4.13.19 Wythe Raceway Results

Wythe Eye Season Opener was nothing short of exciting. The day started out with rain and glume but ended with sunshine and amazing racing. News for the new season, drivers are now allowed to have mirrors. Did it make to better racing?

The first class that put tires on the track was the KCAR, for drivers ages twelve to sixteen. Braxton Surber from Sugar Grove and Amber Huffman from Chilhowie had their hands full of the others for the first couple of laps. On lap three Huffman pulled away from Surber and gave herself a huge lead for the remainder of the ten-lap caution free race bringing home her first win to start out the season. Surber came home second followed by Samantha Atwell, Rural Retreat Blake Hedrick, Wytheville and Phillip Hostetler from Rural Retreat completed the field.

The men of Pro Mini put on a show with many lead changes through the twenty-lap feature. Kevin Atwell, Rural Retreat Started on the pole but when the green flag dropped he quickly fell back to third leaving Chuck Kinzer from Woodlawn and Travis Harden from Marion to battle for the lead. Kinzer held his own until lap nine when Harden made a lead change at the flag stand, the next time Harden saw the flag stand he was no longer the leader, Atwell had taken back over his starting position leaving Harden in trouble and to bring out the caution on lap thirteen. On the restart Shane King a Wytheville driver came up to fill the second place position as Atwell pulled away from the field, leaving King and Kinzer to battle for second. Under the checkered for first was Atwell followed by a side by side battle between Kinzer and King with Kinzer taking home third to Kings second. Billy Harris, Marion took home fourth followed by Tanner Cook, Max Meadows for the top five.

On the start of the Wythe Eye Modifieds driver from Marion, Jason Powers led the field of ten cars out of turn four to the scoring line for the first five laps until another Marion driver, Justin Blevins, got to Powers door and was able to take over the lead. With Powers back in second, he had his hands full once again with the 2018 track champion, Morgan Widener from Chilhowie, awhile Blevins was able to pull away from the field. The only caution came on lap eighteen for a spin out in turn two. The restart didn’t go as planned but the second start was a success with Blevins being able to pull away from Widener. Widener was never able to make the move on Blevins even with his best efforts. Blevins took home his first win of the season with Widener in tow followed by Powers for third. Patrick Wheeler and Cody Umberger finished fourth and fifth both drivers from Rural Retreat.

R&C Supper Street is the show stopper of Wythe Raceway. Starting fourteen cars Brian Peeples, Wytheville and Michael Deskins, Tazewell led the field to the green flag. Deskins got a great start and pulled in front of the field with Keith Griffitts, Sugar Grove in tow. A few paces behind the leaders were Dale Hancock, Marion and Eddie Bentley, Sugar Grove battling it out for the third place position. Bentley never could get enough grip coming off the turns to pass Hancock. The leaders eventually caught the rear of the field in the caution free twenty five lap feature. Finishing order was Deskins, Griffitts, Hancock, Bentley and Terry Sharp, from Woodlawn to finish the top five.

Turn one, lap one, was a no go for the UCAR class with Ricky Ward, Marion starting mid pack of eighteen cars got turned around for a lengthy caution. The next start was a go, with seven solid laps in the books the forty-four of Brandon Shupe, Bluefield stalled in turn two with a flat tire causing a caution and ended his night. The rest of the twenty-lap race went off without a hitch seeing Brian Tate dominate and see the checkered flag first. Second went to Hunter Buchanan, Wytheville followed by Kayla Surber, Sugar Grove Daniel Wright, Wytheville Tanner Tate, Marion and Dakota Wilson and Boomer Wilson both from Rural Retreat. Brian Tate failed to complete post race inspection which resulted in a disqualification leaving Hunter Buchanan to claim the trophy.