Brooks Wins Pure Stock Special Event When the calendar flips to the month of August it is the first sign that the summer is winding down. Thoughts of shoulder pads colliding with each other and the sounds of school bells ringing again must mean the racing season is also heading towards the finish line. However, there are still ten weekends of racing left at Natural Bridge Speedway in the 2014 season. The month of August is a busy month, offering up five weekends of racing action. This past Saturday night the speedway had five divisions competing in regular point races with the pure stock drivers taking center stage. The pure stock drivers competed in a special thirty lap feature event. The pure stock drivers took part in hot lap qualifying as part of their special event. Last week’s winner, Derek Wright, was the fastest qualifier but had to start eight after last week’s win. Ben Hamilton and Daniel Barbour brought the field to the green flag. Barbour took the lead from the outside pole with Hamilton dropping into the second spot. Barbour led the first five laps before his machine suddenly slowed off of turn four. Hamilton inherited the lead but was under heavy pressure from Hall, Lee Brooks, and Wright. Hall took over the lead on lap ten with an inside move off of turn two. Derek Wright took over the third spot from Brooks on lap twelve and immediately went to work on Hamilton. The two made contact and Wright suffered a suspension failure. Brooks moved up into the second spot and battled with Hall for the lead. Brooks followed Hall until the final lap when he made his move. Brooks dove to the inside of Hall down the backstretch and made the winning pass coming to the checkered flag. It was Brooks’ fifth win of the season. Hall was forced to settle for a runner-up finish and Hamilton finished in the third spot. Greg Roberson and Philip Woods brought the late model field to the green flag. Roberson took the lead and third place starter, Tyler Bare, slipped past Woods on the opening lap. Eighth place starter Joey Leavell was on a tear coming through the field. Leavell took over the second spot on lap eleven but was over five seconds behind Roberson. At the halfway mark Leavell had cut the lead to just under three seconds. A caution on lap twenty-one for a spin by Bare erased Roberson’s lead over Leavell. Roberson picked up where he left off before the caution. Roberson drove away from Leavell initially but then Leavell chased Roberson backed down. Leavell sized Roberson up and dove to the inside of him going into turn three coming to the white flag. Leavell slipped in front of Roberson and held him off on the final lap. Leavell scored his eleventh win of the season. Roberson crossed the stripe in second place and Woods came home third. Timmy Stalnaker and Fred Bryant rounded out the top five. Ted Miller and Lexington’s Scottie Hostetter started on the front row of the street stock feature. Hostetter took control of the feature and pulled ahead of Miller by five car lengths early in the race. David Brogan, who started eighth, was up to the third spot by lap seven. Two laps later Brogan took over the runner-up spot. A caution on lap nine erased Hostetter’s lead. Brogan then pulled alongside of Hostetter on lap thirteen and took the lead on lap fourteen. A caution on lap twenty gave Hostetter one final shot at Brogan. However, Hostetter had his hands full with Troy Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald slipped by Hostetter with four laps to go. Brogan went on to claim his eighth win of the season. Fitzgerald and Miller finished second and third. Thirteen sportsman drivers took the green flag with Bobby Thompson grabbing the lead as the field headed into turn one. Thompson opened up a huge lead over Ryan Adams in the opening laps. Cecil Cash and Logan Roberson moved past Adams on lap six and started chasing down Thompson. Once in the runner-up spot, Cash was chasing down the leader when the caution flag waved on lap ten for Adams. Adams slammed the turn one wall. Adams was not injured but he was finished for the night. On the restart Thompson once again pulled ahead of Cash. Cash had his hands full with Roberson which allowed Thompson the opportunity to stretch out his lead. A caution for debris on lap twenty-one gave Cash one final shot at Thompson but Thompson was too tough on this night. Thompson cruised to his first Sportsman win of the season. Cash came home with a runner-up finish and Logan Roberson settled for third. The All-American driver’s closed out the nights racing action. Ryan Kassab took the lead from the outside pole. Kassab led flag to flag and held off a hard charging RL Tyree to pick up his first win of the season. Tyree scored his best finish of the season when he crossed the stripe in second spot. Loyd Wright finished third. The next two weeks Natural Bridge Speedway will have regular point’s races for all divisions. The late models, sportsman, street stocks, pure stocks, and All-Americans will all be in actions. Gates are scheduled to open at 5:00 pm, with the driver’s meeting taking place at 6:30. Fans may visit nbspeedway for additional information.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 17:12:36 +0000