Bridgeport, NJ – Luke Thomas raced to his third win of the season in the Kenny Vincent No. 97 in the Hyper Racing EVO Injection 600 Micro Sprint feature on Friday night at the Spirit Auto Center Speedway. Nick Walton raced to his second win of the season in the AC Racing Products 270 Micro Sprint feature. Brett Bieber picked up his second win in the Speedway Entertainment All Star Slingshot event presented by Ed Weeks while Jack Jarvis took his fifth win of the season in the Junior Slingshot event.
Thomas races a limited schedule due to his responsibilities on the family farm. He gets a few races in at the beginning of the season before the planting season gets into full swing and then again in the fall when his workdays slow down. Thomas raced on Friday night in preparation for the Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek coming up this week with six races at six different tracks.
Eight different drivers have claimed Friday night victories on the Bridgeport quarter mile. Thomas was the only repeat winner in this division until Tommy Kunsman picked up his second win of the season just one week earlier. Thomas already sits on the top of the All Time Feature Winners List and becomes the first three-time winner of the 2023 season.
Bobby Bracall took the lead at the start in his Cobbs Mills No. 10B. Ethan Simpson and Anthony Tramontana chased the leader in the early going. Bracall led the first eight laps before he came to a stop at the end of the backstretch, bringing out the caution. Mechanical woes sidelined Bracall as well as Kunsman who headed to the pits under the caution. Simpson became the race leader and led the field back to the green.
Simpson led the way while Tramontana and Chris Fenimore raced for second. Simpson led Fenimore, Thomas, Tramontana and Sam Lamothe through lap ten. Thomas took over second at halfway and then set his sights on the leader.
In only his second season of competition, Simpson continued to race ahead of Thomas through lap nineteen. Thomas took the lead on lap twenty with Simpson coming back to challenge for the lead. While battling for third, Tramontana hopped the inside rail of the track, ending his impressive run with just two laps to go.
Thomas prevailed, racing to his third win of the season over Simpson and Fenimore. PJ Williams and Kyle Spence made some key moves in the final laps to complete the top five.
Joe Dopke had one fast 270 Micro Sprint on Friday night, going from eighth to second in a single lap in his qualifying heat. Then he drew the pole for the feature event and led the way in what would be a twenty lap non-stop feature event, completed in just over four minutes.
Dopke was racing in lapped traffic from lap six and had pulled away from the field. Consecutive green flag laps created a lot of traffic for the race leader which allowed second place driver, Nick Walton to close in on the leader. Walton raced by Dopke in traffic and led the final laps of the AC Racing Products feature event for his second win of the season. Dopke finished second followed by Lee Nardelli, Alex Swift and Billy Gray. Blake Esham finished sixth followed by Tyler Grau, Jimmy Wagner, Jonathan John and Tommy Rinck completed the top ten in the running order.
Walton joined Swift as the only repeat winners in the 270 Micro Sprints so far this season.
The Speedway Entertainment All Star Slingshots raced in the second Ed Weeks sponsored event of the season, paying $500 to the race winner.
Cody Kline jumped into the lead at the start with current point leader, Michael Beckett racing into second and Bieber quickly takin over third. Bieber raced in to second by the time the leaders completed lap one. Kline led the first nine laps with the caution waving for the first time on lap ten when PJ Bozowski encountered mechanical issues.
Bozowski started at the rear of the field on the original start because he was late in joining the field. His problems weren’t over as he came to a stop on lap ten, setting up a double file restart.
Kline and Bieber lined up side by side on the restart. Bieber was able to race on the outside of Kline and then dove to the inside to take the lead as the field came to the line to complete lap ten. “I would never have been able to do it without the caution,” Bieber explained.
Bieber led the way to the checkered over Kline and Brandon Oakley who took over third late in the race. Beckett finished fourth with Brayden Morrision completing the top five.
Jack Jarvis took the lead on the first lap of the Junior Slingshot feature event and then led every lap for this fifth win of the season. Carter Mullins, who won his first race one week earlier, finished second to Jarvis with Austin Walls finishing third. Cody Williamson finished fourth with David Morrison completing the top five at the checkered.
The Spirit quarter mile will be dark this week during 600 Speedweek. Action returns on Friday, July 28 with another Fast & Furious Friday of 600 and 270 Micro Sprints and All Star and Junior Slingshots.
HYPER RACING EVO FUEL INJECTION 600cc MICRO SPRINT FEATURE (25 laps):
1. Luke Tomas, 2. Ethan Simpon, 3. Chris Fenimore, 4. P.J. Williams, 5. Kyle Spence, 6. Sam LaMothe, 7. Matt Smith, 8. Gary Bozowski, 9. Anthony Tramontana, 10. J.T. Bierman, 11. Olivia Haworth, 12. Julian Rexrode, 13. Rebecca Lamothe, 14. T.J. Greve, 15. Jayson Conover, 16. Steve Fleetwood, 17. Robert Pierce, 18. Dustin Tyler, 19. Steve Bracall, 20. Tommy Kunsman, 21. Sean Case, 22. Bobby Watkins, 23. Glenn Frye, DNS – Connor Sheffield, Kristopher Thompson
JC FABRICATION 270cc MICRO SPRINT FEATURE (20 laps):
1. Nick Walton, 2. Joe Dopke, 3. Lee Nardelli, 4. Alex Swift, 5. Billy Gray, 6. Blake Esham, 7. Tyler Grau, 8. Jimmy Wagner, 9. Jonathan John, 10. Tommy Rinck, 11. Trevor Waegel, 12. Kyra Pierce, 13. Danny Wright, 14. Dustin Dash, 15. Brittany Hopkins, 16. Alex Lester, 17. Charles Cobourn, 18. John Wagner
SPEEDWAY ENTERTAINMENT ALL STAR SLINGSHOT FEATURE (20 laps):
1. Brett Bieber, 2. Cody Kline, 3. Brandon Oakley, 4. Michael Beckett, 5. Brayden Morrison, 6. Chris Laureigh, 7. Alonso Morales, 8. David Morrell, 9. P.J. Bozowski
SPEEDWAY ENTERTAINMENT JUNIOR SLINGSHOT FEATURE (15 laps):
1. Jack Jarvis, 2. Carter Mullins, 3. Austin Walls, 4. Cody Williamson, 5. David Morrison, 6. Delana Messick, 7. Nathan Kampe
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