Likens, Kennedy, Lushes, Schmitt, Prater, Mazzagati & Oliver Win At Barberton
5 min read
Week one is in the books and seven drivers have capped off months of hard work with the ultimate ‘feel-good’ reward. Wins at Barberton Speedway. Historically, opening night is typically cooler, cloudy, and known for lots of mechanical failures. This week saw a rubbered up track, temps in the mid 80s, and very few missed repairs from drivers. The heat was on in the air, and the heat was on as drivers began their epic Summer-long quest in search of the championship.
Ryan Likens capped off the evening’s first event with a win over Lucas Zywiec. The race began with Lily Impellizzeri leading early. The sophomore driver led several circuits before falling back through the field. Chloe Mazzagatti took the lead from Lily and held command of the event over Brady Carte as the field began to fan out three and even four wide. One of the drivers moving forward was young Lucas Zywiec who was also in year two. He passed Carte just as trouble broke out behind them as Lily spun and collected last year’s champion Steve Mitch. Mazzagatti restarted the race and held on for several more circuits until she would lose out to Likens and Zywiec. Likens would take home the win with Zywiec pretty close to him.
Jacob Kennedy took home the evening’s first purestock feature after holding off the field in what could be described as a potentially ill-handling car. The race saw Harmony Betts win the heat and take the lead from WIllie Huddelston on lap 1. Betts stayed up front until something on her car quit. As she went high, Kennedy was there and the duo wound up in the wall. Betts was done, but Kennedy kept at it. He restarted tail, worked through the field and took the lead on lap five. He never looked back as he led the field to the checkers.
The Legend feature was a tale of two halves between the Knox Racing driver of Evan Finley and the Lushes Brothers Racing’s entry of Brendan Lushes who won. The race began with Finley finding his way to the front around Matt Snyder as Lushes and the fifteen others worked for optimal position. As the race ran into its later stages, several competitors pulled outside with flats, mechanical woes, and even one so they could go to the bathroom. One yellow just past halfway involving Chris Breads and Bradley Weber bunched up Finley and company. Lushes used some trickery on the restarts to stay true with the #97 of Finley and was able to cross him under coming out of turn four with seven circuits to go. Lushes took the lead going into turn one and never looked back as he picked up where he left off last year.
Tim Schmitt ‘Won one for Pappy’ as he took his Pappy Miller throwback to the finish ahead of his competition. Schmitt took the lead early in the event and honestly never looked back. Cody Collmar came in behind him and Tom Powell rounded out the top three. With a small field, not much was honestly able to be reported on, except for all the Street Stockers who are waiting to get their cars out. Rick Price, Justin Alexander, Preston Walker, and even yours truly have cars waiting to come out. Talking with many in the pits, the showing seen this week is not a sign of things to come. Rather, it is just showing us who has their stuff ready! Will they be ready for the influx in the coming weeks? We shall see…
Aaron Prater took home the Modified feature with pressure coming from all sides by Lucas Ripley. The race started with Burden Racing’s Dave Wagner leading the field to speed alongside TomCat Racing’s Tigh Shaffer. Both teams entered 2022 with heavy hearts and were hoping that 2022 would be the year that helps heal the emotional wounds. Wagner lead early until he was passed by Prater (who carried the names and numbers of all who we had lost over the offseason). Prater took off with the lead while the field got their affairs in order behind him. One driver who expedited his progress forward was Ripley and he was on Prater before long. The laps wound down and the duo diced, sliced, and worked every inch of Barberton Speedway trying to gain the edge on one another. Never hitting, the duo put on the ultimate display of sportsmanship and showed the crowd that you can run Barberton and not have to resort to the bumper. Prater did take home the win by arresting the momentum of Ripley coming to the white. Ripley simply didn’t have the time to get back to him.
After the last two features, there were a few tears falling as we remembered all we had lost in 2021, but the Late Models opened up the waterworks for one who narrowly avoided tragedy. Mike Mazzagatti took home the win just six months removed from the hardest battle he had ever had. Midway through last year, he had been one of many who had contracted COVID. He battled hard and was able to wake up. Still a little weak, Mazzagatti worked over the offseason bettering himself. When the green flag flew, the field got to speed and Alex Starvez took his #12 to the front. Starvez led quite a bit until he was passed by Mazzagatti. Mazzagatti led Roger Smith and company through the event’s halfway point and began to ever so slowly stretch his lead over Smith’s #43. Mazzagatti took home the win and was beside himself. A long battle was won, and the ultimate dream was realized when he was able to sit in the victory circle. The usually quiet man had tears in his eyes as he took everything in. For a man with many accomplishments, I believe we witnessed his greatest win. After he did get out, sportsmanship by John Ambrose (to drive the car back to the trailer) was displayed by many in the pits. It was the ultimate feel-good story.
Clayton Oliver is known for winning Compact races by wide margins, and this week was no different! The race began a little sloppy as a wreck early took out several promising competitors (including Alyson Smith). Up front, Jordan Greathouse, running a Jeff Mundell throwback led the event and looked to be pulling on his competition. Once the competition got their bumpers in order, Kenny Betts found himself behind Greathouse. The duo battled for a couple laps until they made contact and went to the rear. This moved Oliver forward and he took off from there. His teammate Noah Patterson sat in 2nd and watched as the red and whote #3 got smaller and smaller. Oliver lapped his way up to third place (Betts) and showed the crowd that Oliver Clinics are still a thing in 2022. At the end of the night, Oliver pulled into victory lane and exclaimed that he plans to travel. Next week he goes from one of the tightest tracks in Barberton to one of the fastest in Sandusky.
By: Billy McKinney
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