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| Adams Takes Sprint Accolades At Putnam | By Jon Harney
Terry Witherspoon thoroughly smoked his competition in both the heat race and the Goodson Farms Dash race. Unfortunately he took the smoking theme too far in the Sprint Car feature as his engine blew on lap seven while en route to another dominant performance. Kenny Adams took the Milk Movers Inc. #2A to the front with a pass on Johnny Gilbertson, then held off a late challenge from Robbie Smith to win the 25-lap feature at Putnam County Speedway. Behind Adams and Smith were Gilbertson, Roland Johnson, and Jerry Jones.
Once again, the Hobby Stocks successfully defended their claim as the pound-for-pound toughest division at Putnam. Dave Dowling shot from the outside pole to take the lead. Just when things were going his way his car developed a problem with the fuel pickup which resulted in a serious loss of power coming out of the corners. Several cars bunched up behind the leader in an attempt to pass, but Dowling was strong enough in the turns to fend them off. Dowling's luck ran out on lap 11 as Mitch Wise made the run on the backstretch to assume the lead. Wise, however, was not able to build a significant lead on Dowling and the duo continued their battle while being stalked by other challengers. While Dowling's car refused to win, Dowling refused to lose. The leaders made contact late in the race and Wise cut a left rear tire, ending his ride. Dowling held off Jeff Terrell in the remaining two laps to take a hard-earned win. Mike Wells finished in the show position and was trailed by Al Robinson and Chris Mimbs.
Jason Lowe almost had it all in Modifieds. After disposing of polesitter J. O. Nobles, Lowe opened up a full straightaway lead over the field. Marion Sizemore finally overcame Nobles for second, but desperately needed a caution as he had no prayer of catching Lowe in the open. A late race caution gave Sizemore his chance and a mistake by Lowe allowed Marion to capitalize on the moment and take his second feature in a row in 2002. A wild scramble behind the leaders shuffled the deck and the third through fifth finishers were Gary Sexton, Robby Barris, and Kenny Blair.
Bobby Layman joined the ranks of two time winners in 2002 as he took advantage of mistakes and attrition to run off with the Street Stock win. John Reiter was the best of the rest with Billy Costello, Steve Wortman, and Tony Ross filling out the top five.
The Pure Stocks ran a bumbling, fumbling 20-lap feature. The caution-plagued race saw few stretches of green flag laps as the same few cars couldn't find a handle on the track. Ken Durham continues to be the man to beat as he took his second feature of the season and has also won 5 of the last 6 Pure Stock features. Mike Tripp again played the role of bridesmaid as he pressured Durham but could not make a race-winning run. Roy Strickland finished a strong third closely follwed by Mike Durham and Kevin Byers Jr.
Mike Gibbs raced past Casey Murphy on lap 5 and looked strong in taking Mini Stock honors. Art Souther hung in for second over Steve Thompson, Ralph Brooks, and John Hopke.
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