Exciting Night of Racing with Ken Schrader at Plymouth Speedway
By: Anita Soltis
(Plymouth, IN) It was a beautiful night for racing in Northern Indiana and the racing was hot at Plymouth Speedway.
He’s racing in two classes at Plymouth Speedway and he was a winner in the Super Street Division Saturday night. Tommy Beezley II started third in the feature and quickly took the lead after the pole sitter Bobby Keller and Michael Clark had a head-on collision in between turns one and two on the second lap. David Short was able to grab a spot in the top three after the caution but then last season’s champion Bob McLean made a mistake and Short was able to move up into the second spot. Randy Akers, who started eighth, was able to move up through the field after battling several cars for position. He made it to the third position by the fourth lap. Beezley II was the winner with David Short and Randy Akers on the podium.
“This win feels good,” said Beezley II. “We’ve been tuning the car and trying to rack up top finishes – especially since I started the season with two DNFs.”
The 600 Open Sprints saw Dawson Stealy out front for the entire race after getting a good start from the outside pole. Billy Cribbs showed the crowd how to race to the front as he moved from the ninth starting position and was up to the fourth position by the sixth lap. Lapped traffic running three and four wide at times played a big part in the race by the eighth lap. Randy Shilling was running in top three and Eric Saunders was working on him for position when Saunders got out of sorts and Shilling was able to make his moves to the front. By lap 18 in the 20-lap feature, Shilling had moved to the second position but didn’t have enough for the dominant Stealy. Stealy came out with the win with Shilling and Cribbs rounding out the top three. Only two cautions were called during the race with both toward the end of the race.
“I had to make adjustments under caution and hoped they worked. Looks like they did,” stated Stealy.
The UMP Modified race was a big race as NASCAR driver Ken Schrader came to the track to race his machine. He would have to chase down Jamie Lomax who took the lead after the first caution on Lap 2. The race was red-flagged after an accident in between turns one and two which required some time to clean up. Pole-sitter Brandon Roundtree and Adam Williams had problems with their cars and called it a night after they were running in the top five. When the race went back to green, Schrader battled with last year’s UMP Modified Champion Frank Marshall who both moved through the field from starting in the fourth row. Tommy Beezley II had a rough time trying to fend off the charging duo of Marshall and Schrader and Zeke McKenzie also had a few laps battling the pair. In the end, Jamie Lomax commanded the race with Frank Marshall ending up in second and Schrader, third.
“I jumped out to an early lead and kept running my line and it worked,” stated Lomax. “Thank you to the fans for coming out. The track was great tonight.”
The Thunder Stock feature was the last race of the night which found Dennis Freeland on top of the podium. He quickly took the lead on lap 2 and didn’t look back. Bryce Shidler put on a good show as he worked his way through the pack. John Rhoades also put the moves on the field as he battled his way from the eleventh starting spot. Rhoades was in the third spot by lap 13. Two laps later it was Freeland with the win, Shidler in the runner-up spot and Rhoades in third.
“It was really loose before and I swapped tires and made some changes and we had a really great car,” Freeland told the crowd. “This feels great. I lost my wife in June of last year and all I wanted to do was win a feature. This win is for her and a five-year-old boy who both had battled cancer.”
Plymouth Speedway will be back in action on May 17 with the Earl Gaerte Classic. The Sprints on Dirt series, the UMP Modifieds, Super Streets and Thunder Stocks will race beginning at 7 p.m. ET.