Kansas City, KS - Friday night, June 18, 2010, will go down as an eventful night for Lakeside Speedway. It was the 3rd straight week that 'Mother Nature' didn't rear it's ugly head and the racing action on the track was even more exciting then ever before. That is, if you ask Darrin Christy, Gene Claxton and Cody Agler. These drivers were all the feature winners at Lakeside Speedway this weekend.
Darrin Christy started off the year with some problems. It's only the 6th race of the 2010 season and he is already on his 3rd motor. Hell, in the 2nd night of the season he hit the implement tire in turn 4 that broke his axle and wheel off his rear end! What a difference a few weeks can make.
"We started 8th and we just wanted to finish tonight," said Christy, "Last week we lost a motor and we thrashed all week to get another one in and it was kind of a break in night for the motor. It ran real good."
Run good it did. Christy moved his way up into the top 3 of the Factory Stock main event. JR Billings had led the race from the outset, but Christy and Marshall Jewett had made there way up to Billings and began to challenge the leader.
A yellow flag would bunch the field up late in the race. On the restart, Billings wouldn't come up to speed right away, due to a carburetor problem, and this allowed the field to bunch up on him. Christy took a good run into the restart but would lose momentum as he had to check up for Billings. Jewett took the lead for just a moment as the yellow flag would come back out. The field would have to restart again.
"I remembered talking to JR earlier in the night and he said he was having carburetor problems," said Christy, "I knew he couldn't get going right away, so I wanted to get a good jump. I was worried that I might have jumped the start, but I got a good run down low."
Christy's good run took him to the lead. It was a lead that he wouldn't surrender for the remainder of the race. For a driver that started the season on a downer, he has his team back up and in contention for the points championship.
Even having problems on the night, Billings would stay in the runner-up spot, Nate Barnes ran to a strong 3rd place finish, Cliff Hedges Jr. took home 4th and rounding out the top 5 was Marshall Jewett in 5th.
If Cody Agler knew what a 'Sophomore Slump' was, he might be worried. The competition on the other hand would be happy. The 2nd year modified driver from Emporia, KS is by no means suffering this season. Friday night he roared through the field to win his 2nd Modified Feature of his short career.
"It was awesome, I started 4th row inside. As soon as we took off, I knew that I had a good car," said Agler, "Then that caution came out. From that point on, I got a good start and I came up into 2nd and I knew that if I just took my time and kept going and going, we would get the win."
John O'Neal Jr. took command of the race in the early going. He jumped past Luke Driskell for the top spot, but he had some company as Aaron Marrant and Agler were bearing down on him.
Agler would slide by Marrant and then set his sites on O'Neal. O'Neal had seen this scenario before as Agler passed him earlier in the year to get his 1st win. Agler waited for the right moment and heading out of turn number 2 he took the lead from O'Neal.
From that point on it was whether or not Marrant would catch Agler. For the 2 consecutive weeks Marrant was the man to beat. Now he was on the other end of the shoe, trying to make a move to get another win. It wouldn't happen.
Agler did a wonderful job navigating lapped traffic as he went on to the win.
Marrant would settle for 2nd, 3rd went to John O'Neal Jr., Tom Charles finished 4th, which also moved him into the points lead, and Yancy Sheppard rebounded from a tough week last week to come in 5th.
The Grand National feature saw Gene Claxton get his 3rd win of the season.
A week ago he was plagued by engine troubles. This week he came back knowing that his car is a good one and he is ready to go at anytime. After several track championships and feature wins, Claxton is very familiar with the ins and the outs of Grand National racing. Tonight's race showed the fans a good duel between two past Grand National Champions.
Chad Clancy has been struggling with some mechanical problems of his own. The 2009 Champion is not having the same season as he did a year ago. Sometimes this is to be expected. At the beginning of the night Clancy felt good about his chances. It looked as if his feelings would be validated. Clancy raced out to the early lead. He would hold it for a few laps.
Claxton made his way up to Clancy and the battle was on. Several times Claxton would make the dive to the bottom of turn 1 and exit two going up the track and with the lead. Several times Clancy would drive underneath Claxton coming out of two and would regain the lead. Both drivers battled to the best of their abilities. In the end it would be Claxton that came out with the lead.
Once Claxton took sole possession of the lead, he put some distance between himself and Clancy. Late in the race it appeared that Claxton might get hung up in lapped traffic. Clancy was able to mount a couple of minor runs at Claxton. They would be futile as Claxton would just stretch the lead back out on his way to the 3rd feature win of the season.
Between Claxton and his teammate, Chad Shaw, the dynamic duo has now won 5 of the 6 Grand National features on the year.
Clancy went on to finish 2nd, Brad Dibben rolled to a 3rd place finish, enjoying his best finish of the season was Luke Nieman in 4th and Steven Dibben rounded out the top 5.
The reality show the was filmed at Lakeside Speedway, "Heartland Thunder" is scheduled to air on the Discovery Channel on June 21st at 9 p.m. cst.
Racing action continues again next Friday night and Saturday night at Lakeside Speedway. The regular weekly races are on Friday and the World of Outlaw Sprint Cars will race Saturday night. Spectator gates will open up at 5:00 p.m. Hot laps will be at 7:00 p.m. and the first race will go green at 7:30 p.m.
For more information visit Lakeside Speedway's web site http://www.lakesidespeedway.net.
