[nowingsjeff]

Brenden Bright Shines in ARDC Midgets with Williams Grove Win

Brendan Bright, the 2011 ARDC Rookie of the Year, bounced back from a disappointing season opener to win his first of the 2012 season at the prestigious Williams Grove Speedway.

Bright was unable to even take the green flag when ARDC opened their season several weeks ago but he made up for lost time with wins in both his heat and feature at Williams Grove from pole position starts. While the front row starts were certainly an advantage, Bright led every lap he raced, surrounded by some of the biggest names in ARDC racing – Smith, Buckwalter and Arndt.

The last thing that Ted Bright said to his son and driver before the start of the race was, “Don’t overdrive the first turn.” With Ryan Smith and Steve Buckwalter right on his tail from the drop of the green flag, those words of advice were hard to follow! Both Smith and S. Buckwalter are past winners of ARDC events at Williams Grove.

It took several attempts to get lap one on the books but the remaining nineteen laps produced some great wheel to wheel racing.

Steve Craig and Carey Becker were involved in a turn three incident when Becker lost the brakes on his #14. Alex Bright had a problem in turn one on the next go round and required the services of a wrecker. Dave Ely also exited to the pit area on this caution.

Bright remained on the point on the restart as S. Buckwalter challenged Smith for second and Parker Evans and PJ Gargiulo battled for the fourth spot. Brett Arndt lost positions as he struggled with a malfunctioning engine.

When Jimmy Glenn brought out the caution after the completion of five laps, Steve Craig and 2011 ARDC Champion, Drew Heistand headed to the pits.

On the restart, Smith took a look to the inside of Bright’s #88 while Trevor Kobylarz battled Steven Drevicki for fifth. By lap nine, Gargiulo had both Kobylarz and Tim Buckwalter challenging. At the half way mark, Bright held the lead followed by Smith, S. Buckwalter, Evans and T. Buckwalter.

At times, Bright was able to pull away from the field by several car lengths while the second through fifth positions were being hotly contested but his comfort level was short lived as Smith and S. Buckwalter would join be on his tail once again.

Billy Pauch Jr. brought out the caution on lap eleven when he was unable to get his disabled Burke Trucking entry off of the track.

After starting in the fifteenth position, T. Buckwalter joined the charge as he took over fourth from Evans just past the half way mark.

Smith had S. Buckwalter to his outside as the pair not only battled for second but looked for racing room to take the lead. On laps fourteen and fifteen, Smith pulled even with Bright in the corners. The pair raced side by side with Bright showing a slight advantage on the long straigtaways.

As the leaders dueled, T. Buckwalter caught the top three and made it a four way battle to the finish. The top four cars were side by side and nose to tail for the final laps of the race.

Coming to the checkered flag, S. Buckwalter made a move to the outside. Bright took the checkered flag first with S. Buckwalter edging Smith at the finish line for second. Fourth went to opening day winner, T. Buckwalter with Kobylarz finishing fifth.

It was clearly a night to remember for the second year driver from Collegeville, PA. Bright talked about the race from his perspective. “I ran the middle of the track in the beginning,” Bright explained. “Toward the end, I was just about standing up in the car to slow it down. Smith got underneath me a couple of times. After that I tried the bottom and it worked for me to run down there.”

Rick Wean finished sixth followed by Eric Heydenreich, Evans and Gargiulo.

Another young ARDC driver had a good outing at Williams Grove. Starting scratch on the feature field, rookie Brett Wanner came home with a tenth place finish in his second outing with ARDC.

The three qualifying heats were won by B. Bright, Arndt and S. Buckwalter.

RACE NOTES
Rookie Brian Gilmore, the younger brother of second year ARDC driver, Mark Gilmore, made his ARDC debut after celebrating his sixteenth birthday. Also making their first starts of the 2012 season were Bear, DE driver, Shawn Jackson and Billy Pauch Jr. On what was a cold and windy night for racing, Bruce Buckwalter Jr. had more heat than he wanted or needed when the engine in the #83 left go during warm-ups. A fire broke out but extinguished itself quickly as Buckwalter tried to exit the car.


Feature Finish (20 laps)
1. Brenden Bright 2. Steve Buckwalter 3. Ryan Smith 4. Tim Buckwalter 5. Trevor Kobylarz 6. NIck Wean 7. Eric Heydenreich 8. Parker Evans 9. PJ Gargiulo 10. Brett Wanner 11. Brett Arndt 12. Dave Shirk 13. Mark Gilmore 14. Randy Reid 15. Brian Gilmore 16. Steven Drevicki 17. Billy Pauch Jr. 18. Steve Craig 19. Drew Heistand 20. Jimmy Glenn 21. Dusty Heistand 22. Dave Ely 23. Alex Bright 24. Carey Becker 25. Ryan Greth DNS – Shawn Jackson

[davidm]

Some excellent photos by Tony De Seta of ARDC action at Williams Grove Friday.

http://www.jacksracephotos.net/4-27-2012-WG-ARDC.html

[tamale wagon]

highlights from ARDC midgets from Williams Grove Speedway April 27 2012, enjoy!