7.30.21 Bedford Speedway Results
Three first time feature winners emerged as the second night of racing closed out the Bedford Fair week Friday night. Travis Stickley made a desperate last lap effort pay off to score his first ever Bedford win before the huge Fair crowd. Laura Chamberlain and Denver Dishong also scored career firsts in Semi Late and Pure Stock action Mike Altobelli was the only repeater as he swept to yet another EMod win.
Nathan Lasalle and Travis Stickley led the Late Model field to the green and danced together the entire 25 laps. Lasalle took the lead at the start but Stickley was all over the leader every lap. With Stickley working the bottom groove, Lasalle had enough momentum on the outside to repel every challenge.
Stickley thought he had a shot as the pair encountered lapped traffic on lap 17, but again Lasalle was up to the challenge and hung on. The event;s only yellow flew a lap later giving the pair a break, but the restart found Stickley again in hot pursuit.
With the white flag waving, Stickley made one more effort going into turn one, and this time it worked. He nosed ahead of Lasalle and took over, rushing to his first ever Bedford Late Model win. A dejected Lasalle settled for second, ahead of Trevor Feathers, Kyle Lee and Jeff Rine.
Stickley and Lasalle foreshadowed the feature battle by wining the heats. The second heat featured a grinding crash at the start as Chuck Clise crashed on the front stretch at the start. He was unable to start the feature.
Laura Chamberlain became the second female winner of Fair Week, following Sunday winner Kassidy Krietz.and third female fair winner in Bedford history with the Semi Late conquest.
She took the lead at the start as the Semi Late field battled behind her. John Miller ran second early but Nick Bechtel and Travis Calhoun came rushing through the field to foster a three way battle there. Bechtel got by for second on lap 12 as all three closed in on Chamberlain.
Bechtel was able to make a last lap challenge but Chamberlain did not fold, rushing off to her historic win. Miller held off Calhoun for third ahead of Brian Weyandt. Bechtel and Weyandt won the heats.
Mike Altobelli Jr zoomed from sixth to first on the first lap of the EMod event, then went on cruise control for the 20 laps. George Dixon got into second on lap two but could never really challenge Altobelli.
The event was red flagged briefly on 11 after a backstretch incident involved a fire on the 8 car , but Altobelli again took off on the restart, cruising to the easy win. Dixon, Dan Cornman, Brandon Houeholder and George Beckett trailed. Dixon and Cornman won the heats
The Pure Stock 15 lapper featured a ragged start. It took three tries to get a clean lap and the caution flew three more times before lap three. Reed Stickel led the first lap, but Denver Dishong took over on lap 2. Dishong held off the usual mob as they battled among themselves for the shot at the lead.
Positions in the mob changed around repeatedly and a few encountered difficulties, but as the event neared conclusion, it was Barry Clark and Derrick Hinish in hot pursuit of the leader while they raced each other hard. The field got a special thrill as the lights went out at the south end of the speedway on lap 8.
Dishong had 15 minutes to contemplate his position as repairs were made, but he was up to the challenge after the red. Several times Clark drew up along side the leader but could not complete the pass. On the last lap Hinish slid by Clark to score second at the line as Dishong scored the popular first career win.
Clark scored third but lost it when he refused to enter the tech area. that allowed Kyle Deneen, Jeremu Fama and Cole Stickel to fill the top 5 positios. Charlie Clise, Deneen and Dalton Ritchey won the heats.
LATE MODEL 25 LAPS 1 Travis Stickley, Nathan Lasalle, Trevor Feathers, Kyle Leem Jeff Rine, Devin frey, Wayne Johnson, Shawn Jones, Matt Sponaugle, Dave Stamm, DNS Chuck Clise
SEMI LATE 15 LAPS 1 Laura Chamberlain, Nick Bechtel, John Miller, Travis Calhoun, Brian Weyandt Jr, Kyle Weyandt, Jarrod Brown, Bill Replogle, Mark Patterson, Erik Weyandt, Laura Reilly,
EMOD 20 LAPS 1 Mike Altobelli, George Dixon, Daniel Cornman, Brandon Householder, George Beckett, Ed Vogel, David Green, Blaine Sellers, Kyle Beckett, Mike Meck, DNS TJ Dehaven, John Whitfield
PURE STOCK 15 LAPS 1 Denver Dishong, Derrick Hinish, Kele Deneen, Jeremy Fama, Cole Stickel, Dalton Weyant, Cory Janie, Steven Price, Geoff Sosnowski, Charles Jones, Larry Foor, Keith killander, Dalton Ritchey, Reed Stickel, Charlie Clise, Andrew Stough, Anthony Fama, Bill Shehan DQ Barry Clark, DNS Mason Replogle, Kevin Weyandt