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Saturday Night Dirt Track Racing
Clarksville Speedway
June 13th, 2009
Tyler O’Donnell
Dirt track racing at its finest got back into action Saturday night with the street, open wheel, late model, crate late model, mini sprint, pure mini, pro street, mini mod, and vintage cars taking their machines to the oval. It began with hot laps and qualifying, then the eight lap heat races took place. After that, came the feature races, the main events of the night. The top five drivers in the crate late model, mini sprint, open wheel, and late model races each received trophies.
In qualifying, pro street got it kicked off. Brian Hodges had the fastest time, with a time of 14.561 to get the pole for the feature race. For the crate late model class, the time of 13.282 seconds from Caleb Ashby, pulled out the pole position. Then came the mini sprints where Eric Wright had the fast lap under 12 seconds. Open wheel was next. Greg Brown came out on top with a 13.528. Last was the late model qualifier. It was headed by Chuck Proctor (27) with a time of 12.271. Brian Singleton in the 72 car had his car towed off the track having contact with the wall. It was the only crash during qualifying.
The first feature race that took place was the pro street feature. Hodges, who got the pole, had no trouble keeping the lead. Charles Zimmerman was able to keep pace with Hodges early, but eventually lost a lot of ground. Nobody had a shot to take down the lead car. In the end, Hodges lapped every car except Zimmerman, to cruise to an easy win. Brian Rapp finished third.
Next was the street feature race. Johnny Rawlings had the lead, but was passed by Ronnie Hedgepath. Hedgepath had to maneuver through traffic, which made it hard for him to pull away. Rawlings was about 5 car links back before the caution flew because of a spin. Three laps remained. Then two more quick cautions came out before another lap was completed. One incident looked serious, as the 12 car of James Black flipped over after seeming making contact with another car. Black, however, got out of the car and was okay. Three laps still were left. When the race got back underway, Hedgepath held off the pressure from Rawlings and others to get the win. Rawlings was second. Jeff Joiner finished third.
The crate late model race was next. Caleb Ashby brought the 13 car field to the green flag. Ashby had no problem leading the first few laps. That was until Rylan Dagg got up to him as they battled side by side. Ashby drove it a little too hard going into the corner going into turn 3 and spinned out. Dagg, however, kept control of his car and got the lead. Ashby, who had one of the fastest cars of the night, fell back to mid-pack. As the race wound down, Dagg began to pull away and eventually went on to win. Josh Harris was second and Matt Liner third. Ashby wound up sixth.
Then came the mini sprints. Things got separated quickly, as Wright used the open air to his advantage. Wright was pulling away from everybody. In the closing laps, Brain Nance was just trying to hold onto second until Wright started slowing down. There was something wrong with Wright’s car and he had to leave the track. Nance got the lead and was able to hold off Justin Rapp to get the surprise win. Rapp finished second in front of Chris Hunter in third.
Open wheel was next. There was a caution early involving two cars. After the first caution, there was quickly another. This time, there were four cars involved. There were still 13 laps left. The restart was single file and Gregg Brown had the lead. Michael Neighbors was stalking him the rest of the way and was waiting for Brown to make a mistake. A caution with two laps to go made for a shootout. Brown did a good job under pressure as the real battle was for second. Neighbors edged out Dustin Isom for second with Brown taking the win.
The late model race was next. This had the largest field of the night. A crash happened on lap one involving 3 cars which halted the field. Proctor got the race back underway. Another incident left 18 laps to go in the 20 lap event. After the restart, there was a good 3 way battle between Proctor, Steven Ashby, and Tony Albright. Ashby got the best of it and took the lead. Ashby seemed to have no trouble getting through traffic. Ashby went onto win by a car link over Proctor. Carnell Parker ended up third.
Next was the pure mini race. Jeffery Rittenbury was on the back bumper of Michael Rittenbury but having trouble getting by. This allowed Evan Taylor to close up. Five laps to go. Michael Rittenbury had to retire from the race with mechanical issues. Jeffery Rittenbury took the lead and held it. Taylor finished second and Dennis Taylor third.
Last was the mini mod race. Clyde Petty easily pulled away from the start. Petty had no pressure from anybody the whole way. The race ended up going caution free. Petty cruised to win with Ronnie Richardson finishing second and Gavin Schmidt third.
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