Howdy all! Well the night came to us with nary a thunder cloud in sight, and it was time to go racing. Good crowd, and a really really smokin field of Late Models.

Lots of racing tonight, so here we go.....

Demar Aggregates Trucks

Heat 1 We were introduced to the replacement driver for the 97 truck, Dave Silverthorne Jr, who started in the 4th spot. CRO poster 99-Koricina starts on the point and stays there while the battle for 2nd is between 7-Clark and Silverthorn. 1st to Koricna, 2nd to Silverthorn and 3rd to Clark.

Heat 2 Starts off with a drag race between 77-Zagaorodny and 01-Bloemendal. Bloemendal wins the battle, 82-Demelo has some serious mechnaical trouble taking him out of the running, and Bloemendal wins it with 75-Depuis in 2nd and 88-Fothergill in 3rd.

Truck Feature
Starts 9-Thompson on the pole with 16-Hosang alongside. Hosang takes the early lead while Thompson and 4-Thompson battle for 2nd, a battle that lasts a few laps and allows Hosang to develop a pretty good lead. 4-Thompson wind the battle for 2nd and soon Koricna's into 3rd. On the 5th lap, 00-Johns starts putting up a smokescreen and soon 11-Kirchner is up against the fence in 3 to bring out the yellow, and removing Hosang's lead.

At the restart, 56-Showler, who'd been stalking Hosang and reeling her in before the caution, makes his move for 1st, but while the two battle, Bloemendal slips on by the both of them. At this point, 88-Fothergill is in the wall in 3 to bring out a caution. they go back to the order of the last lap completed, and Hosang restarts at the front again. Heartbreaker for Hosang as she has a tire go down on the restart to take her out of the running. Now its Bloemendal out front, Showler in 2nd, and a three way fight for 3rd between Zagarody, 4-Thompson and 33-McDonald (might've been Rijnen too)

Now Fothergill's back out, but having a bad time, sort of limping around the racetrack. There's another caution that sees 4-Thompson and 75-Depuis around in 3-4, and this sets up the final run. Bloemendal and Showler are leaving everyone behind now, and the real race is for 5th between Silverthorn and Johns, which Johns gets the better of. There's a little last lap entertainment for 6th when Silverthorn and Depuis wage a private war, bouncing off each other a number of times, and continuing to bounce off of one another on the cool down lap too.

1st to Bloemendal, 2nd to Showler, 3rd to Zagarodny, 4th to the 33, 5th to Johns

Powerade Modifieds

Heat 1 sees a good fight between 70-Saunders and 57-Brooks. Brooks comes out ahead with the win (score 1 for the Nilestown Speedway rugrat club  ;)), Saunders in 2nd, and 24-Richmond in 3rd.

Heat 2 Sees 39 McCullough win it, back from a wall-hit last week and looking none the worse for wear. 2nd to 3-Cox, and 3rd to 1-Newman

Modified Feature

Starts just like the first heat race with Brooks on the point with Richmond alongside. Brooks luck doesn't go the same way though, and soon Cox is out front and putting in some distance. McCullough is a distant 2nd, and the real race is for third between Limon, Shipway, Newman and Brooks. Shipway get the better end of that battle. In the last half of the race, they get spread out and there's no change in the order. This one was a bit of a yawner, but it happens sometimes.

1st to Cox, 2nd to McCullough, 3rd to Shipway, 4th the Newman and 5th to Limon.

APC Late Models

Feature 1

You heard it here folks - At least 28 cars started. I had the count at 30...but unfortunately I can't say with 100 percent certainty. Regardless, there was a pile of Late Models on the track. 20-Lindsay jumps to an early lead with 02-Watson in 2nd, and 38-Hooker and 14-Emery side by side for 3rd. There's a caution on lap 4 when 18-Weirsma goes around in turn 2, and on the restart, Hooker, who's hot tonight, goes in deep on the outside and is now drag racing Watson for 2nd. Another caution flies as 4 cars go around together in turn 2, 91-McGillvray, 2-Stewart, 5-Delisle and 14 Emery. Emery cant get it fired and goes back on the hook.

So now at the restart, its Lindsay, Watson, Hooker, 52-Sheridan and 10-Kennedy forming up the lead pack and beginning to distance themselves. Sheridan's frisky tonight, managing to get around Hooker, then battles Watson for 2nd. Lindsay, Watson and Sheridan begin to pull away, but now 10 Kennedys up at the front of the 2nd line and reeling in the leaders. On lap 20 the caution is out again for 27-Box who's up against the wall in 3. Its also at this point we notice 49-Clark sitting on pit road with a flat tire, and not doing much of anything.

Now after this restart 15-Matthews seems to die off and its everything he can do to just get out of the way. At this point 28-Robblee is up to 6th and knocking on Kennedy's door. Knocks him a little too hard and now Kennedy's around and pointing the wrong way. Caution.

At the retart, the order shakes out to Lindsay, Watson, Sheridan, Robblee, Hooker and 4-Urlin. Good battle between Hooker and Robblee and Hooker actually comes out ahead. The top 3 begin to run away a bit in the closing laps, and with 2 to go, Robblee and Hooker are still at it, and this time Robblee wins the toss moving up to 4th. Its at this point the worst accident thus far occurs on the frontstretch, when 89-Spicer goes hard into the inside retaining wall, and everyone avoids except Weirsma who goes piling in. Lot of damage on both cars and a lengthy clean up - the 89's pretty messed up and dropping an unbelievable amount of fluid. They throw the checkers under caution at this point.

Win goes to Lindsay, 2nd to Watson, 3rd to Sheridan, 4th to Robblee and 5th to Hooker.

Feature 2

Few less cars this time around considering a few damaged cars from the first go around. 24 take the green. On the pole is 22-Ramsay with 4-Urlin alongside, then its 77-Verhoeven and Hooker, then Robblee and Sheridan.  Ramsay get the early lead followed closely by Urlin, for 3rd the battle is Hooker and Verhoeven. On the 5th lap, its disaster for the Robblee camp, as something goes wrong on the 28 car and he's just going all over the place trying to keep it pointed the right way. He gets a break when 2-Stewart goes around in 2 to bring the yellow.

Robblee brings it in for a tire change, but once they get it jacked up, it looks like there's more wrong than just a tire. Some thrashing and Robblee's back out on the track for the green. Sheridan makes it a race with Hooker and soon he's up to 3rd. The order is now Ramsay, Urlin, Sheridan, Hooker, Watson and 72-Thompson, and now the 41 car of Adams is around in turn 2  Robblee brings it back in for some more work, and its announced that he's got some axle issues.

There's 1 failed restart when they take green, and Thomson, who's near the front and in the thick of it, goes around in 2 and they go all over the place to avoid. Miraculously, no one hits him. Another caution.

Now its time for the Mark Watson show. There's a great race for 3rd when Watson goes door to door with Sheridan for a couple laps and gets by. Then Robblees car dies completely on the frontstretch to bring out the caution. Off the restart now and Watson's battling Urlin for 2nd, and manages to pull ahead. Urlin hangs on tenaciously, pulling back alongside Watson and making a fight out of it. Watson completes the pass, but only in time for another caution as there's a pileup in turn 3. (is it just me, or has that turn 3 wall been getting a beating the last few weeks?) This time its Adams again, as well as Stewart and 69-Rawlings. Rawlings got the brunt of it and it took a little while to clean it up.

At the restart its Ramsay, Watson, Urlin, Sheridan, Hooker, and now Kennedy up into the fray as well. Kennedy has a good battle with Hooker, but all eyes are up front. Urlin gets loose and out of line (I heard Sheridan tapped him, but didn't see it) and this allows Ramsay and Watson to pull ahead and settle it themselves. Watson's right on Ramsay for the closing laps, trying high on occasion, but mostly sticking to Ramsay's bumper - and maybe the odd rub, just to let Ramsay know he was there...but no dirty stuff. At the end, Sheridan's right up there too, but its Ramsay's night.

Win to Ramsay, 2nd to Watson, 3rd to Sheridan, 4th to Kennedy, 5th to Urlin

Hard fought race and very enjoyable. Nice to see the LM guys (mostly) playing fair, as there's been a lot of rough stuff there over the years. Ramsay worked it and drove a flawless race. Watson's gonna win one soon too. In fact, I understand the night's payout was based on finishing positions in both races, so Watson might've won 1st place money just by placing 2nd in both races. Still not a checkered flag, but an awesome run for him tonight.

3rd star has to go to Hooker. They call him Mr Excitement for a reason and he brung it tonight. He was involved in more side by side drag races than anyone else and didn't ever back down. He's been running here for a few years now but with no feature to show for it yet, and I have a funny feeling his curse may be liftied soon.

In closing

We end the evening with a King of the Hill. Someone else will have to chime in with the results, as we couldn't stay. But the intro was pretty cool. First the opening riff of AC/DC's Thunderstruck played over the PA, then Kevin Overholt leads the KotH feild into the track in his Clarke Rd S.S.  "Stunt Mustang". But surprise! Kevin hits the turn 2 hill, and now there's fireworks shooting out of the trunk and up into the air...all the way down the backstretch, while they pound out the AC/DC tunes.  

It was a moment.

Awesome, awesome night of racing!

Shadow out