Late Rally Rewards Tim Smith At Bedford
3 min read
WRT SpeedWerx Photo
Tim Smith, in his first start of the season after waiting for his new motor made the debut a good one as he charged from the field to grab the Late Model win Friday night at Bedford. Nick Bechtel tightened the Semi Late point race with his Semi Late win before a wild thunder storm arrived and wiped out the rest of the program
Front row starter Jeff Miller failed to answer the call to start moving much of the Late Model field forward. New pole sitter Wayne Johnson led the first lap but Chuck Clise, sporting a brand new car took over on lap 2.
Clise moved out to a safe lead as the field strung out behind him. Jeff Rine and Trevor Feathers moved into second and third early but he man on the move was Tim Smith. From his ninth place start,Smith gradually picked his way forward. A serious battle with Feathers moved Smith to third on lap 8. and he set out after Rine.
Rine put up a battle and it took Smith until lap 18 to get by. With only Clise in the windshield, Smith turned his fastest laps chasing him. Clise’s once safe lead started to evaporate as Smith closed. By lap 23 he was all over the leader and as the pair took the white flag Smith made the move for the lead.
With a wild lightening show in the distance, Smith swept by to take his first win of the season. While it took 24 laps to get to the front, Smith was lucky the race was not a lap longer as he suffered a flat tire on the cool down lap. A dejected Clise held n for second, ahead of Rine, Mike Lupfer and Johnson Lupfer and Rine won the heats.
Earlier, Nich Bechtel had scored the Semi Late win, tightening up the three way point battle in that class. Jarrod Brown was the early leader before John Miller got by on lap three. Bechtel had joined that battle by then. He got by rown on lap 4 and swept by Miller a lap later to take the lead.
As Bechtel moved away safely. Brown and Miller, joined by Brian Weyandt Jr and Travis Calhoun, the other two in the point battle, raced for second place. .With Bechtel heading for the win, Weyandt Jr took second on 13 and followed him to the finish, Miller held on for second, ahead of Calhoun and Brown. In a statistical oddity, Every Semi late starter finished the event, all but one on the lead lap. Miller and Calhoun won the heats.
With the Limited event making their pace lap and Smith’s crew still on the stage changing a tire, the storm which had threatened all evening, opened up and drenched the track. The remaining three events were postpned and will be made up i the coming weeks.
LATET MODEL TOPLESS 25 LAPS.. 1 Tim Smith, Chuck Clise, Jeff Rine, Mike Lupfer, Wayne Johnson, Nathan Lasalle, Trevor Feathers, Matt Sponaugle DNS Jeff Miller
SEMI LATE 15 LAPS,, 1 Nick Bechtel, Brian Weyandt Jr John Miller, Travis Calhoun, Jarrod Brown, Bill Replogle, Kyle Weyandt, Laura Chamberlain, Josh Bumbarger, Andrew Stough, Bill Pluta, Erik Weyandt, Dillon Isenburg.
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