(Image Credit: MVI Racing Photography)
Andrew Kunas (June 6, 2015) GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Six years after he won a championship, Joe Perry finally got himself an actual race victory, scoring his first career main event win in Saturday's ASCS Frontier Region sprint car event at Electric City Speedway.
Perry, out of Billings, was the 16-year-old champion of the Big Sky Sprint Tour in 2009 but won that championship on consistency and never won a race that season, and didn't win a race after that until Saturday night. Perry, now 22 and recently becoming a father to a baby girl, has a trophy to take home to his family.
Driving father Chuck's No. 28 Santos & Sons-powered Maxim, Perry started the 25-lap A-Feature inside the second row following the redraw for the first eight starting positions. Perry motored by points leader J.J. Hickle, who had won the first three races of the season before Saturday, for second on Lap 6 before going after early leader Skylar Gee for the lead. Perry got Gee for the lead on Lap 8 and never looked back.
"We're very happy to finally nail down our first win. This car my dad Chuck put together was great. I couldn't ask for more," said Perry, who was happy but appeared stunned as well while accepting congratulations from several of his fellow competitors. Perry also got to shed his status of a champion without a win.
"You could say it's ironic. Most people win several races during a championship run," Perry said. "We were just very consistent and always finishing well that season."
After being tacky and rough on Friday night, the Electric City Speedway clay oval was dry slick, as it often is, on Saturday. Perry and crew, having anticipated that for the main event, set their car up appropriately.
"We were afraid the track was going to take rubber, but we put ourselves in position to still move if it didn't. I just idled around the bottom and I wasn't much past half throttle the whole race."
Lethbridge, Alberta's Kelly Miller came from the ninth starting position to move into second place late in the race and would finish there in the KDM Motorsports No. 2jr AMS-powered Schnee. It was Miller's fourth Top 5 finish in as many starts to begin the season, with his runner-up finish being his best and helping him maintain third place in the point standings.
"We had a good off-season. We had a lot of good R & D," Miller said about his team. "Everything is starting to show. It takes time but it's coming together. This is a big confidence booster. We just need to get into the Top 8 redraw now."
Miller, for the second straight night, was ninth in heat race passing points and just missed out on being able to draw for a better starting position in the main event. Miller moved up to finish fourth in Friday's race.
After falling back to fourth for a time, Hickle regained third place after Gee began to fade in the last laps. The Quilcene, Washington driver saw his season opening win streak end at three races, but still finished third in the Peterson Racing No. 23n Ostrich-powered Rocket. Hickle extended his points lead over Laurel, Mont.'s Phil Dietz to 51 points.
Dietz, after struggling in his heat race, came from the 11th starting position to finish fourth in the Dietz Prevost Racing No. 72 Kistler-powered Maxim. Like Hickle and Miller, Dietz has finished in the Top 5 in every race so far in the 2015 season.
Gee eventually fell back to and then held onto fifth place aboard the Gee Racing No. 99 AMS-powered Triple X, followed by Trever Kirkland, Jeremy Mccune and Greg Hamilton. B-Feature winner David Hoiness also passed several cars in the A-Feature, coming from the 17th starting position to finish ninth. Alberta driver Cody Masse, racing with a 360ci. motor under the hood of his car for the first time this weekend, finished tenth and secured his first career Top 10 finish in a sprint car.
Hoiness and other drivers scheduled in the B-Feature were unsure if their race would be even necessary as one car had scratched and another was in the middle of a motor problems. Hoiness was joined by Seth Ostermiller, Junior Nelson and Johnny Nelson on the track. Bill Boyce entered and then left the track with his car still not running properly, leaving just the original four drivers again. Officials decided to cut the distance of the race from 12 laps to six and all four drivers moved onto the A-Feature.
Mccune won the evening's opening heat race and Gee earned his third heat race win, most among all drivers, in Heat 2. Hamilton, visiting from Washington, won the third and final heat race of the evening. Hickle, who raced from sixth to second in Heat 1, earned the top passing points score with 113, the second time he accomplished the feat this season.
This weekend's races were a make-up of the rained out events on May 15th and 16th. The ASCS Frontier Region returns to action on Friday, June 12th with its first 2015 appearance at Gallatin Speedway in Belgrade, Mont. The series then moves to Billings Motorsports Park the next night. Electric City Speedway will place host to the series again for two nights on Friday and Saturday, June 19th and 20th.
The Frontier Region of the American Sprint Car Series, presented in part by Speedmart Inc. is a winged 360 dirt 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 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.
Race Results:
ASCS Frontier Region
Electric City Speedway – Great Falls, Mont.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Car Count: 22
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 0J-Jeremy McCune; 2. 23N-J.J. Hickle; 3. 77-Bob Shiplet; 4. 38B-Bryan Brown; 5. 00-Roger Cummings; 6. 22-Chris Roberts; 7. (DNF) 12X-Josh Ostermiller; 8. (DNF) 18-Seth Ostermiller
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Skylar Gee; 2. 28-Joe Perry; 3. 3J-Jordan Milne; 4. 35M-Cody Masse; 5. 24-Leroy Brush; 6. 11-Cliff Nelson; DNS 1-Bill Boyce
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 96-Greg Hamilton; 2. 2JR-Kelly Miller; 3. 37-Trever Kirkland; 4. 72-Phil Dietz; 5. 27DD-David Hoiness; 6. 4-Cliff Nelson Jr.; 7. 4N-John Nelson
B Feature 1 (6 Laps): 1. 27DD-David Hoiness; 2. 18-Seth Ostermiller; 3. 4N-John Nelson; 4. 4-Cliff Nelson Jr.; 5. 1-Bill Boyce; 6. 12X-Josh Ostermiller
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 28-Joe Perry[3]; 2. 2JR-Kelly Miller[9]; 3. 23N-J.J. Hickle[2]; 4. 72-Phil Dietz[11]; 5. 99-Skylar Gee[1]; 6. 37-Trever Kirkland[4]; 7. 0J-Jeremy McCune[6]; 8. 96-Greg Hamilton[8]; 9. 27DD-David Hoiness[17]; 10. 35M-Cody Masse[12]; 11. 3J-Jordan Milne[7]; 12. 77-Bob Shiplet[10]; 13. 38B-Bryan Brown[5]; 14. 22-Chris Roberts[13]; 15. 00-Roger Cummings[15]; 16. 4-Cliff Nelson Jr.[20]; 17. 24-Leroy Brush[16]; 18. 11-Cliff Nelson[14]; 19. 4N-John Nelson[19]; 20. (DNF) 18-Seth Ostermiller[18]
- Bryan Hulbert on Jun 07, 2015
- Article Date: 6/7/2015