Gratefully Mother Nature let us turn some laps at Lincoln Park Speedway Saturday night. 24 of the 410 stars showed up at the Big LPS Curb. The 2 biggest stories early in the night was the return of AJ Hopkins in a Wingo Brothers entry #77. The other huge story was the return of the People’s Champ Dave Darland in the family #36 and it was great well wait it was AWESOME to see him back. Ryan Thomas led group 1 in qualifying with a 13.435. AJ Hopkins led group 2 with a 13.161 and Brandon Mattox led group 3 with a 13.263. Heat 1 Brian Hayden held off Brayden Fox and Cole Bodine for the win. Heat 2 AJ Hopkins had a great battle with Tye Mihocko with AJ picking up the win in his new ride over Tye Mihocko and Alec Sipes. The final heat was won by Geoff Ensign over Brandon Mattox and Harley Burns. The B main was won by John Sluss over Ivan Glotzbach, Hunter Maddox, Jesse Vermillion and Blake Vermillion who all transferred to the A main. This setup the A main with an invert of 4 that was pulled which put Brayden Fox on the pole with Geoff Ensign beside him. Once again the LPS great fans would be given an outstanding show as Geoff Ensign took the early lead from Brayden as we had cars on the bottom and bouncing off the large curb at both ends of the speedway. The 04 looked really strong on the top shelf early in the race. A late race caution bunched the field up behind him and this would when the final 7 laps would get wild. On the restart Geoff Ensign picked the top but the 24P of Mihocko stormed to the lead on the bottom and slid to the top in turn 1 taking the lead. It wasn’t over though because the very next set of turns AJ Hopkins took a brief lead with a huge slider but the following lap the 24p was very good on the bottom of turn 3 and 4 and he took back the lead. While those 2 were battling it out the 53 of Fox was making the bottom work better and better and he would challenge for the 2nd spot. At the finish it was “The Bull” Tye Mihocko taking the big win over Brayden Fox, AJ Hopkins, Alec Sipes and Geoff Ensign. 3 more great runs that need noted is Dave Darland came from 11th to 6th. Ivan Glotzbach came from 17th to 10th but the hard charger for the night was Jesse Vermillion from 19th to 7th. Another outstanding feature put on by our amazing 410 heroes.
The UMP Modifieds showed up in force just 6 days before the big one at Bloomington Speedway. 24 Entries showed up with qualifying going to Group 1 Derek Losh (14.480), Group 2 Jordan Wever(14.790) and John Demoss( 14.859) in Group 3. The heat races were won by Rob Brickert, Jordan Wever and John Demoss. The B main went to Bradley Sterrett. This setup the A main with an invert of 4 putting Cody Wright on the pole with John Demoss on the outside. This would be another wild A main with John Demoss setting a very fast pace and building a 5 car length lead about halfway through the race. The final 5 laps were definitely interesting as Will Bennett who started in 10th place was banging the cushion like Mihocko and Hopkins can do and it was working. When a yellow come out he was up to 3rd and I was saying in the tower it looks like Will could win this thing on the top. Sure enough the 22 from Frankfort IN kept hitting the cushion with a lot of speed and would rocket off of turn 4 and pass Demoss for the big win. Following him at the checkers with great runs were John Demoss, Rob Brickert, Tyler Loughmiller and Bradley Sterrett from 16th to 5th. Thanks to all the mod teams for a great show and we hope to see all of them and even more for Roddy’s race at Bloomington Friday night that pays 4009 dollars to the winner.
The Racesaver 305’s brought 11 entries to LPS and Ethan Barrow( 13.072) and Keith Langley(12.985) led the way in qualifying. The heats were won by Ethan Barrow and John Paynter Jr. This setup the A main and an invert of 2 put John Paynter Jr. on the pole with Ethan Barrow outside of him. Ethan would look strong and pick up a big win over Bryce Norris, John Paynter Jr., Kayla Martin and Justin Matthews. Definitely an awesome run for Bryce Norris and Kayla Martin as she picked up the hard charger for the night.
The Super Stocks had 15 entries and Ryan Freeland(14.983) and Wade Goodale(15.228) would lead the groups in qualifying. Heat races were won by Justin Massie and Wade Goodale. This setup the A main with an invert of 2 which put the heat race winners on the front row. In the beginning it was a good battle with Justin on the bottom and Wade on the top. The 55J from Plainfield would lead most of the way and pick up a big win. The battle behind him got intense and Larry Raines would hold on to 2nd over Wade Goodale, Austin Phelps and Jack Campbell.
The final class of the night and usually the most exciting brought 14 entries for the night in the Bomber division. Megan Cavaness(16.091) and Andrew Pollock (16.153) would lead the way in qualifying. Heat races were won by David Bumgardner and Corey Anstead. This would setup the A main with an Invert of 2 being pulled which put Corey on the pole. The 9 out of Terre Haute would lead early and really looked smooth on the bottom. The 14J would head to the top shelf and would make a strong push to the front. Jordan would take over the top spot and win at the checkers over Megan Cavaness, Corey Anstead, Joey Raber and David Bumgardner. Jordan got the big win and was battling a stuck throttle during the race. As fast as he looked maybe a stuck throttle sometimes isn’t too bad? Thanks to all the teams and fans that came out to LPS and put on a great show. We would love to see a lot of our LPS fans make the trip to Bloomington Friday night for the huge UMP Modified show. The Harris Memorial will be a great show Friday the 13th at the red clay and don’t forget next Saturday night is our 1st Little Feet Challenge at LPS with the addition of the Hornet class also joining us. See you next weekend!
- Jill Spiker on May 09, 2022
- Article Date: 5/9/2022 by Kenny Clark