The Left Turn
By: Ron Burt
Winchester, Ind., July 19 — It was a different driver, but the results were the same. Briggs Danner in the Doran Racing USAC Silver Crown Car, lead all 100 laps of the 34th Annual, Rich Vogler Classic at Winchester Speedway. Four years in a row, the Doran USAC Silver Crown car has led start to finish, that’s 400 laps. The 24-year-old driver hadn’t even seen the half-mile high-banked oval before he tested on Saturday, but he won the pole and led wire to wire in only his third USAC Silver Crown pavement race. Kody Swanson led all 400 laps of the last four Rich Vogler Classics driving a Doran Racing-prepped car He’s not competing in the series this year since he became its director in the off season.
There were four caution flags in the first 70 laps of Sunday’s race which kept the top runners close, especially the top three of Briggs Danner, point leader C.J. Leary, and Dakoda Armstrong.
Leary and Armstrong kept the pressure up on Danner on all the restarts. At the one-quarter mark Danner had a 0.578-second lead. He was able to pad his advantage to over a second (1.045) for the first time on lap 45, only to have the field bunch up behind him for another yellow. Following the restart on lap 71 Justin Grant passed Mario Clouser for fourth on lap 72. At the three-quarter mark Danner had a 0.675-second lead over Leary, with Armstrong right behind. Still, Danner was able to increase his advantage to over 1 second again by lap 79, and with no more restarts he was able to increase it to 2 seconds in the race’s late stages. But there were still challenges ahead as Armstrong passed Leary for second with a move to the outside on the backstretch working lap 93 and immediately focused on catching Danner. Lapped traffic cut Danner’s advantage to only 0.538 on lap 96, but once he was clear of them, he was able to hold off Armstrong. He had a 1.415-second margin of victory over Armstrong at the checkered. It was his second career USAC Silver Crown victory and first on a paved track. C.J. Leary finished third for the Podium.
Eldora Speedway, July 18- World of Outlaws Kings Royal was won for the 2nd year in a row by Anthony Marci and $200.000.00 for his win. 2nd Rico Abreu $35,000.00 and 3rd Giovanni Scelzi $25,000.00. Marci part of the Pennsylvania Posse and had a lot of Key-Stone State race fans at Eldora chanting Posse-Posse. He led the first 13 laps. Garet Williamson charged into the lead. He pulled away from the field. Behind him, the war began for second as 10th-starting Rico Abreu was on the move and took the spot, but Macri got it back with seven laps to go and set his sights on Williamson.
The laps wound down, and Williamson remained committed to the cushion while Macri built speed through the middle. With two laps to go, Macri snuck by to regain the lead. A yellow flag for a stopped car on the final lap set up a green-white-checkered finish. Macri stayed composed when the green flag flew and drove away to his second straight Kings Royal title to become King Anthony XLIII.
Flat Rock Speedway MI, July-18 “Hurricane” Scott Hantz won his 2nd Stan Yee 150. Jeff Vrsek was 2nd and 3rd Chris Benson.
Wauseon, OH, July 18 – Oakshade Raceway hosted its second Sportsman/Mod event of the season, pitting the Sportsman drivers against UMP Modifieds in a single class. The night started off with the track record being broken twice in qualifying, first by Dylan Hough and then by Dylan Jessen.
At the start of the 25-lap, $1,200 to win Sportsman/Mod feature event, it was Jarrod Klay in a Modified that took the early led. Klay started on the pole and after an early caution flag, began to battle with the sportsman of Dylan Jessen. Klay was able to hold off Jessen, until lap 10 when he pushed high off turn four and Jessen slipped by on bottom. Jessen would go on to pull away from the rest of the field to earn the easy victory. Dylan Hough appeared to finish second but failed to make weight in post-race inspection, turning the second finishing position over to Dylan’s father, Mike Jessen. Klay would finish third for the Podium. Top 3 in Dominator Stocks 1st Jeff Foks Jr., 2nd Adam Noonan and 3rd Kaleb Hinkley. Sport Compacts Top 3: 1st Ryan Okuley, 2nd Nathan Owens, and 3rd Jason Lee. Until next week, keep your wheels down. Ron Out!
