MONKEY
OFF OF SMITH’S BACK, IN ELDORA VICTORY LANE 12 YEARS
LATER
ROSSBURG,
OH (June 19) – Twelve years of frustration came to
an end for Shaun Smith Saturday night at Eldora Speedway
as he finally found his way back into Eldora’s revered
victory lane by virtue of his UMP (United Midwestern Promoters)
Modified feature win. Mike Dirksen also ended his minor
dry spell with his Stock Car triumph, while John Large entered
his name into the record books on the The Home Depot sponsored
night as the first-ever Circle Track Truck Series feature
winner.
While Smith looked good in his heat race win, things began
to look even better when the pill draw for the feature inversion
was a one. That put Smith on the outside pole of the 18-lap
affair, with heat one winner Jesse Bitterling on the inside
pole.
Bitterling has two Eldora wins to his credit thus far into
the 2010 campaign, but the Smith’s burst of horsepower
coming down for the start, jolted him into the lead, a position
he was to hold to the finish.
While the score sheets show him leading from start to finish,
it wasn’t all that easy.
Bitterling and Tony Anderson mounted some early pressure,
before a rapidly improving Brian Post joined the fray to
make for a four-car chase up front. And while that foursome
has their own battle going, Jon Henry was storming his way
through the field from his 11th starting position to move
into fifth by lap five.
The diligent Henry shot past Post on lap nine to take over
fourth, and two laps later overtook Anderson for third.
With lapped traffic coming into play, Smith was undaunted,
while Bitterling had his hands full trying to hold back
Henry. The rapid pace was halted with a red flag situation
two laps from the finish, as David Treon crashed hard into
the first turn wall; collecting Anderson and Justin Matson
with him. There were no injuries, but all three cars were
towed away and done for the night.
On the restart, Henry pulled off a slick slide job in turn
one to take over runner-up honors and just ran out of time
to pull off the win. The jubilant Smith finished ahead of
Henry, Bitterling, Post and Todd Sherman.
After a disappointing third place finish in his heat race,
Dirksen was all smiles with the feature inversion pill was
a nine. That put the three-time champion on the pole for
the main event.
As expected, when the green flag dropped, Dirksen jumped
into the lead, while Jerrid Back rode in second, followed
by former champion Shawn Phillippi and Earnie Woodard.
Woodard was the first to make a move, as he jumped into
third on lap 3, bringing with him Doug Tiemann. Two laps
later, Woodard overtook Back for second, and he began to
reel in Dirksen.
Tiemann’s battle with Back resulted in the two coming
together on the backstretch, and a move to the rear of the
field on the restart.
That left Woodard to do battle with Dirksen, and he almost
got the job done; having pulled up alongside him multiple
times. However, as has been the case several times this
season, mechanical issues dropped Woodard off the pace and
into the pits for quick repairs.
With Woodard’s departure and the Back/Tiemann collision,
Anthony Goode moved into second and drove a flawless race
to the finish to record his best-ever Eldora score. Rob
Trent came home third, followed by Keith Ralston and Dean
Pitts.
Large battled with Kyle Cline right to the finish, but when
the checkered flags flew, it was Large by mere inches as
the finish line. Following the duo to the checkers were
Scott Gray, Kevin Potts and Tom Garlick.
