(Photo Credit: Phillip Clement)
Andrew Kunas / Bryan Hulbert - BELGRADE, Mont. (July 25, 2014) - A wild Friday night in Belgrade ended with Trever Kirkland in Victory Lane with a late race pass on Joe Ramaker at the Gallatin Speedway.
For the former Montana sprint car champion under what was then the Big Sky Sprint Tour, it was his first victory in an ASCS sanctioned event. Still third in the point standings, Kirkland did see his gap between himself and points leader Kelly Miller shrink from 46 to 31 markers.
An awkward looking start to the main event and the ensuing scramble resulted with the seventh starting Ramaker somehow ending up in the lead by the time the field came around to complete Lap 1 of the 25-lap affair.
Kirkland, who started on the pole, settled into second and ran no worse than third, while struggling to keep pace with Ramaker through traffic during the initial green flag run of 19 laps before the first caution.
With slower cars out of the way for the restart with six laps remaining, Kirkland was back on Ramaker's rear bumper.
The first restart attempt was called back after Joe Perry rolled his machine over in turn one. The last restart momentarily turned ugly as the field stacked up behind Ramaker, and third running Phil Dietz, who ran into the back of Kirkland as they made their way around for the restart.
The very bottom of the three-tenths mile oval was the fast way around Friday night, but Ramaker was struggling to keep his car on point in Turns 1 and 2 in the closing laps of the race; opening the door for Kirkland on Lap 23 to squeeze between Ramaker and the infield as they rolled through the second turn for the victory in the Kirkland Racing No. 37 Midway Performance-powerd Triple X.
"(Ramaker) just opened up the bottom. I was just able to get around Turn 2 better than he was, just rolling through it," said Kirkland, who earned his third straight podium finish in regular Frontier Region events. "It's nice to finally get one. We've been the fastest car all season I think. We just couldn't complete one of these. We finally got 'em. I gotta thank my crew as they've been awesome and they've worked real hard all season."
Kirkland also gave a shout out to his family, who is out of state this weekend. Kirkland's son is playing in a regional baseball tournament in Boise, Idaho.
Ramaker, who has won three times this season in ASCS Frontier Region competition, ended up second aboard the Ramaker Racing No. 98 Ostrich-powered J&J. Going into the evening 11 points behind Kelly Miller in the points standings, Ramaker finished one spot ahead of Miller. That resulted in Miller's lead being just four points at the end of the night.
"Next to last restart, the right rear seemed to have no drive or side drift. It was very different after that first yellow," Ramaker said after the race. "Trever just took advantage of it. Hats off to him. He ran a great race. (Otherwise) happy with the way things went tonight. To lead the first lap (after starting seventh) was nuts. It was like the seas parted."
Miller, out of Lethbridge, Alberta, was not fazed by his slim lead getting smaller as he too was pleased with his podium finish. He fell back a number of positions early but made a late charge to finish third in the KDM Motorsports No. 44k AMS-powered Schnee.
"I quit messing around the top. What I did really was quit waiting for the bottom of the track to go away - it wasn't your typical Belgrade track. I quit fishing," Miller joked. "I finished in one piece and we're off to Billings. There are still a lot of races to go. I'm not a guy who likes to count points."
After a rough stretch of races during the last couple of months, Jeremy McCune of Shepherd, Mont. had his best finish of the season, finishing fourth aboard his own No. 0J 2Dot Tech/Carbone powered GF1.
"We got a new engine in it, thanks to Mac White. It was very drivable tonight and we got our first ASCS Top 5 this year," commented a happy McCune.
Former Montana sprint car champion Paxton Lambrecht came from the eleventh to fifth aboard the Harvey Ostermiller No. 7x Wesmar-powered GF1.
Phil Dietz, David Hoiness, Darren Smith, Ross Mathewson and Bob Shiplet rounded out the Top 10.
Heat races earlier in the evening were won by Kirkland, Miller, Ramaker and Perry. The first heat race saw a frightening finish as Leroy Brush wheel-hopped Shiplet's machine and went straight at the wall just before the finish line, hitting it hard and flipping violently right in front of the capacity crowd at Gallatin Speedway. Brush was able to climb out of his machine and walk away, receiving an applause from much relieved fans in attendance.
The ASCS Frontier Region is racing again Saturday night at Billings Motorsports Park. The series will return to Gallatin Speedway on Friday, August 15th before going back to Billings the next night.
The Frontier Region of the American Sprint Car Series, presented in part by Speedmart Inc. is a winged 360 sprint car tour racing around the state of Montana and beyond. More information on the ASCS Frontier Region can be found online at frontier.ascsracing.com or you can also follow the series on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ascsfrontier. The national website of the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour presented by MAVTV American Real is www.ascsracing.com.
ASCS Frontier Region
Gallatin Speedway - Belgrade, Mont.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Car Count: 22
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 37-Trever Kirkland; 2. 27DD-David Hoiness; 3. 7X-Paxton Lambrecht; 4. 3-Jordan Milne; 5. 77-Bob Shiplet; 6. (DNF) 24-Leroy Brush
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 44K-Kelly Miller; 2. 99-Skylar Gee; 3. 35-Charles (Chip) Roe; 4. X-Steve Nelson; 5. 00-Roger Cummings; DNS 44-Damon McCune
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 98-Joe Ramaker; 2. 0J-Jeremy McCune; 3. 72-Phil Dietz; 4. 56-Ross Mathewson; 5. 22-Chris Roberts
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Joe Perry; 2. 12-Jerry Brey; 3. 81-Darren Smith; 4. 4-Cliff Nelson Jr.; 5. 38B-Bryan Brown
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 37-Trever Kirkland[1]; 2. 98-Joe Ramaker[7]; 3. 44K-Kelly Miller[3]; 4. 0J-Jeremy McCune[6]; 5. 7X-Paxton Lambrecht[11]; 6. 72-Phil Dietz[12]; 7. 27DD-David Hoiness[2]; 8. 81-Darren Smith[13]; 9. 56-Ross Mathewson[15]; 10. 77-Bob Shiplet[19]; 11. 12-Jerry Brey[8]; 12. X-Steve Nelson[16]; 13. 3-Jordan Milne[9]; 14. 38B-Bryan Brown[20]; 15. 22-Chris Roberts[17]; 16. 35-Charles (Chip) Roe[10]; 17. 00-Roger Cummings[18]; 18. 4-Cliff Nelson Jr.[14]; 19. (DNF) 99-Skylar Gee[5]; 20. (DNF) 28-Joe Perry[4]
- Bryan Hulbert on Jul 26, 2014
- Article Date: 7/26/2014