By Brad Ovens
(Penn Yan, N.Y.) – The CRSA Sprints invaded the hard clay of Orange County Fair Speedway Saturday May 7th. Mother Nature has made herself very well known very in the racing community as of late, but Eddie Strada wasn’t letting her into victory late Saturday Night.
The SuperGen Products CRSA Sprints featuring Champion Power Equipment headed south-east in the capital region to a track made famous for it’s “hard clay”, Orange County Fair Speedway. The stop was the first of four for the CRSA Sprints in 2016.
Saturday night’s racing action kicked of with heat race number one with Scott Flammer picking up the victory with the night’s fastest lap turned at 19.023 seconds on the O.C.F.S. 0.625 mile hard clay. Flammer’s heat race performance was nothing short of dominating. Middletown, NY’s own Scott Goodrich brought his Grand Rental Stations number 30 to a runner-up finishing position followed by the previous week’s victor Kyle Smith finishing third. Dana Wagner, Bobby Hackel, Chuck Alessi, and Billy VanInwegen rounded out the finishing order of heat race number one.
Heat race number two showcased McDonough, NY’s Dalton Herrick in his Kiser Sand and Gravel, Eagle Enterprises, and Kennedy’s of Troy number 29 cross Kenny Marshall’s checkered flag first picking up his first heat race win of the 2016 CRSA campaign. Herrick fought off the challenge from Cherry Valley, NY’s Josh Flint in his number 41J machine. It a strong showing for Flint after a week one hard impact with the outside wall at the Fonda Speedway. Brett Jaycox came across third, followed by Tyler Jashembowski, Ed Newhauser, Craig Pellegrini, and Emily VanInwegen. Pellegrini, a graduate of the 600cc micro sprint division, made his debut start in his new 305 sprint car.
Heat race number three proved to be a prelude of the night for Eddie Strada. Strada unloaded from the trailer fast with the second quickest lap time of the three heats at 19.251 seconds. Chasing the blazing fast 42E was Middletown, NY’s Christian Rumsey driving his Johnsons Toyota/Subaru 1R ride. Thomas Radivoy, Brian Krummel, Art Kiser, and Sydney Prince rounded out the field.
With all of the preliminaries finished, it was time for 20 ground-pounding, window rattling, hard clay racing CRSA Sprints to take the green in the A-Main. Only two yellow flag periods slowed the action during the event. The first caution came out for Middletown, NY’s Tyler Jashembowski as a result of contact during the racing action leaving his car inoperable with a severely bent left front wheel, ending his night. The second caution of the night came as the Great Meadows, NJ driver Ed Newhauser found himself facing the wrong direction on a one-way street in turn number two. Newhauser was able to right his car and continued at the tail end of the longest line. Upon the completion of lap number twenty, Eddie Strada was greeted by Kenny Marshall’s double checkered flags as he won race number two of the 2016 the SuperGen Products CRSA Sprints featuring Champion Power Equipment Tour. Strada maintained his dominance of the leaderboard by only falling of his heat race speed to a 19.306 second fastest lap during his A-main victory.
Saturday’s victory at the Orange County Fair Speedway marked Strada’s first win on the tour in 2016. The victory however didn’t come as easy as Starda would have liked. Strong pressure was applied to Starda once again by a very fast Christian Rumsey’s 1R. Rumsey, who had a strong showing in his heat race, came up one spot short of parking in victory lane, finishing second, earning his first top 5 of his 2016 season with CRSA. Brian Krummel brought his TTI Luxury Motorhome Transportation, Neiger’s Service Center, Dombrowski’s Lawn and Garden Center number 1 305 sprint home third. Fourth place was claimed by West Milford, NJ’s Scott Flammer, with Scott Goodrich finishing out the top 5. Goodrich’s fifth place finished secured him his second straight top 5 in two weeks after a strong showing at the Fonda Speedway one week early advancing eleven positions to finish third. After nine wins in 2015 competition with CRSA, look for Goodrich hunting for victory lane near you!
The SuperGen Products CRSA Sprints featuring Champion Power Equipment will set sights on the Five Mile Point Speedway in Kirkwood, NY for Saturday May 14th, 2016. For more information on the CRSA Sprints you can visit www.crsasprints.com. CRSA can also be followed on Twitter and Facebook.
- Robert Stanhope on May 10, 2016
- Article Date: 5/10/2016 by Brad Ovens