SWEDESBORO, NJ – Mark Smith out of Sunbury, PA scored win number 21 on his season in his first ever attempt at the newly configured Kingdom of Speed. The no. M1 was fast right out of the gate landing himself in victory lane for night one of the Midge Miller Memorial High Bank Classic at Bridgeport Motorsports Park on Friday, November 6 sponsored by Absolute Control Dog Training.
The weather could not have been better for night one of the season finale for the United Racing Club as the high temperature was exactly 50 degrees warmer than the previous years Midge Miller Memorial. A record 44 cars signed in for the night, recording not only the highest car count of the 2020 season, but the highest car count for the series finale in many, many years. With the points battle heating up between Adam Carberry, and Josh Weller, both drivers were looking for a solid night with only one point separating the two going into the finale weekend.
Adam Carberry came out of the gate strong and set quick time in hotlaps with a time of 13.844, however the fastest night of the race would go to Lucas Wolfe during heat 1 with a time of 13.622. Five, 10-lap heat races were scheduled and ran without incident as the bottom and top of the track started really coming in. Heat race victories went to Wolfe, Denny Peebles, Troy Betts, Austin Bishop, and Carberry respectfully. One of the most notable events from the heat races was watching Mark Smith wheel his car from the last starting spot to finish second landing him in the redraw. Due to the high car count, two B-main events were ran with the top two drivers from each making the feature event
After the top ten drivers redrew, Ryan Taylor in the 7X, and Troy Betts in the 22 made up the front row with July’s Bridgeport winner Davie Franek, and Mark Smith in row two. M. Smith jumped from fourth to the lead on lap one but Taylor was able to get back by. The two drivers battled for a few laps before a caution would come out for Ryan Stillwaggon who was pinched into the wall on the front stretch. Stillwaggon who took a provisional to get into the race was able to rejoin the field and continue. When the race went green Taylor and Smith continued to battle. The red flag would soon fly for Austin Bishop who took a hard tumble in turn two. Bishop exited the car uninjured however there was substantial damage to the no. 11A retiring it to the pits for the remainder of the night.
When the field restarted M. Smith was now in control. Taylor slipped back to fourth and while battling with our point leader got into the wall on the backstretch causing some damage. Taylor came to a stop on the track bringing out the yellow flag once again.
After another green flag run, M. Smith had a commanding lead when the final caution of the night would fly on lap 22 creating a 3 lap dash to the finish. M. Smith easily cruised to victory while Carberry was able to move his way into a second place finish followed by Betts, Weller, and Ryan Smith.
“The heat race was pretty tough, I had some real good cars in the heat” Smith said, “I kind of got lucky there but it always helps to be able to start upfront.” Speaking on his battles early on with Taylor, Mark stated “I had to wait for my fuel load to burn off in the beginning, but usually form halfway on I am better. I knew we were getting close so I started messing with him to get him off his game a little bit, I got a good restart and got by him at the line before the caution to put me on the outside for the restart which made a big difference.”
The drivers all seem to love the new configuration of the Kingdom of Speed, with this being only the second time the URC drivers have been on the new surface. However, for Smith it was his first visit to the speedway, “I love the new track. I’m so glad to see someone take one of these big tracks and shrink them down. It’s so much better racing.” Mark is now the high point man going into night two of the Midge Miller Memorial where the driver with the best average finish will receive a custom trophy made by Cold Hart Art. Mark would like to thank Rich Mar Florist, CRC, NGK Spark Plugs, Quality Roof Seamers, CSI Shocks, Ryder Racing Engines, NRG Controls, Simpson Racing Products, and Mach-1 Racing Chassis, as well as his crew, family, and friends for helping get the M1 to victory lane.
Saturday November 7 marks the final race for the 2020 season for the United Racing Club. A year that was interesting to say the least will all come down to one race with $3,000 on the line to the winter. With eyes on the championship battle going into tonight, round one went to Adam Carberry who was able to stretch his lead over Josh Weller to 13 points, however Weller is still within striking distance and anything can happen tonight on the high banks of Bridgeport Motorsports Park!
Photo Credit: Jesse Carberry
Contingency awards:
KSE Hard Charger – JJ Grasso +15
Ultra Shield last redraw spot – Lucas Wolfe
ISC Racers Tape – Josh Weller (4th)
Seals-It – Lucas Wolfe (6th)
Rod End Supply – Tyler Ross (8th)
Ultra Shield – Jason Shultz (11th)
King Racing Products – Kyle Smith (15th)
DMI – Austin Bishop (last in feature)
Feature Laps Led by:
1-6 Ryan Taylor
7-25 Mark Smith
RESULTS – NOVEMBER 6, 2020
HEAT 1 (10 LAPS): 1. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[2]; 2. 5G-Briggs Danner[4]; 3. 63-Josh Weller[7]; 4. 32S-Kyle Smith[8]; 5. 8A-Andy Best[9]; 6. 42-Jesse Pruchnik[1]; 7. 9S-Rick Stief[6]; 8. 14B-Brett Wright[3]; 9. 35-Jason Shultz[5]
HEAT 2 (10 LAPS): 1. 3-Denny Peebles[1]; 2. M1-Mark Smith[9]; 3. 55-Dallas Schott[2]; 4. 20-Alex Bright[4]; 5. 25-JJ Grasso[3]; 6. 11-Ryan Stillwaggon[7]; 7. 8C-Brian Carber[6]; 8. 45-Chuck Hebing[8]; 9. 44-Dave Brown[5]
HEAT 3 (10 LAPS): 1. 22-Troy Betts[1]; 2. 28F-Davie Franek[2]; 3. 10-Paulie Colagiovanni[4]; 4. 5-Tyler Ross[3]; 5. 90-Matt Tanner[5]; 6. 22K-Kyle Spence[7]; 7. 77-Derek Locke[8]; 8. 00R-Jeff Rohrbaugh[9]; 9. 61-Will Hull[6]
HEAT 4 (10 LAPS): 1. 11A-Austin Bishop[2]; 2. 89-Robbie Stillwaggon[6]; 3. 10X-Ryan Smith[8]; 4. 18-Tim Tanner Jr[7]; 5. 46-Ryan Coniam[5]; 6. 55M-Domenic Melair[4]; 7. 77Z-Craig Pellegrini Jr[3]; 8. 32E-Dale Eggert[9]; 9. (DNF) 5Z-Zack Burd[1]
HEAT 5 (10 LAPS): 1. 47-Adam Carberry[6]; 2. 7X-Ryan Taylor[5]; 3. 18J-Randy Jacobs[2]; 4. 7-Ed Aikin[1]; 5. 32-Justin Foster[4]; 6. 10K-Joe Kata[7]; 7. 13S-Jon Stewart[8]; 8. 4-Wade Prentice[3]
B-MAIN 1 (10 LAPS): 1. 8A-Andy Best[1]; 2. 90-Matt Tanner[2]; 3. 35-Jason Shultz[10]; 4. 77-Derek Locke[7]; 5. 11-Ryan Stillwaggon[4]; 6. 45-Chuck Hebing[8]; 7. 9S-Rick Stief[6]; 8. 55M-Domenic Melair[5]; 9. 61-Will Hull[11]; 10. 32E-Dale Eggert[9]; 11. 32-Justin Foster[3]
B-MAIN 2 (10 LAPS): 1. 25-JJ Grasso[1]; 2. 46-Ryan Coniam[2]; 3. 8C-Brian Carber[6]; 4. 10K-Joe Kata[5]; 5. 00R-Jeff Rohrbaugh[9]; 6. 42-Jesse Pruchnik[3]; 7. 77Z-Craig Pellegrini Jr[7]; 8. 13S-Jon Stewart[13]; 9. 4-Wade Prentice[10]; 10. (DNF) 44-Dave Brown[11]; 11. (DNS) 22K-Kyle Spence; 12. (DNS) 5Z-Zack Burd; 13. (DNS) 14B-Brett Wright
A-FEATURE (25 LAPS): 1. M1-Mark Smith[4]; 2. 47-Adam Carberry[8]; 3. 22-Troy Betts[2]; 4. 63-Josh Weller[11]; 5. 10X-Ryan Smith[14]; 6. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[10]; 7. 25-JJ Grasso[22]; 8. 5-Tyler Ross[18]; 9. 20-Alex Bright[17]; 10. 89-Robbie Stillwaggon[5]; 11. 35-Jason Shultz[24]; 12. 5G-Briggs Danner[9]; 13. 55-Dallas Schott[12]; 14. 11-Ryan Stillwaggon[25]; 15. 32S-Kyle Smith[16]; 16. 77-Derek Locke[26]; 17. 18J-Randy Jacobs[15]; 18. 28F-Davie Franek[3]; 19. 18-Tim Tanner Jr[19]; 20. 3-Denny Peebles[6]; 21. (DNF) 7X-Ryan Taylor[1]; 22. (DNF) 10-Paulie Colagiovanni[13]; 23. (DNF) 46-Ryan Coniam[23]; 24. (DNF) 90-Matt Tanner[21]; 25. (DNF) 7-Ed Aikin[20]; 26. (DNF) 11A-Austin Bishop[7]
TOP 10 2020 URC POINTS (as of 9/11/2020)
- Adam Carberry – 1078
- Josh Weller – 1065 (-13)
- Dallas Schott (Rookie) – 862 (-216)
- Ryan Stillwaggon 828 (-250)
- Tyler Ross – 808 (-270)
- Troy Betts – 760 (-318)
- Austin Bishop – 759 (-319)
- Curt Michael– 710 (-368)
- Derek Locke – 677 (-401)
- Paulie Cologiovanni – 663 (-415)
- Casey Robicheau on Nov 07, 2020
- Article Date: 11/6/2020 by Casey Robicheau