I-77 Raceway Park PR 8-17-2013

(Fairplain, WV)- August 19, 2013- I-77 Raceway Park hosted the Steel Block Hillbilly 50 this past Saturday as well as season championships for AMRA Modifieds, Mod-Lites, and Burger King Semi-Mods and the night did not disappoint. With very strong car counts in the Hillbilly 50 Qualifier and Mod-Lites.

23 cars signed in to race for the Steel Block Hillbilly 50 qualifier. Fast Freddie set the tone with a blazing speed in qualifying that would have easily put him up front in a full blown super late model race. Freddie in his #C4 machine also went on to take the dash win! Heat 1 was won by the #99 of Travis Brookover driving for Roger Bowling and heat 2 was won by the #33H of Kenny Johnson driving for Ken Patrick. Johnny Vandale took the consolation win and moved into the feature in his #23 machine. The #21W of Levi Wright also transferred from the consolation race. The feature started off and Freddie looked like he was on his way to victory, but had car troubles and went out early in the event. Frankie Hall then took the lead and looked like he was going to run away with it. During this time Travis Brookover was working his way up from his 7th place starting position. After a couple of cautions flew Travis was restarting second behind Frankie. Brookover was on the low side and Hall was up high. After a couple laps of battling Brookover overtook Hall coming out of turn two. Hall then slowed and pulled off. Brookover went on to win and qualified Roger Bowling’s #99 into the Hillbilly 50. 2nd place went to the #DT1 of Darrin Roush who earlier in the night carried the American Flag for us during the National Anthem. 3rd went to TJ Watson, 4th to the rookie of the year #7H Zach Hill, and 5th to the consolation race winner #23 Johnny Vandale.

The AMRA Modified division gave us a full field of 18 cars. The #1J of Kenny Johnson was in his usual form in qualifying setting fast time. Kenny also took heat race 1. Heat 2 was won by the #1 Rookie of the year and track champion James Dennis and heat 3 was picked up by the #1ST of Bret Hamiltion. It was a good night early to drive a #1 in the modified division. Roy Roush and Kenny Johnson were both on hand to continue the battle for the AMRA Modified track championship. Roush borrowed Shawn Donahue’s car in the feature after having problems with the car he brought to the event in the heat race. The feature started and it had a green flag feel. Then all of a sudden as the #1J of Kenny Johnson is leading he spins out by himself in turns 1 and 2 a very unusual occurrence for him. This would send Johnson to the tail and put him behind a charging Roy Roush. The #000 of Robert “Booger” Garnes then assumed the lead and never looked back. “Booger” pickeed up his first win of 2013. 2nd would go to the #3C of Vince Conrad as he made a good effort to try and take the championship from Dennis, but just fell a little short. 3rd went to the #1ST of Bret Hamilton who came up all the way from Powhatan, VA to run with us. 4th went to the #B4 of Jeremy Blake and 5th to the #1J of Kenny Johnson who recovered well from his early spin. Roy Roush the other contender for the National AMRA Champion would come home 10th in his backup car.

The Mod-Lite class sports 6 cars for their final race of 2013. The #77 of Nathan Harrison set fast time in the division. There was only one caution in the feature and that was brought out by rookie of the year #21 Troy Rife spinning the #71 of Rick Jones. The top five were the #77 of Nathan Harrison, #3 of Joe McFee, #G75 of Travis Holmes, #21 of Troy Rife, and #71 of Rick Jones.

Only 5 Burger King Semi-Mods showed up for their final event ever at the speedway. THe #17JR of Kevin Rooks dominated the event and took the checkers. The rest of the top five were #75 Nick Carr, #411 Will Brogan, #33 Cooter Thorne, and #11C Rodney Cossin.

Only one mini-wedge was on hand so Addison DeViese took the win uncontested.