5-5-2019
By Dean Reichel
Opening night at Double-X Speedway for 2019, the “Back to our roots” season saw a good crowd and a good field of cars supporting local dirt track racing. The evening started off with two heats of Super Stocks. In heat 1 Dalton Imhoff took the lead completing lap 1 and never looked back. Cole Henson crossed the line second after starting fifth followed by the 409 of Joe Miller. Dale Berry and James Keeran completed the running order. Heat 2 in the division saw John Ketterer lead the first four laps until veteran John Clancy Jr. made a strong pass on the bottom of turn 2 to take the lead. From that point until the checkered it was all Clancy, Ketterer came home in second with Mark Davis third and Brandon Hays fourth.
The Hobby Stock division this year is a mix of front and rear wheel drive machines and it may make for some fun action as the season progresses. Heat 1 saw hard charging Chris Brockert pick up the win followed by Aaron Brookshire, Drew Tully in third and Chris Kammerich to fourth. Heat two saw veteran Mike Schrader post a decisive victory over Chuck Coffey, Kyle Smith, Jeremy Townsend and Waylon Dimmitt.
The 360 Winged Sprint Cars wrapped up the heat race action. The first heat saw Evan Martin post the victory in his #4 machine over Kyle Bellm. Zach Daum finished third, Ben Brown was fourth and Mike Trent completed the running order. The second heat found Tyler Blank putting on a clinic while taking the checkered. Taylor Walton finished a strong second with Tyler Utz third, Broc Elliott fourth and Timmy Smith in fifth.
The Super Stocks were first on the card for the feature events with a 15 lap main on tap. Dalton Imhoff and John Clancy, Jr paced the field to the green flag. Contact in turn two between the front row starters saw Cole Henson inherit the lead for the restart. During the yellow flag Imhoff retired to the pit area as did Clancy, however he was able to return to the competition. On the restart Henson took the green but had a bobble in turn one allowing Joe Miller and Dale Berry to move past. Miller would continue to lead while Berry held off Henson. Cole Henson would race a complete lap side by side with Berry before completing the pass for second. A lap 12 caution brought Henson to the rear bumper of Miller’s, #409, but the cagey veteran was able to maintain his lead over the final three laps to secure the win. Following Miller and Henson under the checkered flag were Brandon Hays in third, Mark Davis fourth and John Ketterer in fifth. Sixth was John Clancy, Jr. seventh was James Keeran. Dale Berry and Dalton Imhoff completed the starting field Marshall Berry was unable to make the green flag.
In the Hobby Stock feature it was Kyle Smith with a convincing run to claim the victory on night #1. Mike Schrader came across the line to finish second. Chuck Coffey was third, Aaron Brookshire crossed fourth and Drew Tully completed the top five. Waylon Dimmitt finished sixth, Kevin Prall was seventh, Jeremy Townsend eighth, Chris Brockert and Chris Kammerich completed the field.
The Sunday Night Thunder of the Winged Sprint Cars took to the track for the first feature event of the season. Evan Martin and Tyler Blank were on the front row and brought the field to the green. Blank took the lead on the high side in turns 1 & 2 with Kyle Bellm in tow. Martin would fade to fourth after a pass for third by Taylor Walton. On a clear track, Blank was setting sail with Bellm keeping pace. As the leaders encountered lapped traffic on lap 10, Bellm would begin to reel in the leader. Blank changed his line moving to the low groove in 1& 2 with Bellm mimicking the change. As they cleared the lapped cars the duo moved back to the top shelf and Blank once again gained some breathing room over Bellm. Lapped cars were looming again but Blank was able to clear them and claim the victory. Following the fleet lead duo under the checkered flag were Taylor Walton with a good run in third. Evan Martin finished fourth and Zach Daum was fifth. Finishing in the second five were Ben Brown sixth, Tyler Utz seventh, Broc Elliott eighth, Timmy Smith ninth and Mike Trent tenth.
Please be sure to continue to support local dirt track racing and we would love to see you at Double-X in 2019. For more info check us out on the web at www.doublexspeedway.com and sign up for text alerts.