As part of its annual Cabin Fever event, Boyd’s Speedway staged racing in a number of classes on Saturday. Along with the Iron Man Mountain Championship Series for Super Late Model cars and the track’s regular Crate Late Model class, the Sportsman and Modified divisions were also in action. Michael Arp achieved a first time win in the Sportsman class to pick up $1,500 while Brad Hall came away with the Modified victory that also paid out $1,500 to the victor.
Michael Arp celebrates with friends and crew members at Boyd’s
Booger Brooks and Michael Arp started the Sportsman feature from the front row as a result of their earlier heat race victories while fellow preliminary winners Andrew Bailey and Andrew Littleton fired off from the second row.
A multi-car crash marred the initial start of the 20-lap feature when fifth starting Justin Winters spun and collected two other racers. The incident forced a complete restart.
Once the race got underway, Brooks bolted to the early lead with Arp and Bailey working to keep up. Littleton began to move toward the front when he managed to work his way around Bailey to capture the third position.
Meanwhile, Brooks appeared to have things well in hand as he pulled away from the pack. However, his rapid pace brought him into slower traffic by lap 4 and almost resulted in disaster as the race leader almost tangled with one of the machines he was attempting to put a lap down. By lap 7, however, the No. 148 car found trouble as Brooks spun while racing among a group of slower cars.
Track officials deemed that it was Brooks who brought out the caution and sent the former leader to the tail of the field. Arp then inherited the lead of the race with the sixth starting Josh Walker being lifted to the runner-up spot followed by Bailey, Littleton and Reed Johnson.
Arp, Walker and Bailey engaged in a tight battle during the race’s second half while Johnson, Jerry Coffman and Begley fought over positions within the top-5. Eventually, those three cars would spin on lap 17 as the continued to wage war for positions 4-6.
Ultimately, Michael Arp proved to be too fast as he took the checkered flag ahead of Josh Walker, Andrew Bailey, Logan Walston and Reed Johnson.
Brad Hall led from start to finish to win the Modified feature at Boyd’s
Shon Flanary scored the pole position in the Modified feature by posting a lap of 16.066 seconds around the historic third-mile oval. Brad Hall, Ray Bollinger, Jimmy Dalton and Justin Cooper rounded out the top-5 on the starting grid for the division’s feature.
Hall used his outside front row starting position to his advantage when the green flag waved over the 25-lap main event as he took the lead when the cars roared through the first set of turns. Flanary, Bollinger, Dalton and Cooper followed the early leader during the initial lap of the race.
Cooper wasted no time as he went to work challenging Dalton for fourth but the No. 2 car was able to maintain the spot. However, that battle allowed the top-3 runners to slip away from the rest of the pack as they worked each other for the top spot on the leader board.
The race’s only caution flag flew on lap 13 for a spin by Amos Bunch. The ensuing restart allowed Bollinger an opportunity to wrest the runner-up position away from Flanary, which he did with an outside power move. However, Flanary would fight back just three circuits later as he moved his No. 98 machine under Bollinger to retake second.
In the end, however, no one was able to make a move on Hall over the closing laps.
Brad Hall took the checkered flag ahead of Shon Flanary, Ray Bollinger, Jimmy Dalton and Justin Cooper.
