Chris Andrews
The Dirt Classic format was used for Saturday’s full program. Points were accumulated in time trials and through two sets of heats. The first set of heats was lined heads-up by time, while the second set had an invert of eight, meaning quick-timers started in row four. Byron Reed and TJ Michael were both penalized in hot laps for not getting on the gas soon enough. They were relegated to one lap of qualifying at the end of the 49-car field.
DJ Foos (37th car out to time) set quick time at 12.315 seconds. Jordan Mackison (23rd car out) was second quick), followed by Max Stambaugh (48th), Cole Duncan (40th), Joey Saldana (29th), Travis Philo (9th), Rob C0) haney (24th), Carson Macedo (41st), Sammy Swindell (35th) and Cap Henry (43rd). The damp conditions led to the track coming in as time trials developed. Gary Taylor jumped the cushion and went over the berm in hot laps, actually breaking his frame. He was done for the night. Brandon Spithaler had issues with the motor in hot laps, but returned to qualify.
Heat one (started): 1. Foos 23 (1) 2. Philo 5T (2) 3. Cale Conley 7K (3) 4. Caleb Armstrong 7c (5) 5. Jordan Ryan 9m (4) 6. Broc Martin 97 (7) 7. Hunter Mackison 95 (6) 8. Trevor Baker 45 (9) 9. Roger Campbell 9c (8) DNS – Cale Thomas 91
Heats were eight laps in distance and worth 100 points to the winner. Foos led flag to flag. Armstrong and Ryan put on the best racing in this one, exchanging fourth a few times.
Heat two (started): 1. Caleb Helms 17 (4) 2. Dale Blaney 17B (3) 3. Chaney 70 (2) 4. J. Mackison 1080 (1) 5. Stuart Brubaker 35s (7) 6. Chris Andrews 16 (5) 7. Johnny Garvin Jr. 51 (8) 8. George Hobaugh 40 (9) 9. Gary Kriess 55 (10) 10. Dane Lorenc 00 (6)
Chaney led J. Mackison and Helms early. Helms moved into second on lap two. A bump from Garvin led to Lorenc stopping and bringing out a caution on lap three. Helms slid in front of Chaney on the restart, causing Chaney to almost stop. Blaney tagged him in the rear. While Helms and Blaney went on to the top two spots, Chaney went off the backstretch and came back to recover third.
Heat three (started): 1. Tyler Esh 35 (3) 2. Macedo 3G (2) 3. Lee Jacobs 81 (5) 4. Andrew Palker 57x (6) 5. Dean Jacobs 8 (4) 6. Duane Zablocki 9z (8) 7. Dan McCarron 22m (7) 8. Brent Matus 33 (9) 9. Max Stambaugh 33m (1) DNS – Brandon Spithaler 22
Macedo slid hard into Stambaugh to start the heat. Stambaugh was smacked off the top of turn two and exited after stopping and restarting. The contact relegated Macedo back to third behind Esh and L. Jacobs. He would recover to pass L. Jacobs for second on lap three. Palker also pressured L. Jacobs for third, but fell short.
Heat four (started): 1. Swindell 39 (2) 2. Duncan 22c (1) 3. Brady Bacon 99 (3) 4. Byron Reed 5 (5) 5. Justin Peck 5x (8) 6. Dan Kuriger 08 (9) 7. Brad Lamberson 27 (6) 8. Brandon Hanks 84 (7) 9. Craig Mintz 11N (4) DNS – Gary Taylor 1st
Swindell led the distance. Duncan took second from Mintz on lap two. Mintz would go up in smoke and exit on lap six.
Heat five (started): 1. Saldana 71 (1) 2. Henry 4 (2) 3. Tim Shaffer 49x (4) 4. Shawn Valenti 7 (5) 5. Chad Kemenah 10H (3) 6. Ryan Smith 59 (7) 7. Brandon Matus 13 (6) 8. TJ Michael 8m (8) DNS – Jody Keegan 60
Mostly a single-file affair.
Heat six (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Ryan (1*) 2. Martin (2) 3. Armstrong (4*) 4. Conley 7K (6*) 5. H. Mackison (3) 6. Philo (5*) 7. Baker (7) 8. Foos (8*) 9. Campbell (9) DNS – Thomas
The second set of heats mirrored the first set, with heat six constituting the same cars that were in heat one and so on.
Campbell and Foos came together to start the heat, and Foos took a wild ride down the frontstretch. He was uninjured and would return for the feature. H. Mackison was penalized a row for being late to staging. Ryan assumed the pole and led wire to wire. Philo would bring another caution out with a lap down.
Heat seven (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Brubaker (2) 2. Andrews (4*) 3. Garvin (1) 4. Blaney (6*) 5. Helms (5*) 6. Lorenc (3) 7. J. Mackison (8*) 8. Kriess (10) 9. Hobaugh (9) 10. Chaney (7*)
Chaney flipped on the backstretch on lap one. He would return for the main even.t. Brubaker held off Andrews for the win.
Heat eight (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Palker (2*) 2. Zablocki (1) 3. L. Jacobs (3*) 4. Macedo (6*) 5. D. Jacobs (4) 6. Esh (5*) 7. Stambaugh (7) 8. McCarron (8) 9. Bre. Matus (9) DNS – Spithaler
Palker led throughout. Macedo supplied the most action, passing D. Jacobs for fourth on lap five and pushing L. Jacobs to the checkers.
Heat nine (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Peck (1) 2. Reed (4*) 3. Bacon (6*) 4. Duncan (8*) 5. Swindell (5*) 6. Hanks (2) 7. Lamberson (3) 8. Kuriger (7) DNS – Mintz, Taylor
Peck led flag to flag. Reed snagged second from Hanks on lap two, and Bacon followed into third a lap later. Duncan’s run to fourth gave him high points honors and the pole of the feature.
Heat ten (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Smith (2) 2. Shaffer (3) 3. Henry (6*) 4. Bra. Matus (1) 5. Saldana (7*) 6. Kemenah (5) 7. Valenti (4) 8. Michael (8) DNS – Keegan
Smith led flag to flag. Shaffer shot by Matus into second on lap two. Henry snagged third on lap six.
C main (started): 1. McCarron (1) 2. Hobaugh (2) / 3. Campbell (5) 4. Michael (3) 5. Bre. Matus (4) DNS – Mintz, C. Thomas, Keegan, Spithaler, Taylor
The 8-lapper took the top two to the tail of the B.
B main (started): 1. Kemenah (1) 2. Shaffer (2) 3. Martin (6) 4. Peck (9) / 5. Smith (8) 6. D. Jacobs (4) 7. Zablocki (10) 8. Stambaugh (3) 9. Valenti (7) 10. H. Mackison (13) 11. McCarron (19) 12. Bra. Matus (15) 13. Garvin (11) 14. Hobaugh (18) 15. Baker (17) 16. Lorenc (14) 17. Lamberson (12) 18. Hanks (16) 19. Brubaker (5) DNS – Kuriger
The 12-lap B took the top four to the A main. Kemenah and Shaffer led throughout . Contact between Baker and Bra. Matus started things. Meanwhile, Hanks and Lorenc tangled in turn two. Martin took third from D. Jacobs on lap six and Peck came from ninth to also pass D. Jacobs for the final transfer coming for the white flag.
A main (started): 1. Saldana (2) 2. Duncan (1) 3. Henry (3) 4. Philo (7) 5. Andrews (20) 6. Reed (16) 7. Shaffer (22) 8. Swindell (6) 9. Kemenah (21) 10. Foos (5) 11. Smith (25, prov.) 12. Helms (13) 13. Bacon (10) 14. Armstrong (15) 15. Esh (12) 16. Bra. Matus (26, prov.) 17. Ryan (19) 18. Conley (9) 19. Peck (24) 20. J. Mackison (11) 21. Blaney (8) 22. Macedo (4) 23. Martin (23) 24. L. Jacobs (14) 25. Palker (18) 26. Chaney (17)
After his flip earlier in the night, Chaney took a lap and pulled off. Duncan led the 40-lapper early over Saldana, Henry and Macedo. The leaders hit lapped traffic on lap six, but Armstrong would get over the turn two berm, bringing a caution eight laps in. Duncan pulled away again from the same trio. Macedo’s fourth place run came to an end when his cushion bucking eventually got him upside down with 14 laps counted. He was o.k., and an open red was called. Blaney also changed out a nose wing in Josh Baughman’s machine. Bacon and Philo had been battling hard for fifth, with Bacon prevailing. Foos went over the top while running tenth on the restart. Saldana made a bid on the leader when the green fell, and Bacon worked by Swindell into fourth. On lap 20, Peck flipped over turn one. He was unhurt. Duncan led Saldana, Henry, Bacon and Philo at that point. Andrews had gone from 20th to seventh. Duncan was back in lapped traffic on lap 28, but five laps later, Armstrong got over the berm again, bringing a second yellow. Bacon, who looked like he had a podium car, had worked on diamonding one and two, but his run was cut short on lap 37 when he spun. The restart with three laps to go, saw Saldana slide under Duncan in turn two to take the lead and pull away. Duncan held onto second, ahead of Henry, Philo and the hard-charging Andrews. Saldana’s 73rd career All Star win was worth $10,000 and gave him a golden ticket to the Dirt Classic at Lincoln Speedway in three weeks.