Finally, most area tracks got their opening nights in for 2004 this weekend. I have not heard any results from Tri-city but am sure they got their show in Sunday, since it was a gorgeous day. At Raceway 7 on Friday, I understand Dale Applebee ran away from the field till he rolled a tire on the last lap giving the win to Mike Hess. I have to insert that this run for Dale was even more impressive as he was on Hoosier tires while everyone else ran American Racers. The report from Sharon was that Jimmy Bickerstaff Jr. ran away from the field in his new car, till the closing lap and got a flat tire, thus handing Jeff Johnson his first Sharon victory. Of course, We were at Wayne County Speedway again for their weekly festivities, and it was a beautiful night and the track as well as the racing was great. There were 15 modifieds , and quite a few from what I understand are either new to this class or are moving up from the pure stock division. Regardless of experience the racing is good and exciting. Danny Dean and Larry Kugel won the heats, and then the invert six shuffled the field somewhat, but when the green flag dropped, Dean went right to the front and won basically unchallenged. Kugel, Scott Stiffler, Kyle Brown, & David Liles rounded out the top 5. With just a few laps to go Jay Howe had a horrible crash when his throttle stuck and he hit the wall in 3&4 . He climbed out seemingly unharmed but obviously his bell had been rung. The car is completely bent but hopefully with the week off this Saturday, he will be able to come up with something as he is sitting pretty high up in the points race. As I mentioned there is an AMA Quad Nationals scheduled for this Saturday, so the locals will be taking a week off or heading to other AMRA tracks for points for the international series points race. Probably a lot of them will be heading to Elkins , West Virginia for the second Road Warrior Tour event. Weekly racing will resume on the 22nd, and then on the 26th of May, which is a Wednesday, there will be the Dash for Cash for the modifieds as they will be running with the All Star Circuit Sprint cars. I will check for sure, but I believe this race is open to the top 10 in points, and is paying 1,000.00 to win. I have not been able to confirm that, but have heard it from a couple of different sources. I will have that available next week for sure.
I did just hear from Jay Howe while I was doing this article, and it seems that he did not escape a few minor injuries. He has some torn knee ligaments and his throttle foot is broken in three places. However, I'm sure that will not keep Jay from his favorite seat long at all. We send him our best wishes for a hasty recovery and return.
Until next time...
