I-77 Raceway Park PR 8-24-2013

This past Saturday I-77 wrapped up it’s regular season with seasons championships for AMRA Super Lates, FASTRAK Crates, and Semi-Lates! We kicked a little extra into the weekend making the AMRA Super Late race a Hillbilly 100 qualifier and the FASTRAK Crate race a Moonshine 25 qualifier! This was all to help lead up to this weekends Hillbilly 100!

The AMRA Super Lates brought a strong 15 cars for the qualifier. Everyone brought their A-game for this race. Stevie Lucas driving Don White’s #2 car came very close to breaking the track record. He set fast time at a 12.665. Stevie drove the #2 to victory lane in the dash as well. Travis Brookover took the #12B to victory lane in the one and only heat race. At the start of the feature event #42 Garnes got into the back of Stevie’s car. On lap one Chris drove into turn one hard and spun his car out. The race then had a cation free feel with Stevie leading and you being able to put all the way back to Jeromy Misel’s 7th place car under a blanket. Everyone wanting a guaranteed spot in the Hillbilly 100! On lap 13 Randy Armes spun his #8R machine while running a strong 5th place. The race then went green and here came Garnes shooting up through the field from his 7th place restarting position. On lap 19 the #17 of Newhouse spun out making a bad night worse. At that point Garnes was back up to 4th. As the green flew It was Lucas, Redman, Brookover and Garnes all battling it out to the finish. At the end Stevie Lucas found himself locking the #2 machine into the Hillbilly 100! 2nd place went to Redman, 3rd to Garnes, 4th to Brookover, and 5th to young gun Brock Morris in his #529 machine. If the winner races into the 100 then the provisional falls to the 2nd place finisher. The #12B of Travis Brookover took the 2013 Championship by a mere 14 points over the #42 of Chris Garnes. 3rd went to Harold Redman Jr. followed by Kenney Newhouse and Brock Morris. Tyler French is the 2013 Late Model Rookie of the Year!

The FASTRAK Crate division brought 9 cars for the Moonshine 25 qualifier. Eric Foster set his #39 machine on the pole with a very impressive fast time of 13.494. Nathan Harrison took the one and only heat race win. To start the feature the #58C of Bill Connard had a flat tire and the caution flew. Nathan led the first 3 laps of the feature then the #A1 of “The Showstopper” Tim Dohm took the lead and never looked back. Harrison pulled off with brake problems on lap 6. Then the #39 of Foster got a flat on lap 11. Tim Dohm would win the race and qualify for the Moonshine 25! He held off a hard charging Rick Lucas in his #11H machine. 3rd would go to the #32J of Buddy Brogan and 4th to the #5 of Zach Milbee. Bringing home 5th place was the #39 of Eric Foster. Nathan Harrison was the 2013 Crate Champsion followed by the 93 of Jim Cochran. 3rd went to Rookie of the Year Zach Milbee followed by Chris Reed and Eric Foster.

The semi-late division had an ever strong field of 15 cars. Nelson Freshour set fast time at 13.765. Freshour wheeled his #7f machine to victory lane in heat 1 and the #72 of Joey Harper took heat race 2. The feature race was an exciting event. The #72 of Joey Harper took off and never looked back wit the #7f of Freshour holding 2nd pretty strong, but from 3rd on back the race was on! The #7J of JR Gibson would hold off a hard fought battle with the #7H of Zach Hill. 5th went to the #20 of Jr Weekly who started dead last! The semi-late championship was the tightest of the year! The #7J of JR Gibson defeated the #7F of Nelson Freshour by only 10 ponits. 3rd went to Rookie of the Year Zach Hill followed by Joey Harper and Roger Bowling.