What an excellent night it was last night! Have to give BIG thanks to Bert Jones owner of Beer City for everything last night! Giving us "CPN" guys the opportunity to hang out with you guys in the pavilion before and during the entire race night was "PRICELESS". Sharing the food and beer and making us feel like we were part of the Beer City family! Thanks again Bert & Jason! We had a GREAT time! Sorry to Jason's night didn't quite go as planned. With front end problems during the heat race that also caused him to miss the consi, Jason was forced to take a provisional. Jason did put together a good feature run starting dead last (29th) and finishing up a solid 14th! While crossing the finish line Jason's mount lost power steering and greeted Jason's legs with piping hot power steering fluid to top off the night! Jason can be glad that night came to an end when it did!
The track was fast and furious all night with a top and bottom grooves. There was a good amount of dust on the homestretch. I will be glad to eat some dust for the good racing that took place. Heat races went to Mike Laise, Brad Missimer, Cliff Quinn & Craig Von Dohren. Consi wins went to Duane Howard & Ray Swinehart. The class of the field was Jeff Strunk who came from 19th starting spot to take his second win in the last 2 attemps! Jeff got by Jon Kellner Sr on lap 26 after some very clean racing. Kellner settled for 2nd, 3rd went to Craig Von Dohren followed by Doug Manmiller and John Willman to round out the top 5. Jeff praised Kellner Sr in victory lane for his clean driving and knew he had nothing to worry about going side by side with Kellner. Strunk picked up the Cornerstone hard-charger award coming from 19th to 1st! Strunk is the 1st repeat winner of the season!
The Firecracker 40 Late Model feature was a good one! Brian Shuey took control of the race and led the race till lap 26 when Ron Kline worked his way past Brian and went on to capture the Firecracker 40 for the 1st time. Ron stated in victory lane, " It feels like winning the Daytona 500". Kline picked up $2000 for his winning efforts! Shuey finished 2nd followed by Wayne Pfeil, Mike Kellner & Nate Christman rounded out the top 5. Rookie Andy Ressler came across the line in 3rd place only to be disqualifyed for a rule infraction. Ron Kline picked up the Cornerstone hard-charger award coming from 11th to 1st!
During the evening we had a chance to meet up with Chris Noble from The Greatest Show on Dirt website! I picked up one of Chris's new T-shirts! They really turned out nice! Thanks Chris! Ernie Saxton also picked up his very own "Cowpatty Nation" t-shirt last night! Thanks Ernie, and I hope you enjoy it and have a safe trip to Florida! We also had a chance to meet Chad Sinon. What a great guy Chad is! Eric gave Chad one of our business cards, so hopefully Chad will check out the site! Chad was kind enough to introduce us to his son Lukas! Lukas is recovering from an ankle injury...GET WELL soon Lukas! Chad shared some new racing news in the works that will be coming up in the near future! No Syracuse this year for the BPG team! What a bummer! Us "CPN" folk had an awesome time last fall rooting for our hometown Cowpatty, Duane Howard who ended up in striking distance of the win! Also talked with Joe Adams which is ALWAYS a bright spot on any given saturday night! Joe was kind enough to get Duane Howard over to meet Eric's son Brandon who is a HUGE fan! Brandon is such a fan that he was so nervous to meet Duane that we have been trying to get him to the trailer since opening day! Brandon was so pleased to meet Duane! Way to go Brandon! Thanks again Joe! You da man! We also got to meet up with Kyle Merkel! Nice meeting you Kyle and hope you enjoy the site! Also thanks for signing Brandon's shirt! My daughter Kelsey could stay in the Hamilton compound the whole night! She loves hanging around Jason & Bert and the guys! Whenever we wonder off she always is asking, "can we go back to Jason now"? Pretty cool! Jason was also kind enough to shake Brandon's hand last night! A stellar night for the kids...and us!
Till next week...keep on Cowpattying!
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