Saturday Night Racing

Clarksville Superspeedway May 30^th, 2009

Tyler O’Donnell

Racing at Clarksville Speedway was full of action on Saturday night.  The Crate Model, Mini Sprint, Open Wheel, and Late Model cars all competed for trophies.  The top five drivers in the feature races got to claim a trophy.  The racing did not stop their as the Street, Pro Street, Pure Mini, and Mini Mod also ran in Saturday’s events. 

Hot laps started out the night’s events for the Street, Open Wheel, Late Model, and Pure Mini/Mini Mod cars.  After that, the rest of the cars came out to qualify for the feature races.  Pro Street started off the qualifying.  Michael Zimmerman was on top of the charts with a time of 14.642.  In Crate Late Model, Caleb Ashby had the fastest time with a 13.683.  For Mini Sprints, Brian Nance was quickest with a 13.052.  Then came open wheel, where Dustin Isom had a time of 14.257 to take the pole.  Lastly, in the late model series, Brandon Chappell timed in quickest with a 13.921.

The feature races got started with the Pro Street feature.  There were four drivers that competed and only one happened to finish.  Zimmerman took home the win, but it was not without having damage to his race car.  He made contact with Larry Barber Jr. on lap one in a battle for the lead that created from end damage to Zimmerman’s car.  Both cars ended up spinning out.  It did not take long for Barber Jr. to get back to the front.  It looked like he was going to win before engine problems let Zimmerman pull out the winning pass.  Jennifer Barber finished second and Barber Jr. finished in third.

Next was the street feature.  Ronnie Hedgepath had an easy going of it as he led every lap.  Nobody had a strong enough car to pressure Hedgepath as he was busy lapping slower cars.  Jonathan Wicks who was in second in the early going, lost a motor and ended up finishing 16^th.  David Cline finished second and Chuck Bailey finished third.

In the crate model race, the battles for position happened early on.  After a couple of cautions, racing was mostly single file to the end.  Ashby was able to retain a sizeable lead over Cary King most of the race to pick up the win.  King held on for second while Gil Smith finished third.  Everyone managed to finish the race.

In the mini sprints, Nance had the pole and had no trouble keeping his car up front during the race.  The only thing Nance had to worry about was lap traffic which was virtually no problem for him.  Nance went on to win followed by Chris Hunter and Ben Rushing. 

Open Wheel was next. Isom who got the pole and also won the heat race earlier, lived up to expectations in the feature race, taking the win.  He led every lap, avoiding any trouble in the field of 20 cars.  Michael Neighbors finished right behind Isom, and Lucas Lee wound up third. 

The Late Model cars were on the track next.  Terry English started up front.  He used the pole position to his advantage, not making any mistakes.  As the race wore on, drivers were making risky moves, making it three wide in places where it just would not work.  As a result, some cars ended up damaged.  English avoided any crashes and finished first.  Brandon Chappell came in second and Chuck Proctor came in third.

Next was the Pure Mini race.  Michael Rittenbury had no trouble through the turns, going on to win the race by a wide margin.  Jeffery Rittenbury finished second after starting at the rear of the field.  He quickly blowed by three cars at the start, and eventually got to second.  However, it was too late for Jeffery to catch up to Michael.  Evan Taylor finished third. 

The last race of the night was the mini mods.  This race had the biggest crash of the night.  It involved Terry Johnson, who was in a three wide battle for the lead.  The battle did not last long as Johnson hit the wall hard, having heavy damage to the front of his race car.  Danny Taylor got the lead after the crash, but Michael Perrigo made a move on Taylor to pass him.  Taylor did not give up, sticking to the bumper of Perrigo to the end, but did not have enough for him.  Perrigo took the win, Taylor came in second, and Evan Taylor finished third.      

Next week gate will open at 4pm with hot laps at 6pm and racing at 7:30.