Boyd’s Speedway hosted its portion of ‘The Gobbler’ on Saturday night. Along with a $5,000-to-win Super Late Model race, the track put up $1,500-to-win Steelhead Late Model and $1,200-to-win Crate Late Model purses. And in the end, it would be Ryan Gifford and Jordon Horton who would claim those prizes.
Ryan Gifford poses in the Boyd’s Victory Lane. (Chad Wells photo)
Gifford set the pace early in the Steelhead class when he earned the pole for the feature by posting a lap of 13.723 seconds around the third-mile clay oval. Tod Hernandez, Chris Wilson, Blake Shapiro and Bryan Pritchard rounded out the top-5 on the starting grid.
There were no heat races used to set the lineup for the 14 car field.
At the start of the feature, Gifford immediately went to the lead. However, a series of early cautions slowed the pace. The most serious of those yellows came when Bryan Pritchard crashed hard into the turn one wall on a restart. His car was seriously damaged but he walked away from the incident.
Once the race got going after those early mishaps, Gifford went unchallenged. For the next 18 laps he would drive away from the field and build a lead of more than a straightaway over the battle for 2nd between Hernandez and Wilson. Those two drivers exchanged the runner-up position multiple times during that stretch of laps. Also during this time, Rick Hixson began moving up through the pack after an early spin.
A lap 20 caution came out when the car of 5th running Robby Mason slowed on track. After the ensuing restart, Gifford again drove away and cruised to victory.
At the finish it was Ryan Gifford, Tod Hernandez, Chris Wilson, Rick Hixson and Blake Shapiro.
Jordon Horton, seen here in Victory Lane at I-75, was the winner at Boyd’s.
Horton led the way in Crate Late Model qualifying as he beat out the field of 29 cars with a lap of 13.881 seconds. Jason Welshan, Matt Tharp, Cruz Skinner and Jacob Grizzle rounded out the top-5 for the feature starting grid.
Kate Dallenbach and Kasey Hall won the two B-main races used to place those who had not been locked in through time-trials for the lineup of the main event.
The start of the feature was marred by a multi-car crash as the field made its way through turn one for the first time. Welshan appeared to get sideways from his outside front row starting spot and several cars piled in. Welshan’s car suffered damage but he attempted to continue, as would Skinner. Craig Burroughs was eliminated from the race due to damage sustained in the incident.
There was a complete restart following the early wreck. On that second attempt to start the race, Welshan’s car failed to turn going into turn one as a result of the damage and he banged the outside wall. The winner of over 30 features races around the region in 2014 was eliminated after that.
From that point, Horton was in complete command. Grizzle and Skinner continue to run within the top-5 while David Duplissey, Cory Hedgecock and Justin Owens battled to work their way forward.
Horton would ultimately cruise to the win, leaving the pack behind.
At the finish it was Jordon Horton, Jacob Grizzle, Cruz Skinner, David Duplissey, Cory Hedgecock and Justin Owens.
Booger Brooks staged a comeback after falling back early in the A-Hobby feature. The winner of multiple events this year at Boyd’s beat out Rodney Jolly and Josh Beagan.
Michael Brooks finished in front of Dallas Brooks and Jim Gilbert to win in B-Hobby while Michael Courtney was the victor in the Pony class.
