Umberger Wins A UBB Thriller At Princeton

Princeton, WV (August 9th, 2015)- Race Recap

On a night held to honor the Fallen 29 Miners from the Upper Big Branch Mine Tragedy many teams and fans came out to show their support. Seventy one teams in all signed into the pit area for the big night.

The FASTRAK Pro Late Models have the honor of running the race specifically that honors the Fallen 29. Twenty-seven cars from West Virginia and Virginia all signed in. Jeff Maxwell looked as if he had it in cruise control as he set the fast time of 17.072. He went out in the dash and did the same thing over a tough field of dash cars. He would easily win the dash as everyone else in second through fifth battled for position. Heat race one would go to Henry Hornsby III. Heat two was a thriller. Chris Meadows, Brandon Umberger, and Aaron Barley all could have had a blanket thrown over them as they battled on the track looking for an advantage. Coming to the checkered flag Umberberger would get the win over Meadows and Barley. In heat three Ryan Montgomery easily took the win. The consolation race had a wild moment as only three cars would transfer. Kenny Rucker would accidentally spin a leading David Collins Sr. and have to go to the tail. Collins Sr. would easily win and Logan Roberson would easily pick up the second transfer spot. It was a battle for the third and final transfer spot between Billy Beachler, Kenny Rucker, and Shane Minnix. At the line Beachler would barley get there before Rucker and Minnix. The feature would start with eight caution free laps. Maxwell looked like he had it in the wind for first and Riffe was easily in second. A few drivers were making up some ground early such as Umberger, Montgomery, and Barley. Shawn Endicott would spin and bunch the field back up. As this happened on the restart Umberger would pick up a couple more positions. A couple more cautions came and Umberger kept working to wards the front. Finally in a long green run towards the end of the race Umberger would run down Maxwell and pass him while never looking back. Umberger would lead the most important lap of lap forty and pick up the win and $5,500 in the 5th Annual Upper Big Branch Miners Memorial Race. Maxwell came home second with Brandon RIffe third. Teddy Tate took fourth while Ashley Brewster had a very respectable fifth place run in his number #27 machine. Joel Prosser would win the longest tow award and Aaron Barley picked up the Hard Charger Award,
In the Open Wheel Modifieds Steve Stover just continues to impress as he again picked up the fast time award in a field of ten cars. Stover would easily take heat one and Tate Hughes would easily take heat two. Early in the feature race Hughes would take a commanding lead in the event. After a couple cautions though Stover would get by him at about the mid way point in the race. It appeared Hughes tires had went away as he continued to fall back. Stover would take the win. Bret Hamiltion would take a strong second place finish. Hughes the early leader fell to finish third. “Magic Mike” Michael Moore looked like he was finally going to put together a solid fourth place finish, but had trouble in turn three coming to take the checkered flag. Eric Feuchtenberger would slip by to take fourth followed by Daniel Lowe who would slip by to take fifth.

The Outlaw Modifieds showed seven cars including two first timers on the year. Kenny Meadows would take a heat race win that ended in a bizarre way. In the feature that was caution marred only three cars finished. Freddy Mooney worked his way around everything after starting dead last to pick up the feature victory. David Ferreira would finish second followed by Kenny Meadows in third. Jessy Roberts would be credited with fifth and Kevin Woodall would round out the top five.

The Street Stocks had eleven very competitive cars in the pit area. Clark Perry would win heat one and George Pierce would take heat race two. This was a race that was again a battle of attrition. It would finish with only four of the eleven cars running. Hank Stover would take the win over Robert Modley II. Brandon Belcher would come home third followed by Brandon Adkins in fourth. Derek McMillion who had problems and pulled off would be credited with a fifth place finish.

The Outlaw Minis put on maybe the best show of the night as they had ten cars sign in. Kevin Davidson would win heat one and Tyler Meadows would take heat two. In the feature you could have easily thrown a blanket over Davidson, Meadows, Finley, and Cole the whole race. They battled very clean and door to door through the whole feature event. Mark Cole would end up the victor after he started in fourth place. Kevin Davidson came back this weekend with a vengeance to finish second. Tyler Meadows would take third and Jeremy Finley fourth. Mr. Consistent Tim Black would round out the top five.

The Mini Wedges had a stout field of six cars. Garrett Jones made his second trip to the speedway from Buckhannon, West Virginia. This time he came prepared to go for a victory and he did just that in the five lap caution free feature event. He would easily lead every lap and pick up his first victory. The battle to watch was second through fourth between Logan Brant, Blake Basham, and “Mad” Max Price.”Mad” Max had to start shotgun on the field and work his way though the field. On the final lap going into turn one Price would make it three wide to go to second where he would end up finishing. Brant came home third with Basham fourth. Logan Collins picked up a top five and Degan Williams brought his ride home in sixth.

Princeton Speedway would like to thank all the drivers, fans, teams, and sponsors who make racing possible each and every week. We’d like to give a special shout out to all the great sponsors who made the 5th Annual UBB Miners Memorial Race such a huge success in 2015. Remember fans we will be off August 15th, have a regular show August 22nd, and the 2nd Annual West Virginia Dirt Cup will be held August 29th! We’ll see everyone then!