By: BRODY JONES
Inside Dirt Race Special Correspondent
Another hot, summer night of racing is in the books at Crossville Speedway. Six classes were in action with the big race of the night being the Open Wheel Modifieds racing for $750 to win on the night.
The action started off with the Super Street class in a hotly contested fifteen lap feature. Josh Stoglin led the first four laps before a mechanical issue slowed his progress and caused the second place car of Andrew Rice to clip Stoglin with his left rear quarter-panel, turning him hard into the inside wall, ending Rice’s night as well. The last two cars left running were Justin Turner and Jeff Proffitt. Turner led the next ten circuits with Proffitt hot on his heels. On the corner exit of turn one on the last lap, Turner made a costly bobble, allowing Proffitt to capitalize and zip past for the win. Turner had to settle for second with Rice and Stoglin third and fourth on the night. Failing to start the feature was Ronnie Hargis, Eric Henry, and Scott Brown.
In the compact Dwarf class, it was Rodney Hall and Jonathan Allen winning the heat races to comprise of the front row for the evening’s feature. But come time for the feature, it was Allen who went wire to wire for the twenty lap feature win. Ron Dodson finished in second. Dwayne Allen finished third with pole-sitter Rodney Hall fading to fourth with Austin Burton rounding out the top five. The rest of the finishing order was Chris Flatt, Anthony Coffman, Michael Norris, Cledus Bumbalough, and Taylor Brown. Todd Clark failed to start the race.
Zach Shannon set fast time in the Sportsman division with a blistering 13.56 lap. He and cousin D.J. Shannon started on the front row, but it was Zach going wire-to-wire, nearly half-tracking the field for the twenty-lap feature win. D.J. Shannon had to settle for second with Brandon Stanfield, Dustin Stephens, and Todd Gregory rounding out the top five as Allen Wright finished sixth. Ricky Tinch had mechanical issues in qualifying, forcing him to be unable to start the feature, along with Wes Stafford.
The premier race of the evening was the Open Wheel Modified division, racing for a cool $750 pay-out. Amos Bunch set fast-time, being the lone qualifier to break into the thirteen second bracket with a 13.89 lap with Dustin Diden starting to his outside. But at the start of the race, it was Diden on the hole-shot jumping out to the lead as the open wheel wunderkind led first seven laps until Clayton Miller blasted past Diden on the eighth lap of the race and went the rest of the distance for the win. Amos Bunch settled for second with Billy Palmer in third. Chad Crain persevered for a fourth place finish as Diden suffered misfortunate circumstances that relegated him to a fifth place finish. The lone lady of the race in Courtney Smith was sixth place as Clark McPeters was unable to start the race due to mechanical gremlins.
In the Crate Late Models feature, it was crowd-favorite Jesse Lowe starting shotgun on the field with a 13.20 lap with Ross White starting to his outside. Fourteen cars were signed in for this feature race. Lowe would be the one going the distance, much like the song made famous by the alternative rock band Cake, for the feature win. White battled fiercely in dogged pursuit of Lowe, but had to settle for second. Cruz Skinner cruised to a third place finish. Tim Ladd and Deke Waters rounded out the top five. Sixth through tenth in the race were Floyd Turner, Andy Miller, Jeff Watson, Joe Cline, and Trent Burtram. Shannon Elrod, Bradley Lewelling, and Perry Delaney closed out the field.
Colton Proffitt and Jacob Sharp led the Front Wheel Drive class to the green flag with Proffitt and Sharp battling tooth and nail the first half of the race until Sharp had mechanical woes. Not long after, Colton Proffitt had a flat that needed to be fixed that brought out the lap six caution, allowing Trevor Sampson to inherit the lead. Sampson held serve up front for the next four laps, fighting off a hard-charging Colton Proffitt for second after Proffitt got to the back bumper of Sampson. Aaron DeSabrais finished third as mechanical woes relegated Jacob Sharp to the rear of the field.
Next week’s big money race at Crossville Speedway is a $300 to win race for the Front Wheel Drive division. All other classes will also be in action as well as Crossville Speedway races under the lights every Friday night.
