It’s a Night of Doubles at Caraway Speedway
Coy Beard, A.J. Sanders, and Tommy Raino Take “Twin” Features at the “Labor Day Bash”; John Morton Claims Enduro Win
(Sophia, NC): On a night when “Twin” features for all divisions was the norm, three familiar names emerged on top of each feature at the end of the night.
In the first 30 lap feature for the Limited/Challenger division, quick qualifier, Coy Beard held off Mitchell Wright, to take the win. While Beard led from flag-to-flag, an ever-improving Mitchell dogged Beard to the end to claim second. Matt Gould finished third with Mike Chambers, Bobby Salisbury, and Tripp Evans rounding out the field.
A lap one, turn one, skirmish between the front row cars of Salisbury, Chambers, and Evans eliminated youngster, Tripp. Salisbury and Chambers continued and on the restart, Beard jumped to the front and was never headed. Wright again finished second with Gould, Chambers, Salisbury, and Tripp wrapping up the night for the division. Wright maintained his lead in season standings over Beard and Gould.
Tommy Raino ended the three-race win streak of Brandon Collins in the UCAR Division. Raino muscled past fast qualifier, Collins on the backstretch on lap, and smoked the field to take the win. Greg Williams finished second with Collins and Alan Higginson in tow. Race two was a repeat of race one as Raino came from fourth to tale a lap one lead with the same cast of characters behind. Collins added to his points lead over second-place Higginson.
The Mini Stocks served up some of the best and wildest racing of the night in their “Twin 20” lap features. Veteran A.J. Sanders rolled in from a Friday night race in Florence, SC, just in time for practice, and while he didn’t “win” practice, he did take the “pole” for the start of the first 20 lapper. He wrestled the lead away from Michael Wells and Luke Smith on lap one outdistanced the pair to claim the win. Smith finished second with Wells, Johnny Baker, Tyler Bush, and Austin Harris in tow. Alan Hornady was seventh and D.J. Dean, Wyatt Sapp, and Brandon Crotts rounded out the top ten in an eighteen car field.
In race two for the Mini Stocks, Luke Smith grabbed the lead from Chad Hopkins on lap four and held the top spot through several caution periods until Sanders, who recovered from a turn four tangle with Johnny Baker, took over the point on lap fourteen. Sanders held off Baker, Smith, and Harris on three restarts to claim the win making it a perfect night for the speedster from Mocksville, NC. Baker finished second with Harris, Smith, and Junior Smith rounding out the top five. Matt Alley, Brandon Crotts, Chris Smith, Hopkins, and Jeremy Seeley rounded out the top ten. Sanders continues to chip away at Luke Smith’s lead in season standings slipping past Baker into the second spot. The top three have a big lead over the remainder of the field.
John Morton took the win in the 30 lap Enduro/Any Car race over Darrin Free, Jeremy Kidd, Matthew Smith, Charles Thomas, and Derek Thomas.
Eight events are on tap for Saturday, September 12th at Caraway Speedway. A special 55 lapper for the 602 Modifieds heads the list along with features for the Limited/Challenger’s, The Sportsman and Street Stock cars from Bowman Gray Stadium, Mini Stocks, and UCAR’s head the racing action. Two special events are also on tap with a “Skid-Plate” race and a “Chain Race”. Skid plate racing features front-wheel drive cars with a flat steel plate welded to the rear wheels and in the chain race, two cars are “chained” together. The front car has the engine but no brakes while the back car has a “dead” engine and brakes. Should be interesting on the banks of Caraway Speedway.
For more information, go to www.carawayspeedway.com or check out Caraway Speedway on facebook.
Sources: Alan Dietz/Caraway Speedway PR