Michael Wins the Battle at Bridgeport, Franek Inches Closer to Winning the War!
Curt Michael picked up his 2nd win of the season at the Friday night portion of the 1st Annual Big Track Classic sponsored by JR Michalski Heating and Air Conditioning. With 30 360 sprint cars in the pits, a total of 3 heat races and 1 B-Main was needed to decide the 24 car starting field. Heat race winners went to the Fred's Trailers #56 driven by Chris Coyle, the second heat race was won by Davie Franek in the Franek Auto Sales #28f, heat race #3 was won by the GEI Enterprises, Valley Forge Inc., #5g of Curt Michael. The B-Main was won by former URC regular and making his return to 360 racing the 64K of Kyle Purks.
After Chris Coyle pulled the "0" invert pill, the feature was determined by a heads up start from the heat races creating a front row of Coyle and current 2016 URC Points leader Davie Franek. After the original start was called back, the second time around saw the 28f of Davie Franek jump out to an early lead, but followed closely by the Betts Garage #22 of Troy Betts, and following closely was the #4 of Jimmy Stitzel.
Chris Coyle's run came to an early end when he brought out the first caution of the night on lap #3. Coyle headed to the pits and with 3 laps down, the top 5 was comprised of Davie Franek, Tory Betts, Curt Michael, Jimmy Stitzel and the 747 of Davey Sammons. On the restart it was Franek again, but Betts quickly challenged the 28f for the top spot, briefly overtaking Franek heading into turn 3 before Franek again fought back to regain the top spot. The races 2nd caution came for a spinning Jimmy Stitzel in turns 3-4. Stitzel was able to refire and headed to the tail end of the field.
By lap 10, Franek was clearly in the lead, but the pressure was starting was being put on the rest of the top 4 as Betts, Michael and Sammons all were in hot pursuit of the 28f. After the races 3rd caution, Betts again mounted a charge for the lead and again battled hard with the 28f of Franek. Franek again would hold off Betts, but by lap 15, the 5G of 9 Time URC Champion Curt Michael was into the picture running in the runner up position. On lap 18, Michael made his move and over took Franek for the lead. Franek couldn't mount another challenge as Michael cruised to his 2nd win of the season. Franek finished in the 2nd position and lost very few points to Michael in the 2016 URC Championship points chase. Rounding out the top 5 was the 5W of 15th place starter Lucas Wolfe, the 22 of Betts, and the 747 of Davey Sammons.
Notable mention, Friday night saw the return of Sean Michael, who ran a Justin Whittall backup car with Mike Heffner's 360 bolted into the XXX mount. New York competitor #90 Matt Tanner made his first start at the large 5/8 mile facility along with fellow New York competitor 1Q Thomas Radivoy. Ryan Stillwaggon continued to run the Quality Auto Body #89 for brother Robbie who continues to recover from multiple concussions sustained at New Egypt and Williams Grove Speedways. New York runner and often 410 driver Justin Barger was in the #39 of Tim Hogue. Barger and Hogue first linked up late in the season for a few New York state races.
Feature Finish: 1. 5G Curt Michael, 2. 28f Davie Franek, 3. 5w Lucas Wolfe, 4. 22 Troy Betts, 5. 747 Davey Sammons, 6. 29 Jason Shultz, 7. 63 Josh Weller, 8. 67m Sean Michael, 9. 67w Justin Whittall, 10. 24 Mike Haggenbottom, 11. 89 Ryan Stillwaggon, 12. 21 Ed Aikin, 13. 90 Matt Tanner, 14. 44 Dave Brown, 15. 77w Will Eggimann, 16. 1Q Thomas Radivoy, 17. 73b Brett Michalski, 18. 7o6 Mark Sasso, 19. 67c Jason Cherry, 20. 21c Cody Jourdan, 21. 71 Chris Allen Jr., 22. 4 Jimmy Stitzel, 23. 39 Justin Barger, 24. 64k Kyle Purks, 25. 56 Chris Coyle.
DNQ: 23 Samantha Lieberman, 52 Zack Burd, 17c Keith Anderson, 31 Kris Lilick, 45 Chuck Hebing who had motor issues, and 67c Jason Cherry who took the URC provisional.
- Robbie Stillwaggon on Nov 05, 2016
- Article Date: 11/5/2016 by Tim Moran