nothing new. What IS new, is that this week coming up, they will be selling raffle tickets for two grand prizes of 2 full weekend passes for the Delaware Supermodified Classic Weekend. The raffle is a fundraiser for the MRA organization, which is in its first year of operations, and they're trying to drum up some support. So when you come next week, save a few bucks  aside and take a chance on winning the prize. That's over a hundred dollars worth of race tickets and covers both days of the Classic Weekend.

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Just me playing with my new BlackBerry. Sucks for action shots, but you get a neat snap every once in a while.

Caught looking toward the turn 4 end, just past the announcer tower. I think it was a sign that we'd get some racing in tonight.
   

Shepherd's gets a lift back to the pits. Doesnt look so bad from here, but the whole other side of the car was completely mangled.

No one has more fun than Richmond Row. No one. Not even when its raining.

It's not vey clear of course, but I rather liked this one. This is the green flag on the first race.

That other track near Barrie can call itself Sunset if they want. But watching the sun go down past turn 2 at Delaware, with Late Models a -roaring...well life just doesn't get any better than that.