Nick Hoffman Motors To WVMS Renegade Tour Win

(Middlebourne, WV) Simply summed up as one for the record books for all facets of Thursday nights Renegade of Dirt program at the West Virginia Motor Speedway. After last nights rain out at the Tyler County Speedway for the tour a beautiful evening was on tap for the wicked warriors of open wheel, witnessed by a terraced hillside covered in faithful dirt fans from across the country to take in action in the Mountain State.

Fifty four cars from ten states took to the lightning fast 4/10′s mile dirt oval for 2Brothers Motor Sports Time Trials that saw Ishua, NY Rich Michael Jr. take the fast overall qualifying award and the $50 bonus on behalf of 2Brothers Motorsports. A group qualifying format also saw Bryce Jewell take the top time honors in group #2 also earning the Madisonville, KY racer an extra $50 for his efforts.

Next the remarkably talent laden roster rolled on to the speedway for six heat races on the evening each taking only the top two onto the Arizona Sport Shirt A-Main. After Michael redrew for the events heat race invert (a three) he immediately took off from where he started, taking his #17X to the top spot in the heat from his third starting position. Heat race #2 was lead by Martins Ferry, OH native JE Stalder who took advantage of his pole position to take the second preliminary event. An impressive Michael Davis of Rayland, OH raced his #7m machine to the checkered flag ahead of the rest of the field to win heat #3. Heat race #4 dominately won by the R28 of Kevin Morehouse, heat race #5 was lead by Nick Hoffman, and a solid top performance was turned in by ‘Stormin’ Norman Aronhalt to take the final preliminary heat #6.
Furthermore, three Flag To Flag sponsored B-Main events taking two would round out the field prior to the two series provisionals. When B-Main #1 concluded is was the ‘Badlands Bandit’ Rick Aukland who would take the win followed by a hard charging rally from Chris Stotts that placed him in the main event. B-Main #2 was won by fifth starting Kyle Strickler followed by Farmdale, OH’s Scott Stiffler, and the last and final B-Main event was won Jason Brookover who was trailed to the finish by Michigan’s Adam Thrush.

When the opening night’s Arizona Sport Shirts A-Main event at 2013 MODFEST at the West Virginia Motor Speedway got underway it was lead to the green by Hoffman and Michael. The NC and NY duo battle side by side lap after lap as the feel shuffled throughout, several cars continued to make their charge to the front. All the while it was the incredible battle for the lead that on lap thirteen eventually came to a halt when the lead duo made contact in one and two forcing the 17X of Rich Michael pit side with front right suspension damage. Meanwhile, fellow Tarheel state competitor and veteran Rick Aukland were making their charge to the front just over the races midway point.

The tandem continued there march to the front for the next few laps quickly reeling in the 2H of Hoffman, Strickler then pulled door to door of Hoffman as they continued to circuit the ‘Plant’ at times nosing ahead through three and four until the events final caution came out with just two laps remaining as Tanner Wilson’s ride came to a stop on the turn three wall after late race contact with the 0 of Mark Dickson. As the green dropped on the field is would be a two lap sprint to the finish for the top three, the trio battled back and forth for the remaining laps each making runs down the back stretch to try and vault themselves into the top spot.

As the black and white squared flag waved it was the Elite Chassis builder/house car piloted by Mooresville, NC’s ‘Thrill from Mooresville’ Nick Hoffman that would take the opening night win. The win marks Hoffman’s second career Renegade of Dirt Tour win for the driver of the 2H (Elite Chassis, Eibach Springs, WAR Shocks, KBC Grafix, Elite Engines, Creech’s Service) sponsored machine, the first came back on Memorial Weekend this season during the tour’s $7555 to win “Let It Ride 55” at Tyler County Speedway. Hoffman won $1,000 and a guaranteed starting spot in tonight’s highly anticipated $3,000 to win / $1,000 just to start MODFEST finale should he not transfer in through preliminary action.

Finishing up in the runner up spot on the evening was the pilot of the 2A of Zanesville, OH Rick Aukland, a performance that will catapult him to the top spot in the overall tour standings. The dirt late model hall of famer was wicked fast during the twenty lap A-Main passing eleven cars to finish second from his thirteenth starting spot earned through the B-Main.

Rounding out the podium during night #1 was the Cedar Peaks sponsored 8s Harris by Highside chassis of Kyle Strickler. “The High Side Tickler” was perfecting his craft during his charge to the front through turns one and two, the appropriately nicknamed Strickler was riding the extreme high side of the race track to rally eleven spots in the main event from his B-Main winning fourteenth position to his final third place finish. The fellow Mooresville, NC native was all but around Hoffman for the lead when the lap 18 caution cramped his chances at getting around the leader for his first tour win in 2013, and was then beat by less than .200 of a second by Aukland while making the move in turn three for the lead.

The entire top ten was rounded out by JE Stalder, KY’s Bryce Jewell, ‘The Hitman’ Jess Hartman, the event’s hard charger Travis Dickson moving up from his provisional starting 19th position up to 7th, Norm Aronhalt finished 8th, Jonathon Taylor was 9th, and Scott Stiffler from 17th finished a hard earned 10th place.

The action will get underway at the ‘Speedplant’ on Friday night for the $3,000 to win, $1000 to start open wheel special. Fans are guaranteed to witness an all out war waged by racers seeking the coveted transfer positions in each preliminary event prior to the forty lap Arizona Sport Shirts A-Main event that will see an expected sixty plus field compete for.

For the first time ever on the Renegade of Dirt Tour participants will also have the option to participate at their choosing in a ‘bonus buy-in’ program that will make them eligible to win $5,000 on Friday night instead of the advertised $3,000 winners prize. Any racer can participate by simply paying an additional $100 dollars at the time of Friday’s registration that will make them eligible at winning the additional two grand in victory lane. Any racer who chooses to participate in the buy in will be running for the same purse from 2nd to 20th but will have the shot at winning the $5k grand prize, any racer who chooses not to participate will still be competing for the heavy advertised $3,000 to win and $1,000 to start event purse in full.

Thursday, August 29th Results
West Virginia Motor Speedway
“MODFEST Qualifier”
54 Total Modifieds signed in

2 Brothers Motorsports Qualifying:
#17x Rich Michael Jr. was Fast Time in Group #1, #0J Bryce Jewell was Fast Time in Group #2.
Inversion Pill: 3
Heat Results:
Lincoln Electric Heat #1 Finish: Rich Michael Jr., Ryan Gifford, Nathon Loney, Chris Basich, Dan Ebert, Beau Bradley, Brock Moskey & Pauly Hess.
Integra Shocks Heat #2 Finish: JE Stalder, Jonathan Taylor, Rick Aukland, John Burdette, Leonard Enos, Chris Stotts, Jeremy Berwanger, Amanda Stiffler & Aaron Raby.
Dirtcast.com Heat #3 Finish: Michael Davis, Jess Hartman, Travis Dickson, Deana Groves, Kyle Stricker, Mike McPherson, Bud Watson & Roy Roush.
ModFury.com Heat #4 Finish: Kevin Morehouse, Bryce Jewell, Scott Stiffler, Greg Johnson, Robert Garnes, Mark Dickson, Kyle Brown & Dylan Shaffer.
Genesis Shocks Heat #5 Finish: Nick Hoffman, Tanner Wilson, Jason Brookover, Trey Martin, DJ Cline, Bret Hamilton & Dusty Boley.
GRT Chassis Heat #6 Finish: Norm Aronhalt, Jesse Wisecarver, Kevin Miller, Adam Thrush, Wade Benjamin, Kenny Johnson, Bob Moskey, Jeremy Blake & Pete Brunton.
Flag to Flag Consolation Transfers:
B-Main #1: Rick Aukland & Chris Stotts
B-Main #2: Kyle Strickler & Scott Stiffler
B-Main #3: Jason Brookover & Adam Thrush
Arizona Sport Shirts A-Main Finish:
Position, Starting Position, Number, Name, Hometown, Chassis
(1) #2 Nick Hoffman, Mooresville, NC, Elite Chassis
(13) #2a Rick Aukland, Zanesville, OH, Lightning Chassis
(14) #8 Kyle Strickler, Mooresville, NC, Harris by Highside
(3) #17JE JE Stalder, Martins Ferry, OH, Outlaw by Shaw
(10) #0J Bryce Jewell, Madisonville, KY, Outlaw by Shaw
(12) #5 Jess Hartman, Zanesville, OH, Bob Pierce Race Car
(19) #16 Travis Dickson, Gallipolis, OH, Diamond Chassis
(5) #309 Norm Aronhalt, Warsaw, OH, Diamond Chassis
(8) #5T Jonathan Taylor, Saltsburg, PA, BMS Race Car
(17) #14 Scott Stiffler, Farmdale, OH, GRT Chassis
(7) #2B Ryan Gifford, Welcome, NC, Outlaw by Shaw
(20) #0 Mark Dickson, Gallipolis, OH, Diamond Chassis
(18) #91 Adam Thrush, Mt. Pleasant, MI, Xtreme by Thrush
(16) #s8 Chris Stotts, Shade, OH, Swartz Chassis
(9) #17 Tanner Wilson, Zanesville, OH, Larry Shaw Race Car
(2) #17x Rich Michael Jr., Ishua, NY, Xtreme Chassis
(15) #28B Jason Brookover, Parkersburg, WV, Shaw by Landers
(11) #17xx Jesse Wisecarver, Zanesville, OH, Outlaw by Shaw
(4) #28R Kevin Morehouse, Hanover, OH, Diamond Chassis
(6) #7M Michael Davis, Rayland, OH, Lightning Chassis