Five divisions were in action on the penultimate night of racing for the regular season points battle at Plymouth Speedway. The leaders in Thunder Stocks and 600cc non-wing mini-sprints are protecting single digit leads as this unusual regular points season comes to an end next Saturday. To make things even more exciting Plymouth Speedway has announce special payouts to win. UMP Modifieds will be racing for $1,500 to win. The remaining four classes will all be looking to take home a $1000 to win.
So while the Plymouth Speedway point leaders will be looking to end the points season on top, the added money should bring in hot shoes looking for a big check in victory lane. Racing will start at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15.
Two those racers looking to close out on top of their tight points race are Dylan Woodling with a slim eight point lead over Ed Cleveland in the 600cc non-wing mini-sprints and Austen Hubbard only five point ahead of Lee Hall in the Thunder Stock division.
Bradley Jameson has a 58 point lead in the UMP Modifieds and his third place finish Saturday night helped him stay on top. Winning in the feature was Derek Losh in a 25 green lap event. Losh would start on the outside of the front row alongside second place finisher Brian Ruhlman. The real racing in the event was for third place as Jameson started fifth and would trade places with Todd Sherman, Woodling, and Ryan Cripe who would all be scored in third at one point in the race.
Woodling would improve one position in his 600cc non-wing mini-sprint, he races in both divisions. Woodling would start on the pole and would show the way for the majority of the race as eventual winner Garrett Saunders would start in fourth worked his way to the front on the high side of the track.
Saunders would get past Woodling with only a couple of laps remaining. As the white flag flew Andy Alderfer would get his car upside down bringing out the red flag. Saunders held off Woodling on the restart as third place starter Cleveland would finish just off the pace in third.
Super Street had a good turnout with 21 cars taking the green flag on their feature. Shaun Wiltjer would start in the fifth position and would end up leading Chris Tlippit and points leader Ron Wilkes to the checkered flag. With 21 cars on the track it wasn’t long before the leaders were dealing with lapped traffic and that would lead to trouble as several cars suffered bent fenders, broken bumpers and flat tires that would mix up the running order and lead to an extended clean up. Once the dust and bent metal was cleared Wiltjer was able to stretch the lead as the remaining laps ran out.
Hubbard and Lee Hall started the evening tied for the points lead in the Thunder Stock division and would go on to finish one two in the feature. Hubbard’s win over Hall gives him the slimmest of margins over Hall in the season points battle. Hubbard would start the feature in fourth immediately behind Hall with eventual third place finisher Brandon Shelhart starting on the pole.
The hard charger of the Thunder Stock feature was fifth place finisher Andy Hall having started in tenth.
Pole sitter David Gingerich looked to have the four cylinder mini-stock feature all sewn up when his engine let him down on the white flag lap handing the victory to season points leader Josh Lank. Following lank across the finish line was Aaron Tatman and third place finisher Rich Loraff.
While the five regular divisions will wrap up the points battle Saturday night with the $1,000 and $1,500 to win there is still plenty of racing scheduled for the clay track. Ollies Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions featuring NASCAR Hall of Fame will return to the “Playground of Power” on Saturday, Aug. 22. The NRA Sprint Invaders show as rescheduled their rained out 360 winged sprint car event for Sept. 12. Look on the website at www.plymouthspeedway.net and the Facebook page for announcement of the rescheduled World of Outlaw Sprint Car show.
