8.15.21 Bedford Speedway Results
Two outside divisions made their once a year Bedford visits along with the Bedford EMods and produced three first time winners at the track Sunday night.
Rex King Jr went pole to pole with a dominating performance in the Big Block Modified event for his first ever Bedford win. The most local racer in the Super Sportsman race Craig Perigo took that event before Jacob Whitt ended the evening with his first ever EMod win.
The BB Modified event started off raggedly as several attempts at an initial start were necessary and two more cautions flew before lap three. Rex King Jr got the lead at the start, held on through the early lap chaos and ran off and hid from the field when things settled down after lap 3.
Chad Brachman secured the second spot on lap 5 but didn’t close on King until the pair encountered heavy traffic on lap 11. Brachman caught and threatened King in the traffic, but once back on open track King sped away. At the finish, King had a large winning margin over Brachman. Garrett Krummert came from eighth to take a distant third ahead of Rex King Sr and Steve Brown. Steve Slater and King Jr won the heats.
The Super Sportsman driver with the most Bedford experience Craig Perigo shot by the front row to lead the first lap in that event, then social distanced himself from the field to secure that win. As the field jostled in his wake, eventually Kevin Gutshall and Bob Gutshall secured second and third. After a race long battle, they held off Carmen Perigo to secure those finishing positions. Perigo had crashed in his heat and had started last in the field. Mike Smith was fifth. Craig Perigo and Kevin Gutshall won the heats.
Kyle Beckett led the first EMod lap but Jacob Whitt got by on lap 2. As Whitt edged away from the field, the two fastest EMods in the area Mitch Thomas and Mike Altobelli were thrashing through the field. They arrived in second and third on lap five and the race was on.
Whitt fought off attacks from Thomas and Altobelli at various times and hung on to the lead as that pair traded lanes on the track and fought between themselves. Action was wildly halted on lap 14 as Mike Wilhelm crashed and rode the frontstretch wall, creating a fuel spill which caught fire. Wilhelm kept going with flames flying all the way to turn two.
When the green again flew, Whitt got away from Thomas and Altobelli as they battled. Altobelli finally secured the second spot on lap 23 but ran out of laps to catch the flying Whtt. Behind the top two were Thomas, Mike Pappas and David Green. Kyle Beckett and Altobelli won the heats.
BIG BLOCK MODIFIEDS 35 LAP 1 Rex King Jr, Chad Bachman, Garrett Krummert, Rex King SR, Steve Brown, Chris Rudolph, JR McGarvey, Rich Redalski, Steve Slater, Eric Gaboney, Paul Kot, Mark Frankhouser, Randy Chronister, Shawn Kiser, Brad Rapp, Shawn Fleegle, Rodney Beltz, DNS Dave Murdick
SUPER SPORTSMAN 20 LAPS 1 Craig Perigo, Kevin Gutshall, Bob Gutshall, Carmen Perigo, Mike Smith, Ricky Rutt, Noelle Ebersole, Chris Henry, Jay Frye, Jason Failer, Luke Lenker, Jack Liddick, Brett Perigo
EMOD 25 LAPS 1 Jacob Whitt, Mike Altobelli J, Mitch Thomas, Mike Pappas, David Green, John Whitfield, Kyle Beckett, Mike Wilhelm, Ed Vogel, Dan Patterson, Blaine Sellers,