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| Kenny Adams Rules Putnam Sprints | by Jon Harney
Cool weather, seven strong divisions and excellent track conditions came together to make for a solid night of racing at Putnam County Speedway. Bob Potter and Lance Ward worked extremely hard during the week to ensure that the dusty, dry-slick conditions of the previous week would not return. Fortunately, their efforts were successful in their battle against the Dust Bowl as the track remained tacky throughout all heats and features.
Kenny Adams charged from his eighth-place starting position to take the lead on lap 13 and keep his perfect winning record intact at Putnam County Speedway. #1a Robbie Smith took the early lead and held it through the many early cautions. Adams took advantage of the cautions to pick off positions on restarts and began challenging Smith on lap 5. Adams pressured Smith for several exciting laps through traffic before making his move on the inside and running away with the win in the Milk Movers Inc. #2A. Smith withstood the challenge of #2 Red Stauffer to hang on to second. #421 Lee Scrape and #20 George Pedrick were fourth and fifth.
Street Stocks ran a rough and tumble feature that produced surprisingly few cautions. Despite heavy contact throughout the packs, the only yellow in the 20-lap feature came on lap 17 for a lone spinning car. Chris Vogel's Village Plumbing #4 avoided much of the scrapping by leading despite heavy challenges from #1M David Kinsey and #3 Kenny Hall. Kinsey and Hall began to wear down towards the end but Vogel remained strong and won his first feature. Kinsey was second, with Hall, #44 Ronnie Grubb, and #42 Robert Ammons following.
Sixteen Hobby Stocks took the green and the result was a wire-to-wire win for the Diamond S Trucking Camaro of Ronnie Soltis. Soltis took advantage of his pole starting position and ran away as a pack of four cars sliced and diced throughout the event. A last-lap altercation scrambled the top five with the exception of Soltis who earned his fourth victory of the year. Chip Owen's #1 survived for second, #66 Dave Dowling Sr. was third, #25 Bobby Gigon was fourth, and #21 David Miller brought his Ford home for fifth.
Bill Kopka made it two in a row as his R&R Industrial #33 led from start to finish in the Limited Late Models. #18 J. O. Nobles and #2 Marion Sizemore made Kopka earn his victory as they were able to stay with the leader but couldn't muster a strong enough attack to pass. The finishing order was Kopka, Nobles, Sizemore, #15 Joe Grubb, and #02 Travis Rhoden. With the win, Kopka took the lead in season points.
Continuing the wire-to-wire theme, Marion Sizemore converted his pole-position start to a victory in Open Wheel Modified action. Sizemore bested a 21-car field and was never seriously challenged. The racing behind the leader was action-packed as many positions were exchanged and many bumpers were tested. Gary Sexton's #41 ran a strong race and was the best of the rest in second. John Bradley's #26 was third followed by Garry Flynn's #14 and Kenny Blair's #01.
Pure Stocks turned in a commendable performance that displayed much action with a minimum of yellow flags. Mike Tripp also jumped on the green-to-checkers victory bandwagon, notched his fourth win, and extended his points lead. #24 Ken Durham has been the tough-luck kid in the division, having repeated mechanical difficulties while running strong throughout the season, but the mechanical gremlins left him alone this time allowing him to place second; his best finish of the year. The remainder of the top five was #5 L. J. Klemons, #51S Lenny Hixson, and the #8-ball of Tim Kanouse.
Mini-Stocks brought a strong field to Putnam as several racers from Ocala tested their luck on the 3/8 mile clay oval. The Ocalans gave a good effort, but the local boys took the big prizes on this night. After the race and post-race tech, #74 Mike Gibbs was declared the winner. #15 Don Strosahl, #72M Marlon Durbin, and #72 Jake Hartley finished in that order.
Super Late Models return to Putnam County Speedway for a one-night special event on June 9th along with the six regular track divisions.
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