Gifford and Kates nab first wins of the season
August 10, 2013
The drivers came out in full force on Saturday night at the Boone Speedway. 149 cars filled the pits. Two drivers got their names entered in the record books as first time winners, two drivers won for the second week in a row, and yet another repeated from an earlier win.
The MADCRA Mod Lite 15-lap feature was led early by Mike Kennedy. However, it didn’t take point leader Josh May long to move through the field from starting twelfth, to take over the lead before the halfway mark. From there on, he had an easy way to the checkers, scoring his fourth win of the year. Ed Zehm, finished a distant second, followed by Charlie Brown in third. The winner’s father Jimmy May took fourth place and Dusty Masolini completed the top five.
Bill Wears led the opening laps of the 18-lap IMCA Northern SportMod feature. He had plenty of company behind him as Taylor Musselman, Michael Murphy and Ben Kates fought it out for second. Kates battled to the front, and into the lead by lap nine, and distanced himself from the rest of the pack. Eric Elliott charged through as well from starting beside Kates in row five and took over the runner up spot. Kates would
IMCA Northern SportMod driver Ben Kates battled his way to the front by lap nine and held on for his first win of the season at Boone Speedway on Saturday, August 10, 2013.
hold his comfortable lead to the checkers flying, sealing his first win at Boone. Elliott finished as the runner up, a distance ahead of third place Tara Longnecker. Bill Wears finished in fourth and Tim Love was fifth. Eric Elliott maintains his point lead in the SportMod division.
Matthew Meinecke looked strong in the 20-lap IMCA Modified feature. Meinecke led through the halfway mark, fending off Shay Woods. Woods made his move with three laps to go, taking the lead, only to have a yellow fly a lap later. This set up a green-white-checkered finish. On the restart, Joel Bushore who was third, took advantage of the situation and took the lead, leaving Woods and Meinecke to duke it out behind him. After the leaders took the white flag, Woods rode the rim of turn one, slipped off and rolled over, bringing out the red flag. The race was called complete with Bushore the victor. Meinecke kept the runner up spot, point leader Jimmy Gustin came from row six to take third place, fourth was Kelly Lyons and Scott Davis rounded out the top five.
It was as always, an exciting 18-lap Stock Car feature. Brothers Wayne and Jerry Gifford went at it for most of the race, Jerry Gifford holding the advantage. Behind them, Josh Daniels, Trent Murphy and Rod Richards were doing battle for position. Wayne Gifford tried a move to the top of the track, while the rest continued their run down low, but found it not to be the thing to do, and lost several spots. In the closing laps, Jerry Gifford pulled away from the field, taking his first win at Boone this year. Josh Daniels finished in second and Trent Murphy was third. Rod Richards and Donavon Smith finished fourth and fifth while Wayne Gifford dropped to sixth. Trent Murphy continues as the point leader.
The 12-lap Hobby Stock feature completed the night’s racing. David Rieks led the charging pack in this one for the first couple of laps, but it was Shannon Anderson making quick work of getting to the front, taking the lead by lap four. Anderson pulled away from his challengers and scored another easy win, his second in as many weeks, and eighth at the track this year. Eric Stanton, who had been tied for points with Anderson going into the night, finished in second place. David Rieks hung at the front of the pack to score third, fourth went to Ray Stock, Jr. and Matt Hudspeth finished fifth.
Racing continues next Saturday night, August 17 with racing in all five divisions. Hot laps are 6:45 and racing at 7:30.
Click HERE for photos from Saturday, August 10, 2013.
