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Clarksville Speedway
August 8th, 2009
Dirt Track Racing
Tyler O’Donnell
A high turnout of race cars and teams took to the stage at Tennessee’s finest dirt track on Saturday night. The action started with hot laps and qualifying, before the heat and feature races got kicked off. The crowd got to see some side by side action all night, as drivers battled for the win. This past Saturday also marked the start of the race to the chase.
The first feature race was the pure mini stock race. It was a make-up from last week after it got rained out. 11 cars competed in the event. Evan Taylor was on the pole. Derrick Tillman spun out on lap one entering one, but did not sustain any damage. Quickly after that, Tillman got ran in the back and spun out again. This time, he was not so lucky as he had to take his car to pit road. Taylor meanwhile, had a clean start and pulled out from Michael Rittenberry, who was in second. It was these two drivers who would pull out from the rest of the field. Taylor was threatening to lap a few cars at the end, but ran out of laps. Nonetheless, Taylor was able to pick up the victory followed by Rittenberry and Bradley McGhee.
Next was the mini sprint feature. It consisted of nine cars competing for the win. Ben Rushing started on the pole. Things got separated fairly quickly as always with the mini sprints. Chris Hunter was able to maintain pace with Rushing in the first few laps. As Rushing started to separate himself from the pack, a caution came out for a single car crash. The field was brought back together single file. Racing resumed, and Rushing had no trouble pulling away again. Dwayne Emberton was in a battle trying to hold onto third with a pack behind him. He was able to maintain position, but not gain any ground on the two in front of him. Caution came out with just two laps to go when Raymond Vander Wielen tagged the wall. It closed up the pack and gave Hunter and Emberton a shot at the lead. When it got restarted, Hunter stayed within three car links of the leader but never managed to make the pass. Rushing held on to win, followed by Hunter and Emberton.
The Mini Mod feature had five cars racing. Joseph Schwenz Jr. had the pole for the event. On lap one, two cars collided and slid in the infield. One of those cars was Schwenz Jr., who sustained some damage to his race car. He was forced to exit the race. That left five cars to battle it out for 12 laps. Ronny Richardson got it back under green. Gavin Smith and Buck Gore were now in position to make a run at the lead. However, it was Smith who would suffer mechanical problems to his race car that had him exit early. Gore made it interesting at the end, but Richardson held his ground in the win. Michael Rittenberry was third.
The Pro Street feature was next. Four cars entered in the race. Zimmerman had the early lead, but it was anybody’s race with Mike Hodges and Anthony Jackson right behind. Hodges was never more than 3 car links back the whole race, and got to the bumper of Zimmerman with three to go. Hodges seemed to lose some ground after getting loose in one of the corners. He did not give up and got right back to Zimmerman’s bumper again. It took the last turn of the last lap for Hodge’s to make the pass and snatch away the victory. Jackson settled for third.
The street feature was next following intermission. The 13 cars circling the track at the start was led by Chuck Bailey and Jonathan Wicks. The first lap was clean, and Hedgepath did not take long to get his race car to the front. Wicks slipped back to fifth. Not long after that, a five car pileup took place coming into three and out of four. It seemed as though all the cars involved had some kind of damage. Josh Taylor, was running fourth at the time, before the incident happened. Hedgepath and Bailey remained the head of the class as they restarted with seven to go. Bailey needed Hedgepath to make a mistake in the last few laps, but Hedgepath held his ground and took home another win. Bailey had to settle for second and Michael Myers came up for third.
The crate late model class took to the track next. Tait Davenport had the pole in front of 11 others drivers. The cars roared into turn 1 with Davenport scrambling away. Gil Smith was working on Caleb Ashby for second. Ashby still had the leader in his crosshairs as he made that inside groove work. Smith was falling out of the picture, as he was just trying to hang onto third in front of Phil Gregory. Ashby gave it all he had trying to make the pass on the inside. He just could not get by. At the end, he tried the outside line, but Davenport was successful in fending him off. Smith finished out third.
The open wheel feature was next. Randle Sweeney led the pack at the start. He got in trouble early though, as Clayton Miller got inside of him going into turn 1 and spun him out. It was a battle for the lead. A few other cars were involved as well but everyone was able to continue. Sweeney was able to retain his first place position with Miller once again in second. It did not take long for Sweeney to have trouble again however. He ended up getting a flat tire. He had to leave the race track which ended any chances of victory. It gave the lead to Miller with Michael Neighbors and Greg Brown behind him. That is the way the top three finished.
The late model cars roared to life next. Chuck Proctor and Jeff Walston started on the front row in the 20 lap event. Terry English got in front of Walston after lap one. Chris Shelton and Randall Sweeney collided in the back of the pack, bringing out a caution. Proctor was still the leader. It appeared that English was catching him, but he faded back to third before the caution. Walston came back up to second and was had a look at Proctor when the green flag came back out. After a few green flag laps, English wanted to do battle with Walston again. English got by before Proctor ran into lap traffic and collided with a car in front of him. It brought out the caution but Proctor was able to retain his position. In the closing laps, English could not get to Proctor in time. Proctor got the win, with English second, and Walston third.
The pure mini’s took the track for the last feature race of the evening. It was the second feature race of the night for the class because of last week’s rainout. Evan Taylor looked to pull off the sweep. Michael Rittenberry led lap one, but had a rearview mirror full of the two cars of Justin Booth and Taylor. Booth’s got around Rittenberry for the lead. They were battling side by side and Taylor was waiting for them to take each other out. Rittenberry got back to the lead and Taylor was able to get by Booth. Rittenberry had to hang on for three laps. He gave the inside line to Taylor on the last lap and Rittenberry was impressively able to hold off Taylor in preventing him from winning again. Rittenberry was able to celebrate the victory. Booth, who had a strong run for most of the race, finished third.
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