10.18.19 Empire Super Sprints Results
The 360 Sprints were the headline division on this night as the Lucas Oil ESS Sprints staff did the officiating, found a solid 24 car field take to the Fast 4/10 of a mile clay oval. Early evening qualifying heats went to Will Glover, Jordan Thomas and Jonathan Preston.
With nearly two inches of rain fall earlier in the week in the Upstate Region of New York it was definitely a very fast race track and with cold temperatures all evening long it kept plenty of moisture in the speedway providing for unbelievably fast times and a tacky/heavy cushion.
In hot laps, Canadian, Jim Huppunen set fast time with a lap of 13.321; however it was Jonathan Preston that blistered the track with a time of 12.721 in winning heat race number three. It should also be noted that on this night the 360 sprint lap times were comparable to the 410 sprint times when the Tony Stewart ASCoC Series visited Outlaw Speedway in June.
When it was time for the 25 lap A Main and by the luck of the top twelve re-draw, Will Glover and Jonathan Preston brought the field to the opening green flag.
Preston picked right up in the feature where he left off in his qualifying heat by bolting away from the rest of the field in the opening laps.
The first of five yellow flags would fly on lap two as newly crowned ESS Series Champion; Paulie Colagiovanni dropped over the top of the banking in turns three and four bringing out the caution.
On the restart Preston again walked away from the rest of the field and within three laps was back into lap traffic. The second caution would wave on lap ten for the machine of Will Glover who did a half spin in turn two.
On the restart Preston was again in command until lap twelve and he would succumb to a flat right rear tire and apparent suspension damage ending any chance he had of backing up his ESS win at Outlaw this past May 17.
From there Jason Barney would assume the lead as a pack of hungry competitors were in tow.
Caution number four occurred on lap fifteen for the sixth place running machine of Jordan Thomas and it was on the ensuing restart that things would really heat up at the top of the field.
Lucas Wolfe who started inside the fifth row had worked his machine into second place and after a spirited battle with Barney made a gutsy move to the outside and took over the lead on lap seventeen.
Scott Holcomb had a right rear tire explode entering turn number one on lap eighteen bringing out the fifth and final yellow flag and from that point Wolfe was able to keep Barney at bay and went on to his second consecutive 360 win as part of the Dutch Hoag Memorial Weekend at the track.
A disappointed Jason Barney settled for a well-deserved second place finish while local favorite, Kyle Drum rounded out the top three podium finishers. Jim Huppunen and Pete Richardson rounded out the top five.
OUTLAW SPEEDWAY DUTCH HOAG MEMORIAL NIGHT ONE RESULTS. 10/18/19
360 SPRINTS (24 cars)
Heats. William Glover, Jordan Thomas, Jonathan Preston
25 lap A Main. 1) Lucas Wolfe, 2) Jason Barney, 3) Kyle Drum, 4) Jim Huppunen, 5) Pete Richardson, 6) Joe Trenca, 7) Darryl Ruggles, 8) Mikey Kruchka, 9) Mike Koehler, 10) Dave Axton, 11) Will Glover, 12) Brad Knab, 13) Holly Porter, 14) Scott Holcomb, 15) Tyler Cartier, 16) Jordan Thomas, 17) John Trenca Jr., 18) Jonathan Preston, 19) Denny Peebles, 20) Paulie Colagiovanni, 21) Eric Kurtz, 22) Matt Tanner
Lap Leaders. Preston 1-12, Barney, 13-16, Wolfe 17-25