Princeton Speedway Season Opener Recap

A huge crowd was on hand for opening night of the 2015 season that was headlined by the Super Late Models. Seventy-eight total cars filled the pits to put on an exciting show for the fans. The fans would not leave disappointed.

The Super Lates headlined the night in an event that could have been named “The Battle of the Virginias” as there were five drivers signed in from West Virginia and four drivers from Virginia. West Virginia would dominate Virginia in the qualifying session taking all the top five spots. Ricky Williams would set fast time. Williams went on to win heat one and Chris Meadows took heat two. The feature was marked by a long green flag run after Marion, Virginia’s Travis Greer brought out a caution on lap one. We would see green flag racing prevail for a long time. Chris Meadows took the early lead with Williams battling side by side with him. Meadows was committed to the high side and Williams to the low. Early on Mark Sturgill and David Watts began working their way through the field from their 5th and 6th starting spots. They settled into 3rd and 4th respectively. Further back in the pack Joe Cox, Brandon Carter, and CS Fitzgerald battled it out for the 5th spot. After many laps of working on the position Fitzgerald settled into 5th spot getting by Carter and Cox. Fitzgerald was then turning the fastest laps of any car on the track before overheating and bringing out a caution on lap 21. Meadows would choose the high side for the restart. Williams gave him all he had, but Meadows would prevail for the win with Williams finishing 2nd. Watts got by Sturgill on the restart giving him the 3rd place finish and Sturgill would bring 4th home. Rounding out the top 5 was Joe Cox.

Also on the card were the AMRA Open Wheel Modifieds. They brought 9 strong cars and only one sport mod showed up, so he ran with them as well giving us an even 10 in the field. Tate Hughes would lay down a blistering fast lap to have the pole for the night. Hughes would also take the win in heat one and Mike Duncan would win a caution filled heat two. With the start of the feature Duncan took the high side he had been running all night and had no intentions of ever looking back. Hughes was running the middle groove giving it all he had to keep up. Brent Moye would spin on lap 8 bringing out a caution and the need for the new double file restart. Duncan would choose the high line putting Hughes on the low groove. As the powered into turn one on the restart Hughes would lose it and collect Jason Cochran, Trey Compton, and Tennessee’s Blake Terry. The only one that was able to continue on from that was Trey Compton. The field would re-rack with David Godfrey now on the inside of Duncan, but he would be no challenge for him. Duncan would cruise to victory with Godfrey finishing 2nd and Feucthenberger 3rd. Trey Compton would bring his sport mod home 4th with a very strong showing and Brent Moye would round out the top 5.

The FASTRAK Pro Late Models would have the biggest field of the night as nineteen cars were signed in. Henry Hornsby III would blister the old track record for the pro lates setting the pole. The heats would be won by Hornsby, Ashley Brewster, and Matt Bennett with his first every win of any kind. The feature would be caution filled with an event that could not even get started as it took five attempts to even get a lap in. Once the event got started we saw 13 laps of green flag racing. Hornsby showed to be the strongest car, but Eddie Hambrick was hanging right with him. As the leaders caught the tail of the field things got interesting. The lapped cars of Mike Huffman and Justin Martin were battling for position. Hornsby let up to try and figure out how to pass them and Hambrick made one of the best moves you will ever see in racing going by Hornsby and splitting the two lapped cars right down the middle. A caution would fly shortly thereafter as TJ Salango tangled with Huffman’s lapped car. On the restart Hornsby would beat Hambrick to turn one and resume the lead. A caution would come back out again on the next lap, so Hambrick would have another shot at Hornsby, but to no avail. Hornsby then went on to take the win with Hambrick bringing home second. Rounding out the top 5 were Michael Bland, Aaron Barley, and Ashley Brewster.

The Outlaw Modifieds had a strong field of nine cars for the first night out. The heats were won by David Ferreira and Doug Feuchenberger. Unfortunately Feuchenberger would not be able to make the call for the feature though. Ferreira took the early lead and looked as if he were going to dominate the caution free feature, but mid-race Freddy Mooney had other plans as he took the lead and would never look back. Ferreira would end up finishing 2nd. Rounding out the top 5 were rookie Miki Murphy, Dunbar’s Kevin Woodall, and Pete Stump.

The Street Stocks had 11 cars in attendance. Hank Stover would win heat one and Brandon Belcher would take heat two. Stover and Belcher would battle hard to start the feature before failure on Belcher’s car cutting his night short. Stover would go on to win the feature in dominating fashion. Gentry Cline would bring home 2nd. Rounding out the top 5 were James Lilly, Derek McMillion, and the rookie Brandon Adkins.

Nine of the Pro Minis showed up for the first night out to put on a good show for the fans. Jeremy Finley would win heat one and Tyler Meadows heat two. In the feature Finley would not be denied. He took the win with Meadows hot on his heels the whole event taking 2nd. The 5th place starter Teddy Richardson would bring home 3rd in his Toyota. 4th would go to Tim Black and 5th to Jody Harmon.

Only 4 U-Cars would show up 3 of which were the Rayne’s brothers. The other “Buckshot” Blake Ellis. With the new rule being enforced of six cars or less in a class they only got to run a feature for the night. Buckshot took the lead and had no intentions of looking back in the caution free race. In a pass at the line on the last lap of his brother Patrick Raynes would take 2nd followed by Jesse Raynes in 3rd. The rookie Harley Raynes would round out the field with a good showing in his rookie debut.

The new class, the Mini Wedges, put on a very exciting show in their first time out. A tough break for Degan Williams took the rookie driver out on lap one. A battle through the whole event between Logan Bryant, Max Price, and Blake Basham made for one exciting mini wedge event. Bryant would take the win with Price and Basham bringing home 2nd and 3rd respectively. Rounding out the top 5 were Trent Salango and Logan Collins.

Princeton Speedway would like to thank all the fans, drivers, and teams for coming out and supporting the first race of 2015. We’d like to give a special thanks to all our sponsors who help make the events possible week in and week out. We’d also like to give a special thank you to Charlotte and Dan from Legendary Hilltop for coming down and helping us promote our races at their track. Also a thank you to Angie and Mike Haught who came down to see all our AMRA drivers and do such a great job with the AMRA series.