Skyline Speedway Results 8-26-2011

By Scott Wolfe
STEWART, OHIO-The highly-anticipated Road Warrior Challenge of the American Motor Racing Association (AMRA) lived up to its expectations as a great field of cars, a tacky track, great crowd, and 30-hard laps unraveled to the tune of a Kenny Johnson, (Mineral Wells, WV) celebration in the Skyline Speedway victory lane. “Back to Black, and Back on Track”, Chris Carpenter, South Parkersburg, once again found the groove in the AMRA super late models, Cole Duncan, Grove City, aced the OVSCA Sprint cars, Frankie Hall hammered the Semi/Crate Lates, and Jason Gillian claimed the Mike’s Auto Body Mini-Wedges.
An unusually tacky, racy track made for some super-fast times and great, multiple groove racing. Fast Timer Chris Stotts- 13:45 – fell upon bad times in his heat, clipping an inside tire barrier. In the sprints, Jimmy Stinson turned a 10:59.
Four exciting heat races set the stage for the feature line-ups in combination with two B-mains for the 38-car modified field. The final battle for position was a 4 x 4 dash that saw Johnson edge heat winners Rick Venham, Jr., Mike McPherson, Jeremy Blake. The four car dash not only set the stage for the final four positions, but jump started the rowdy crowd for the 30-lap main event.
Visibly absent from the field was points’ leader Doug Henry, who was battling health issues and was not in attendance. Several other of the AMRA’s best, and possibly the nation’s best open wheel modified driver’s battled hard luck, and were unable to make the field from the select group of highly competitive cars.
In the A-main, Johnson immediately blitzed into the lead like a roaring lion, leaving the rest of the pack to fend for itself. While Johnson sought more prey, other young lions clawed for position. Mike McPherson, Toby Roush, Rick Venham, Jr., Jeremy Blake, Joe Hamon, Joe Cox and Robert Garnes cranked up a battle for a top five. AMRA 2010 RWT Champion Matt Holcomb fell out of the running early, then Toby Roush’s bid at a great run ended with a lap eleven exit. A little later Joe Cox exited with a flat tire and heavy body damage after a gallant charge.
McPherson was shuffled back to at least fourth after an early battle, but the RV1 driver slowly began to pick his way back into contention. On the move were Robbie Evans, national points leader Vince Conrad, Jeremy Berwanger, Frankie Roush and youngster Kyle Bond.
Johnson continued to sail until a lap 16 incident sent Garnes to the tail, where he began a drive back to the front. Evans, Conrad, Hamon, Roush, and Berwanger shuffled positions regularly. In the same fashion McPherson, Venham, and Blake danced and diced for multiple passing exchanges for the number two slot. Hamon had a late race miscue that overshadowed his great run (with two laps to go).
Evans charged from 13th to sixth, Frankie Roush zoomed from 15th to 8th, former late model champ Mike Smith, back after a long absence, came from 16th to 10th, but the big passing champion was Jeremy Berwanger’s 18th to 6th place charge for the Poske’s Performance Parts Hard Charger honors. Gary Gould and Dusty Boley also had good runs from deep in the pack.
The official finish panned out in this order: Kenny Johnson, Mike McPherson, Rick Venham, Jr., Jeremy Blake, Robbie Evans, Jeremy Berwanger, Vince Conrad, Frankie Roush, Kyle Bond (14th to 9th), Mike Smith, Joe Hamon, Robert Garnes, Dusty Boley, Gary Gould, Jeremy Jarvis, Toby Roush, Chris Stotts, John Burdette, and Matt Holcomb.
A racy race track saw early leader Dan Morrison and Chris Carpenter dual in a ‘full metal jacket’ type clash for the first 16 laps of the race. The duo put on a super-hero performance, while Ralph Withem, Andy Bond, and Larry Bond grappled for the top five.
After so much early success, Morrison’s tires appeared to fade. Andy Bond and Withem made some ground and Bond challenged for the lead, on several occasions nosing ahead of the victory-bound Carpenter. Two big stories teased the crowd as Chris Garnes and Colten Burdette both blasted through the pack. Garnes rode the high side to another galaxy, but lost his brakes with 8 laps to go, somewhat slowing his daring campaign.
Garnes came from 11th to 3rd while C. Burdette came from 15th to 7th as the duo shared hard-charging honors.
Rounding out the top ten behind the Tru-Tech Customs Rocket of Chris Carpenter were Andy Bond, Chris Garnes, Ralph Withem, Larry Bond, Freddie Carpenter, Colten Burdette, Dan Morrison, Tyler Carpenter, and Jeff Burdette.
Not enough adjectives could describe the torrid sprint car battle. Seldom do you have three cars around at the finish all within a car-length of one another, and seldom do you have a number of cars that can sustain a full 25-laps of slide-jobs, hard racing, and the stamina to race the duration with inches of one another.
Friday, Jimmy Stinson, Cole Duncan, and Danny Smith filled all three rings of the circus and didn’t need a side-show to woo the fans. Stinson led 23 laps with two hungry sharks on his tail. Smith was the early challenger who couldn’t quite make some early pass attempts stick. Then Duncan challenged Smith in what was a ferociously hard, but crafty exchange of slide job passing during laps 15 through 23. At one point Duncan popped a wheelie down the back chute, while challenging Smith for second.
As if the challenge wasn’t enough, the duo masterfully crafted the exchanges amid some heavy traffic, making the battle more treacherous. On lap 22, Duncan blasted low below a lapped car, drifted high and nosed Stinson for the lead. Smith followed in the same fashion as all three streamed across the finish line in 1-2-3 fashion.
The rest of the top ten also put on a great show. Aaron Higgins was strong all evening and Dave Dickson pulled off another vintage, if not incredible performance from last to fifth. Dickson–the hard charger–was sneaky fast around the bottom, besting a gaggle of hard chargers. Chris Myers recovered from an accident to climb back into a top ten.
Another dual saw Andre Layfield and Wayne McPeek side by side much of the race, sometimes with a strong running Eddie Miller, who left with mechanical problems.
Rounding out the top ten were Duncan, Smith, Stinson, Aaron Higgins, Dave Dickson, Andre Layfield, Wayne McPeek, Chris Myers, Wes McGlumphy, and Kody Kinser. Veteran Benny Hickle flipped clear out of the ball park in turn one in his heat, but was uninjured.
The latter cars in the field were extremely fast as well and also contributed to a great show: Greg Mitchell, Brian Benson, Eddie Slone, Eric Martin, John Jenkins.
Frankie Hall, Parkersburg, once again blasted to victory in the Semi-Late/ Crate class. Hall was the class of the field although Terry Hinkle and Kyle Thomas gave the veteran a run early in the event. Rounding out the top ten were Frankie Hall, Terry Hinkel, Freddie Carpenter, Eric Francis, Eric Foster, Nelson Freshour, Matt Kussmaul, James Joy, Thomas Burdette, and Kenny Roberts.
Jason Gillian brought home the Mini-Wedge main over Coleton Perine, Tyler Evans, Zach Carr, Corey Miller, Coleman Evans, Ryan Bigley, Jake Ice, Martin Gibson, Jr., and Gabriel Pepper. The event was the final event for the youngsters and their season-ending ‘money race’. Skyline would like to thank the youngsters and their families for a great season of racing. A note of interest was that Lucas Crooks made his debut. Lucas is the Grandson of Hall of Famer Charlie Swartz.
Skyline is idle Labor Day Weekend, but resumes action with a Sprint car special, paying $3,000 to win on Friday, Sept. 9. For more information please visit <<www.skylinespeedway.net >> or call 304-539-4410 or the track phone at 740-662-4111.

The summary: 8-26-2011 Skyline Speedway

410 Sprint Cars (19)
Fast Time: Jimmy Stinson 10:59
Heat One: Jimmy Stinson, Cole Duncan, Eddie Slone, Chris Myers, Randy Fink, Cody Kinser, Dave Dickson
Heat Two: Danny Smith, Aaron Higgins, Josh Davis, Greg Mitchell, Eddie Miller, Benny Hickel
Heat Three: Brian Benson, Wayne McPeek, Andre Layfield, Eric Martin, John Jenkins, Wes McGlumphy
Feature: Cole Duncan, Danny Smith, Jimmy Stinson, Aaron Higgins, Dave Dickson, Andre Layfield, Wayne McPeek, Chris Myers, Wes McGlumphy, Kody Kinser, Greg Mitchell, Brian Benson, Eddie Slone, Eric Martin, John Jenkins, Eddie Miller, Josh Davis, Randy Fink

AMRA Late Models (17)
Fast Time: Chris Garnes 12:57
Heat One: Dan Morrison, Ralph Withem, Andy Bond, Larry Bond, Roy Roush, Chris Garnes, KC Burdette, Colten Burdette, Tony Roush
Heat Two: Chris Carpenter, Tyler Carpenter, Steve Bigley, Nick Dohm, George Klintworth, Jeff Burdette, Kurt Isner, Freddie Carpenter
Feature: Chris Carpenter, Andy Bond, Chris Garnes, Ralph Withem, Larry Bond, Freddie Carpenter, Colten Burdette, Dan Morrison, Tyler Carpenter, Jeff Burdette, Nick Dohm, Tony Roush, George Klintworth, KC Burdette, Steve Bigley, Roy Roush, Kurt Isner (DNS)

Road Warrior Challenge
MALTA AMRA MODIFIEDS (38)
Poske’s Fast Time: Chris Stotts 13:45
Dash: Kenny Johnson, Rick Venham, Jr., Mike McPherson, Jeremy Blake
Heat One: Kenny Johnson, Chris Stotts, Joe Hamon, Robbie Evans, Gary Gould, Jeremy Roush, John Burdette, Del Cunningham, Jerrad Willis, Will Rowe (DNS)
Heat Two: Jeremy Blake, Robert Garnes, Joe Cox, Kyle Bond, Shane Roush, Tommy Powell, Ronnie Pickens, Deana Groves, Dave Wolfe
Heat Three: Rick Venham Jr., Toby Roush, Matt Holcomb, Frankie Roush, Jeremy Berwanger, Buddy Brogan, Clay Crowder, Chad Roush, Andy Bond
Heat Four: Mike McPherson, Jeremy Jarvis, Vince Conrad, Mike Smith, Dusty Boley, Jason Brooks, Darin Roush, John Rhodes, Shawn Donahue (DNS)
B-Main One: John Burdette, Gary Gould, Tommy Powell, Ronnie Pickens, Shane Roush, Jeremy Roush, Del Cunningham (DNS), Deana Groves (DNS), Jerrad Willis (DNS), Will Rowe (DNS), Dave Wolfe (DNS),
B-Main Two: Jeremy Berwanger, Dusty Boley, Jason Brooks, Buddy Brogan, Shawn Rhodes, Clay Crowder, Darin Roush, Chad Roush, Andy Bond, Shawn Donahue (DNS)
Feature: Kenny Johnson, Mike McPherson, Rick Venham, Jr., Jeremy Blake, Robbie Evans, Jeremy Berwanger, Vince Conrad, Frankie Roush, Kyle Bond, Mike Smith, Joe Hamon, Robert Garnes, Dusty Boley, Gary Gould, Jeremy Jarvis, Toby Roush, Chris Stotts, John Burdette, Matt Holcomb
Poske’s Performance Parts Hard Charger: Jeremy Berwanger- 18th to 6th

Semi-Late/Crate Models (14)
Heat One: Kyle Thomas, Terry Hinkel, Matt Kussmaul, Eric Francis, Thomas Burdette, Chris Parks, John Campbell
Heat Two: Frankie Hall, Eric Foster, Nelson Freshour, Freddie Carpenter, Kenny Roberts, James Joy
Feature: Frankie Hall, Terry Hinkel, Freddie Carpenter, Eric Francis, Eric Foster, Nelson Freshour, Matt Kussmaul, James Joy, Thomas Burdette, Kenny Roberts, Chris Parks, John Campbell, Kyle Thomas

Mike’s Auto Body Mini-Wedges (19)
Heat One: Coleton Perine, Zach Carr, Coleman Evans, Tyler Evans, Ryan Bigley, Austin Washburn, Lucas Crooks, Kasey Rankin, Evan McPherson
Heat Two: Jason Gillian, Cole Mayle, Jake Ice, Martin Gibson, Jr., Corey Miller, Gabriel Pepper, Aiden Powell, Samantha Roush, Curstin Giffin, Corey DeLancey
Feature: Jason Gillian, Coleton Perine, Tyler Evans, Zach Carr, Corey Miller, Coleman Evans, Ryan Bigley, Jake Ice, Martin Gibson, Jr., Gabriel Pepper, Austin Washburn, Samantha Roush, Kasey Rankin, Aiden Powell, Lucas Crooks, Curstin Giffin, Cole Mayle, Evan McPherson, Corey DeLancey