Blueberry Bash Ends on High Note at Plymouth Speedway

For immediate release: Sept. 2, 2013

(Plymouth, IN) It rained for most of the day on race day, but that didn't drown the spirits of track officials who were determined to put on a great show for the fans, drivers and race teams Saturday night.

The first driver to pick up a six-foot blueberry trophy in a feature win was Billy Cribbs, who was this season's points winner in the Traxxas USAC 600 Open Division. He won Saturday's Traxxas USAC Open Winged Sprint race, but he didn't get the win easily. Andrew Peters passed pole-sitter Cribbs and looked like the car to beat through much of the race, but then pulled off the track on lap 14 due to mechanical issues. The 18-year-old Cribbs, who has been racing for ten years now, was able to recapture the lead and took the checkered flag in that position.

“It was an absolutely great feature,” said Cribbs. “ I don't know what happened to Peters but it was a great win!”

Brent Buzs was the second place finisher while Josh Ross rounded out the top three.

It looked like Tommy Beezley II had the UMP Modifieds feature put in the books, but Derek Losh got by Beezley on lap nine for the lead. A late caution caused the field to bunch up, but Losh didn't flinch. He had a commanding lead by the time the checkers flew. Beezley ended up crossing the line runner-up and pole-sitter Donald Rance crossed third.

“It was a great race,” said Losh. “Thank you to the fans for sticking it out in this heat!”

The Super Street race was plagued with cautions and it was difficult to get in a lap. Due to time constraints, the race was shortened by two laps. After a few green flag laps, Bobby Hinkle quickly got to the front from starting in the third position. Travis Wolford and David Short battled it out for second place for quite a few laps before Short spun out of turn one on lap 16 and lost positions. Hinkle was hard to pass once he got out into clean air and he won the race, followed by Wolford. Michael Clark, who had gotten into a scuffle with Michael Daugherty earlier in the race, finished third.

“This feels awesome,” commented Hinkle. “Thank you to everyone who comes out to help me night and day. I'm just so happy!”

The Traxxas USAC 600 Restrictor Sprint race found Nicholas Schaefer 5.4 seconds in front of the second place car by the end of the race. Schaefer had started in the fourth position but jumped out to the lead and never looked back. Bud McCune got by Garrett Saunders for second by lap six and it was single file racing for the rest of the feature. Schaefer picked up the six-foot trophy at the end with McCune second and Saunders third.

“I'd like to thank everyone who helped me out this year including my many sponsors,” said Schaefer in his post-race interview.

Eric Brown was the winner in the Thunder Stock Division. His number 72 started on the outside pole and quickly jumped out in clean air. Bryce Shidler attempted to the close the gap for the lead on lap five but couldn't get past Brown - even after a few cautions. Shidler finished second while pole-sitter John Rhoads was third.

The Traxxas USAC 600 Non-Winged Sprints finished out the night but started with a quick caution. After that, it was Billy Cribbs once again who took a commanding lead. It stayed green for the rest of the event and as the laps closed, Randy Shilling made a run on Rodney Stealy for the second spot and Stealy beat him to the line for that second spot by two-tenths of a second! Cribbs was the big winner on the night winning both the Non-Wing and Winged USAC 600 Open events.

The crew at Plymouth Speedway will be doing some work on the track prior to the Oct. 4 and 5 World Series of Dirt event so keep that on the calendar for the last race of the year. For more information, visit the website at www.plymouthspeedway.net or follow Plymouth Speedway on Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you to all of the fans for making this a successful inaugural dirt track season at Plymouth Speedway. Racing will be bigger and better in 2014!

By: Anita Soltis

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