Fans are The Big Winners at Meet The Drivers Night at Jackson County Speedway

When track workers arrived Thursday afternoon at Jackson County Speedway and found over three feet of water in the infield most promoters would have made preparations to cancel all events for the weekend, track owner Brad McCown just grinned and said “well we have got a lot of work to do and someone is getting wet.” And then the work began, hours of hauling and pumping water things finally dried enough to start the grading and packing process again, the prep actually finished about one hour after the time cars are normally on the race track making for a later than normal evening, but the racing was worth the wait.
As qualifying for both the AMRA Late Models and AMRA Modifieds two of the Roush brothers, Roy and Tony made setting fast time a family affair to kick off the father’s day weekend as Tony set fast time in the Late Models with a lap of 13.70 while brother Roy set fast time in the Modifieds with a lap of 14.29.
A big THANKS To all the drivers who brought their race cars onto the front stretch for Meet the Drivers part 2. This gave the fans both young and old the opportunity to meet and greet their favorite drivers and get autographs and pictures with them. Some younger fans were even seen being lifted by the drivers into the driver’s seats for pictures, thanks again racers.
The action started in a hurry as the Mod-Lite first heat went into turn one of the opening lap caused pole-sitter Duncan Durst to flip over top of the outside pole sitter Brennan Bobst and flip violently multiple times, no one was injured however both cars were done for the heat. Then the 15 lap feature Tracy Fritter made very good use of a smooth race track by making the middle groove work very well for him as he was into lapped traffic by the midway point of the event as he lead flag to flag as young guns Gary Griffith and Dylan Rittenhouse rounded out the top three positions as the checkers fell.
Heat winners: Tracy Fritter and Dylan Rittenhouse, Feature: Fritter, G. Griffith, D. Rittenhouse, Kevin Rittenhouse, Dennis Griffith, Brennan Bobst, JT Jones, Andy Trout, Jason Koenig and Nathan Casto
When the green flag fell on the AMRA Late Model A-main it was game-on, pole sitter Steve Prince and inside second row starter John Whitney Jr. were side by side as they came off the second corner, and the battle continued for almost the entire event. Lap 5 found Whitney scored as the leader however lap 6 it was back to Prince, by the midway point of the event Whitney was using every available line on the raceway to mount another charge for the lead. However as the laps wound down even using the lapped car of Jack Martin as the filling in the sandwich Whitney fell just short as Prince took home the victory.
Heat winners: Steve Prince, Darin Roush and John Whitney, Feature: Prince, Whitney, Brian Casey, Darin Roush, Tony Roush, Randy Arms, Tyler French, Frankie Roush, Jay Dunaway and Willie Bigham
As the 20 lap AMRA Modied featured a lot of people were looking to see if AMRA National and Jackson County Speedway point’s leader could keep up the pace that he has set as he leads the points in both standings. At the drop of the green he made it very clear as he set the pace up at the front of the field, as the race began to close in on the finish it was the battle behind Roush that involved JP Roberts, Aaron Pendleton and Derrick Smith that had fans on the edge of their seats and as the pack was going to the checkers it was Roberts who bobbled in turn 4 relinquishing his second place position to Smith as the checkers fell.
Heat Winners: Roy Roush, James Dennis and Derrick Smith, B-Main: Tyler Hendrix Feature: R Roush, Derrick Smith, Aaron Pendleton, Brian Whiteman, Pete Brunton, Mark Bailey, David Gilbert, Tyler Hendrix, Rickie Edwards and JP Roberts
In the Street Stock feature the lead story was does Evan Seitz have his car reliable? And reliable it was as he was putting pressure toward the leader until he lost the handle in turn 4 causing him to restart on the tail. This was all Davey Akers needed as he was able to keep Rob Smith and David Landman at bay while Seitz ran out of laps as he charged from the tail to finish fourth.
Heats: Seitz and Akers, Feature: Akers, Smith, Landman, Seitz, Tim Cutler, Steve Karr, Butch Eblin, Matt Yates, Jeremy Cooley and Derrick Davidson
In the Outlaw 4cylinder class it was a starting front row of the veteran Steve Cruse and the young second generation racer Zack Ackley, Cruse moved to the early lead as you could see Ackley watching him at every corner just looking for the opportunity to move around foe, then on lap 10 Ackley seen the opportunity and took it all the way to the checkered flag as Cruse finished in the runner up position.
Heat Winner: Cruse, Feature: Zach Ackley, Steve Cruse, Dustin Gatewood, Eddie Comes, Stevie Thornsberry, Jamie Baker and Adam Jones.
In the Sport Mod class Steve Cruse was set to redeem himself until young Harley Martin took the early race lead on lap three where he stayed until the youngster spun handing the lead back to Cruse who kept a grip on the point all the way to the finish. Heat: Steve Cruse, Feature: Cruse, Rick Nease, Harrison Hall, Harley Martin, Davey McGowan, Harvey McGowan and Ed Richendollar
In the developing 4cylinder Stock class John Burchett led flag to flag over Amy Fife and Brad McCown Jr.
In the Mini-Wedge feature it was Hunter Danik taking the 5 lap event.
Next week is Kids Night with Bike Races for the kids and as a special primer for The Dan Reno Memorial on June 29th the AMRA Modified winner gets a provisional starting spot in the $2222 to win Dan Reno Memorial.