Eldora Speedway | 13929
St Route 118 | New Weston | OH | 45348
For immediate news release e-mail: mail@eldoraspeedway.com
BLONDE’S
FIRST ELDORA WIN SHORT LIVED
Rossburg, OH (Oct. 3) – Probably the
only thing more miserable than the weather Saturday night
at Eldora Speedway was probably the feeling that Chad Blonde
had when a post-race inspection found his car to be illegal
and he had to forfeit his first-ever Eldora victory. As a
result of the disqualification, the NRA (National Racing Alliance)
Sprint win was handed over to Darren Long. Other winners during
the UNOH (University of Northwestern Ohio) Sprintacular were
Todd Heuerman (305 Sprints), Mike Dirksen (Stock Cars) and
Jack Dossey (Legends).
Long
overcame Jessica Zemken to take the early lead in the 25-lap
NRA finale, with Rob Chaney joining him up front. Chaney wasted
little time to take over the lead from Long and appeared to
have things pretty much his way.
Things
turned sour for Chaney on a mid-race restart, when Long executed
an Eldora ‘slide job’ into turn one and defensively
blocked Chaney to take the lead. Throughout all of this, Blonde
was running third; allowing the front runners to battle themselves.
It took
yet another restart when Blonde kicked it into high gear and
powered to the front. Running high up against the wall, Blonde
was running to perfection, with the ability to slice through
lapped traffic at will. Long and Chaney closed during the
waning laps of the chase, but were unable to mount the necessary
challenge to overtake Blonde.
As the
checkered flag loomed, Butch Schroeder joined the front runners,
to make for a tight finish, but that foursome ended that way
with quick qualifier Cale Conley crossing the line fifth.
With Long’s failure to meet the NRA engine specs, everyone
was moved up one in the finish.
Making
their annual Eldora visit, the 305 Sprints from Attica Raceway
Park and Fremont Speedway, put on a spirited battle in their
20-lap finale. Bobby Clark, John Ivy and Stewart Brubaker
were the front-runners in the early chase, with multiple groove
runs.
That
trio changed quickly when Clark developed engine woes down
the front chute and dropped quickly off the pace. The rapid
slow down collected multiple cars and resulted in a lengthy
caution period. That allowed Clark to return to action, but
once the race resumed he again returned to the pits.
That
put Ivy back out in front, but it didn’t take Heuerman
long to inherit the top spot. Ivy refused to give up, and
while that battle pursued, D. J. Foos was moving up quickly
through the field, running higher on the track than anyone
else. He soon disposed of Ivy and set his sights on Heuerman,
but time was against him and he had to settle for runner-up
honors. Ivy came home third, followed closely by Steve Rando
and Coty Runion.
Mike
Dirksen’s win was one of the toughest this year for
the defending champion. While he led from start to finish,
the pack behind him was relentless. Doug Tieman, Barney Craig,
Rob Trent and Scott Bowersock rode bumper to bumper and often
side by side in their efforts to overcome Dirksen, but ended
up crossing the finish line in that order.
Jack
Dossey had never seen Eldora Speedway before Saturday night,
but picked up the Legends ride and decided to give it a chance.
He took to the track like a duck to water and drove a flawless
race to capture a convincing win. While Dossey was comfortable
up front, behind him was a quick moving Tony Steffen. Steffen
had started deep in the field, but picked up cars lap after
lap to eventually move into second. Dossey’s pace was
just too torrid for Steffen and had to settle for second at
the line. Following them were Matt Nichols, Al Renner and
James Edsal.
