Saturday night at Bronson Speedway Richard Elkins Jr. demonstrated why he loves this racetrack. With 20 entries for the 50 lap Southern Sportsman race, there were several cars that had very good reason to be confident at this race.
Practice times were looking very quick, and it appeared that qualifying would be very competitive.
Elkins turned the trick, setting fast time, followed closely by Craig Cuzzone, Steve Gainey, Joey Catarelli, and Roger Welch in the top 5. After the cars cleared tech, Elkins pulled a zero for the inversion, starting the field heads up by qualifying time.
The field of Sportsman Racers came to the green flag with Elkins and Cuzzone on the front row, Gainey and Catarelli right behind in row two. Row 3 was filled by Welch and Ronnie Heard Jr., followed by Arthur Conquest, Mark Peterson, Derrik Heath, and Shelton Bowers roundingout the top ten starting spots. When the green flag waved to begin the 50 lap feature, Elkins and Cuzzone raced into turn 1 side by side. A little bumping, a few sparks, and Elkins came out of turn 2 with the lead followed by Steve Gainey and Cuzzone.
As the leaders completed lap 1, the 21C got turned around in turn 3, with several cars winding up stopped against the wall and each other trying to avoid the spinning car.
After the track was cleared, all cars involved were able to continue with only minor damage. The field was reset for the restart with Elkins out front, followed by Gainey, Cuzzone, Catarelli and Welch in the top 5 spots. On the restart, the 78 of local favorite Arthur Conquest failed to come up to speed, and entered the pits with terminal engine problems.
The rest of the field continued to battle for position, with no favors being shown. By lap 10, Heard had worked his way into the #4 spot, while Gainey was trying every lane on the race track, looking for a way around Elkins for the lead. The leaders started to encounter lapped traffic about lap 15, and things got very dicey in the front of the pack. Lap 20 had the top 5 still in the same order, as lapped traffic was keeping the leaders on their toes, and not allowing any room for passing.
The caution flag was displayed once again on lap 25, for the 02 of Mike Baker spinning in turn 3.The field was reset for the restart, and when the green flag waved again, things turned ugly. The cars of Chris Peludat and Shelton Bowers made contact on the front stretch, resulting in Peludat hitting the turn 1 wall very hard.
The pack behind them fared no better, as the cars of Derrik Heath and Chad Cushing collided with Heath ending up on top of the wall after a very hard hit. Heath was checked out by the EMT’s, and released. The field was red flagged while the track was cleared and drivers attended to.
On the restart, Elkins began to assert his power somewhat, as he was able to open a slight lead on the car of Gainey. The car of Catarelli was drifting toward the rear, as Catarelli had broken a rear suspension component, and had his hands full with an ill handling racecar. Lap 40 had Elkins running strong in the lead, followed by Gainey, Cuzzone, Heard and Mark Peterson.
As the laps wound down toward the finish, Cuzzone turned up the heat on Gainey, trying to take over second position. The two cars rubbed several times, with Gainey driving off turn 4 sideways to maintain control of his car. Elkins ran to a strong win, with Gainey and Cuzzone following. After the top finishers cleared tech inspection, the race was declared official.
Final Results Southern Sportsman Series. Bronson Speedway
