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Kil-Kare Speedway
1166 Dayton-Xenia Road
Xenia, Ohio 45385
937 429-2961
Stapleton Claims AMS Win at
Kil-Kare
by Jerry Wahl
Xenia, OH. (7/20) - It was
definitely a night of good hard racing for the open-wheel
fans Friday night at Kil-Kare Speedway as they packed
the grandstands and certainly got their money's worth with
the American Modified Series, WSOA winged-sprint cars, and
the USAC Ford Focus Midgets providing the action on the
three-eights mile asphalt track.
The American Modifieds
were the featured attraction and attract they did as
thirty-six of them timed in for the nights action with
Troy's Greg Stapleton being the star of the show. First he
posted fast time of 13.791 and then capped the evening by
capturing the fifty lap feature and the #1,200 that went
along with it.
Twenty four of the cream
of the crop drivers faced the green flag in the feature with
two time Kil-Kare regular feature winner Shawn Stroble and
one time winner Jerry Stapleton bringing the field to the
stripe. Stroble took command with Mike Carroll, a one time
Kil-Kare regular feature winner taking over the second spot
with Kyle Jones taking the third spot as Stapleton dropped
back to fourth.
Only four laps were in the
record book when a serious looking crash happened on turn
one involving Derek Weatherhead, Shane Shirk, and Jim Lewis
Jr. Lewis took a hard hit head on into the turn one wall
with his car quickly erupting in flames but luckily Lewis
quickly emerged from his car as the safety crew quickly
extinguished the flames. The Lewis machine was heavily
damaged as was the car of Shirk with mild damage to
Weatherhead's car.
On the restart Stroble
continued to lead but Carroll was right on his bumper but
from back in the pack fast timer Greg Stapleton, a former
Kil-Kare late model driver was progressing toward the front.
Dave Stacy, driving Steve
Poland's car had moved into fourth position when the
caution came out on lap sixteen with the end result being
Jerry Stapleton and Mark Timmerman were sent to the tail.
From then on it was green
flag racing and what a show it was as the first four cars
jockeyed back and forth with Stroble finally giving up the
lead on lap forty-one to the hard charging Greg Stapleton.
Mike Stacy who had won a regular feature earlier this year
at Kil-Kare was coming on strong as the laps wound down. One
by one he picked off Kyle Jones, and then Mike Carroll as
the checker flag waved on Greg Stapleton with Stroble second
and Stacy right on his bumper for third as Mike Carroll was
fourth and Kyle Jones fifth. Rounding out the top ten was
Gary Eaton, Dave Stacy, Dick Dunlevy Jr., Ross Klingelhofer,
and Bud Perry.
Shawn Stroble and Jerry
Stapleton were the dash winners and Ross Klingelhofer
captured the last chance event.
The WSOA winged-sprint
cars had a fine field of eighteen cars on hand with Talon
Stephens leading the qualifiers with a clocking of 11.629 to
the tune of 115 mile per hour which is an unofficial new
track record.
All eighteen cars made the
call for the feature but unfortunately Stephens mount lost
power twice on the parade lap as he coasted out of
competition.
Dave Saxer took off like a
jackrabbit at the start of the twenty five lap feature as he
appeared to be the fastest car on the track as by the third
lap he had lapped two cars and began to pull away from his
competitors. As he weeded his way through the traffic his
thoughts of winning were erased when the black flag was
waved on him for running well under his qualifying time
which dropped him back to third and gave the lead to
Jonathan Kettlewell.
Kettlewell's luck turned
sour with three laps to go when he suffered mechanical
problems and dropped out giving the lead to Trent Stephens
who claimed his first Kil-Kare feature win. Saxer did end up
second with Terry Gibson third, Josh Burdette fourth and Jim
Colvin fifth.
Stephens also claimed the
dash with the heat winners being John Patynko and Dave Saxer.
Rounding out the third
division of the open wheel cars was the USAC Ford Focus
Midgets with James Robertson, who was second in points going
into the nights action being the driver to beat.
Robertson won the heat and
then came back to claim the twenty-five lap feature. Second
generation driver Andy Nock held the front spot for the
first six laps as Robertson was knocking on his rear bumper.
He slipped under Nock going into turn three and stayed there
until the checker waved from starter Randy Markland. Jordan
Pennington worked his way up to claim runner-up with Mario
Clouser passing Nock to claim third with Nock fourth and
Tyler Irwin fifth.
The Vintage American Race
Cars were on hand with a large field of vintage cars for
several exhibition events on the track which showed the fans
what the car of yesteryears looked like.
Kil-Kare Speedway will be
idle July 27 as the Easter Grand National Quarter Midgets
event will fill the facility with some eight hundred
entrants. The next event will be the Dayton 100 for late
models on August 3.
American Modified Series
Fast time: Greg Stapleton 13.791
Dash one - Shawn Stroble, Mike
Carroll, Kyle Jones, Brad Yelton, Greg Stapleton, Aaron
Morey, John Lawharn, Bud Perry
Dash two - Jerry Stapleton, Gary
Eaton, Dave Stacy, Mark Timmerman, Dick Dunlevy Jr., Mike
Stacy, Derek Weatherhead, Mike Miller
Feature (50 laps) - Greg
Stapleton, Shawn Stroble, Mike Stacy, Mike Carroll, Kyle
Jones, Gary Eaton, Dave Stacy, Dick Dunlevy Jr., Ross
Klingelhofer, Bud Perry, John Lawhorn, Aaron Morey, Brad
Yelton, Josh Smith, Jason Wells, Mark Timmerman, Tim Ice,
Jerry Stapleton, Derek Weatherhead, Chad Poole, Jim Lewis
Jr., Shane Shirk, Mike Miller, Dean Pitts
WSOA Winged-Sprint Cars
Fast time: Talon Stephens 11.629
Dash - Trent Stephens, Talon
Stephens, Jeff Gibson, Zach Gibson
Heat - John Patynko, Terry
Gibson, Josh Burdette, Trent Stephens
Heat - Dave Saxer, Jonathon
Kettlewell, Jeff Gibson, Zach Gibson
Feature ( 25 laps) - Trent
Stephens, Dave Saxer, Terry Gibson, Josh Burdette, Jim
Colvin, Jeff Gibson, Paul Buckingham, Zach Gibson, John
Patynko, Tom Tolbert, Daniel Brown, Rick Ridenbaugh, Chris
Myers, Jonathon Kettlewell, Jim Schaub, Barry Galllogly,
Mike Combs
USAC Ford Focus Midgets
Heat - James Robertson, Mario
Clouser, Andy Nock, Craig Haack
Feature (30 laps) - James
Robertson, Jordan Pennington, Mario Clouser, Andy Nock,
Tyler Irwin, Craig Haack, Chett Gerke, Ronnie Wuerdman, Bill
Kriegbaugh, Mitch Harble
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