CMP ducked a bullet... finally! Huge round of applause to staff and management for holding off all victory lane ceremonies until after all of the features were completed. That turned out to be the best call of the night because it started sprinkling while victory lane interviews were being conducted, and turned into a steady light rain by the time I loaded up my gear, locked the pit gate and pulled out of the driveway onto County Road 10. Along with keeping intermission super brief, we got the entire show in. Up yours, Mother Nature! What a night of racing it was though. Setting the tone for the night was the New Legends Sportsman feature, where James Sweeting pulled off a side by side pass for the lead coming down to the checkers to beat Tate Mangiarelli by less than half of a car length. The second feature of the night was the Modified feature where Matt Sheppard passed Alan Johnson for the lead coming off turn 4 coming down to the checkers. Matts margin of victory was a mere .026 seconds. Darryl Ruggles won the 305 Sprint Car feature from 16th starting spot, overtaking Jonathan Preston for the lead on the last lap. Paul Guererri took the Sportsman feature, his first since April 18th of this year. This feature was LOADED with clean 3 and 4 wide racing throughout the field. One video camera and one operator just wasnt enough in this race. Pete Stefanski won feature number 10 in the Street Stocks, but needed 11 laps of the 15 lap distance to catch and pass race long leader Steve Pesarek. It made me feel good to see Steve stay with Stefanski instead of dropping back after the pass. I still think Steve is going to visit victory lane this year. And in the Pure Stocks, CJ Guererri bagged win number 4 of the season, but he didnt run away and hide. The 3 car battle for second between Marc Minutolo, Nick Dandino and Derek Excell was a barnburner, that actually closed in on Guererri as it progressed. ESS Sprints are on the card next week along with a full regular schedule.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 03:49:45 +0000