One Thousand Reasons For Morey To Be Happy At 250 Speedway

On a fall like evening at the end of August, 250 Speedway played host to the final TSMA sanctioned event of the 2010 season and it turned out to be another outstanding evening. Two of our five point battles are all but sealed up and our closest battle got even closer. We also had another first at “The Wide Oval”, one driver winning back to back features…..on the same night! Fifty eight made the tow to the speedway with another spectacular crowd showing their support.

The main event of the evening was the $1,000 to win, 30 lap TSMA Modified show. Heat race one and two winner’s Corey Conley in the #14C and Matt Aber in the #70 brought the field in for Chief Starter Keith Decker’s green flag. Aber was able to make the top side work off the start and grab the early advantage over Conley and the #2K of Aaron Morey. After a lap one caution for a spin by the #23S of Jason Stewart, we had an awesome three-way battle for the top spot. The top three were going at it like their kids college tuition depended on it. Racers could run high, low or in the middle of the speedway, track officials did another tremendous job with the racing surface. Conley was finally able to finally maneuver past Aber with a nice move in lapped traffic on lap ten. As Aber was reeling the #14C back in, he got caught behind one of the back markers and ended up sliding into the turn three fence. With very little or no damage, Aber was able to continue and would put on a show, climbing back into the top five before another spin would send him to the house just after half way. The race within the race was a good one as well, current runner-up in points Rob Melzer in the #23M was in the top 5 most of the night and was doing just what he needed to do, stay in front of the #21J. Point leader ”The Stalker” Jon Sluka in that #21J seemed to find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time all night. The first hiccup would be a spin in turn #2 on lap thirteen while running in the seventh position. At the halfway mark, the battle for the lead remained a great one with Conley out front and Morey all over his deck lid. Finally getting the run he needed down the back straightaway, Morey drove his machine to the bottom of the race track to make the pass. As Morey slipped past, Conley would make contact with the turn three wall, breaking a right rear shock in the process, ending his night way too early. That would move last week’s feature winner “Lucky” Lou Krushansky to the second spot with Mitch Basich in the #B55, Melzer and the #65 of Bruce Takach rounding out the top 5. After a few more cautions in the later stages of the event, Morey was able to gap the field a little bit each time and keeping all challengers at bay. The final incident of the evening would involve Takach and “The Stalker” who got tangled in turn four battling for fifth. With Melzer slipping back to seventh with an ill handling machine, it looked like Sluka could pad his point lead before the incident, but lady luck wasn’t riding in the #21J on this night. He would be relegated to an eighth place finish and see his point lead all but evaporate with two weeks to go. Back up front, it was all Morey after the final green flag flew as he was able to pull out to a five car length or so victory in his first visit to “Ohio’s Place To Sling Dirt”. He vowed in victory lane that he had a thousand reasons to return more often next year and said he really loved the race track, praising track owners and officials. Following The Pataskala, OH driver in the #2K was Krushansky, Basich, Jim Plance and Hard Charger Chris Basich who raced his way in from the B-main and a fourteenth starting position to round out the top five. The second five was Melzer, Bill Westlake, Sluka, Kurt Waller and Mark Sambuco completing the top 10 spots.

Next up was another outstanding performance by the 4-Cylinder field. Starting on the front row for the fifteen lap event was heat race winners and current one/two in points Scotty Bush in the #95 and Brandon Welker in the #66. Each and every week, Welker and his team continue to make improvements to the #66 machine and he has been knocking on the door the last few weeks, would tonight finally be the night? Welker was able to race out front with Bush surprisingly sliding all the way back to the fifth position off the start. Welker, the #16 of Mike Seifert and last week’s feature winner Andy Parks in the #EZ1 were locked into an exciting battle for the top spot. On lap four, Parks was able to get around Seifert and set his sights on the leader. Corner after corner Parks would hound the second year driver until he was finally able to make the outside pass in lapped traffic as Welker would almost lose his racer off turn four at the halfway mark. Just past halfway, the only caution of the event flew for Don Rufner, Jr. in turn three as the veteran from the asphalt world is starting to get the hang of this dirt track stuff, just needs some luck to go with it. After the restart, Parks was able to get a great jump and dispose the rest field to pick up another victory at 250 Speedway. Welker would be left holding the bouquet again, wondering if he will be able to finally walk down the aisle before seasons end. All was not lost though for Brandon, he was able to pick up some valuable points and remain in the fight for the championship. Following the Coshocton, OH driver in the #EZ1 was Welker, Seifert, Dan Rummes and Bush.

Heat race winners Tory Gibbs in the Mike Powell owned and point leading #71 and Matt Wallick in the #14M brought the field in for the start. Wallick was able to get a great start and race his machine out front in the early going with Rich Schweitzer in the #84 slotting into second. On lap two, “The Digger” dug too hard for the lead in turn one and looped his #84 machine around, dropping him to the 7th spot. That allowed Gibbs to creep back up on the rear bumper of the #14M. Wallick would put up a valiant effort, but no one has had anything for Gibbs over the last month and a half. Gibbs would end up sailing off into the sunset with a full straightaway victory and an almost insurmountable point lead. Three drivers put on a great show for the runner-up spot over the final 5 circuits and on the last lap, Schweitzer made it a 4-way. The four would continue to race hard around lapped traffic to the finish. Behind the Port Washington, OH driver in the Mike Powell #71, Wallick was able to claim the second position over Rob Scott, Rich Frohnaple, and Schweitzer completing the top 5. In victory lane, Gibbs expressed how bad he wants to wrap up this championship and present that nice trophy to Mike. Providing a catastrophe, he is going to be able to do just that. But first, he would have to hop out of the #71 and right into his #10 for 15 more circuits……..

The final feature of the evening was the 15 lap Super Sport feature with the #10 of Tory Gibbs, looking for the double on the night with point leader Glen “Trouble” Richea in the #77R along side. Gibbs was able to slide out front with “Trouble” right in his tire tracks. After a couple early cautions for spins by Scott Jones in the #93, the top three would again wage a great battle. Gibbs had the advantage of the clean air out front but Richea and the #8T of “Just Win” Tim Rager were all over the back of the leader like flies on a cow patty. Trying the leader high and low, the duo was trying everything in the book, but Gibbs looked like he took advantage of having 15 more laps on the Speedway and started to pull away by the fourth circuit. As the laps clicked away, Gibbs started to open up the distance by about a half straightaway and Rager continued to put heavy heat on the Richea machine for the runner-up spot. On lap ten, the caution flew for the #2 of Sam Clegg who stopped in the pit chute. With Clegg running fourth and still in good position to keep the pressure on Richea for the title, the mechanical issue hurts real bad and just about seals the championship for “Trouble”. On lap thirteen a nasty accident involving the #19 of first time participant Bill Raymond caused a brief red flag, thankfully he was A-OK, can’t say that about his racer. After the final restart, Gibbs was able to distance himself from Richea and Rager again until the #8T machine spun in turn two. Rager was able to keep his machine running but would fall out of the top 5. Gibbs was able to get his machine to work on both ends of the race track, where Richea seemed to be good in only three and four. Gibbs was able to bring home a first at 250 Speedway, back to back wins in back to back races on the same night! That’s a pretty special feat that isn’t often accomplished. Following the Port Washington, OH driver to the line was Richea, Jim Hess, Rich Dessecker and Joe Thomas.

There are only two weeks left in the 2010 Season, so be sure to join us as next week as we will feature regular racing action with all 5 divisions plus a mechanic’s race at the end of the evening. Make sure you visit 250speedway.com or ohiovalleydtr.com for all the latest news and information from “Ohio’s Place to Sling Dirt”.
-Chris “Hot Rod” Kail, “The Echo on The Lake”.