[sprinter14]

Westerfeld Steals Atomic Cash With Late Pass

A beautiful fall Saturday evening that felt more like summer, greeted the fans and competitors at Atomic Speedway Saturday night for the Rick's Trucks & Equipment BOSS sprint car event. Atomic promoter, Brad McCown, had the ultra fast - high banked 3/8 mile prepared to perfection and the last true outlaws of auto racing put on another fantastic feature event. Defending BOSS champion, Shawn Westerfeld of Guilford, Indiana, emerged victorious after a great race long battle with Todd Kane.

A nice field of 25 cars signed in for competition in 3 heat races. BOSS rookie driver Stratton Briggs known as the "Anna Earthquake" from Anna, Ohio scored his first ever sprint car heat race win in Buckeye Machine & Fab heat race #1. The Lias Tire / American Racer heat #2 was won by Carmen Perigo from Stoystown, Pennsylvania holding off a hard charging Todd Kane. Hoosier Tire heat #3 was the race of the night at Shawn Westerfeld showed why he is known as "The Guilford Gasser" from Guilford, Indiana. Starting 7th in the field, Westerfeld raced up to 3rd place very quickly behind Chad Wilson and Cooper Clouse. The red flag flew for Andy Feil who, for the second straight Atomic event, had an encounter with the turn 3 wall. This time Feil flipped up on top of the wall, into the catch fencing, then was tossed back onto the track. Feil was unhurt but the restart was all Westerfeld needed to gas his way to the win, serving notice he was the man to beat on this night.

The Superior Bearing and Supply B-Main event found local winged driver Jesse McCreary scoring his first ever wingless preliminary event win. In only his second career wingless start, McCreary blasted from his outside pole starting position and never looked back cruising to the 10 lap win with Cody Gardner, Rick Holley, Lance Webb and Rick Fraley also transferring.

The Rick's Trucks & Equipment redraw put Todd Kane on the pole for the 25 lap main event, much to the delight of the Atomic crowd. Westerfeld would start alongside Kane for a titanic battle on the point. Stratton Briggs and Matt Cooley made up row #2 with Adam Strausser and Dustin Smith in row 3. Cooper Clouse, Carmen Perigo and Chad Wilson completed the top 9 redraw starting spots.

The 20 car main event field roared to the green flag with Kane getting the jump on Westerfeld and rode the rim of the race track in the iconic yellow Charlie Brown #99. Westerfeld was content to track Kane early as the dogfight was on in the pack with slide jobs for everyone! The race's first caution flag flew working lap #8 for Bobby Distel whose right front was damaged after contact with another car. Just 2 laps later, the race's only other caution flew when rookie wingless driver Rick Fraley spun to a stop. Fraley parked the #3F car and under the caution, Steve Little also pulled to the infield with a flat left front.

Back under green, it was Kane still leading over Westerfeld. However, it was the FOR racing team cars that were on the move as 10th starting Michael Fischesser and 11th starting Justin Owen charged through the pack to get to the lead battle. As the laps wound down, the gaps tightened to the point the top 3 were nose to tail, Kane, Westerfeld and the charging Fischesser. Just when it looked like another magical finish was in store for the Atomic / BOSS fans, the lead trio entered heavy lapped traffic. Westerfeld was able to make the winning move on Kane on lap #19 and the heavy traffic somewhat separated the podium finishers as Kane held on for second.

Shawn Westerfeld, aboard the Orrville Wright Motorsports #89, led the final 6 laps to score his 3rd BOSS win of the year and propel him well on his way to a historic back-to-back BOSS championship. Kane held off the charging Michael Fischesser for 2nd place with Fischesser's teammate Justin Owen and Dustin Smith rounding out the top 5. Cooper Clouse, Matt Cooley, Stratton Briggs, Carmen Perigo and Chad Wilson completed the top 10. The main event for sprint cars was completed before 10 pm thanks to the well run program of 5 classes and well over 100 cars in the pit area.

BOSS now moves on to Fremont Speedway this Saturday, October 1st. The season will conclude on October 8th at Eldora Speedway. We hope to see you out at one of these 2 great events! Watch for more information on the BOSS website and be sure to tune in for Buckeye Machine "Throwback Thursday" each and every Thursday. It can also be found on the BOSS facebook page.


Event #20 of 22
Atomic Speedway
Sunday, September 24, 2016
Starting Position[*]

Buckeye Machine of Forest, OH Heat 1 - (8 Laps, Top 5 to A)
1. 71-Stratton Briggs[1] ; 2. 40x-Adam Strausser[4] ; 3. 77-Dustin Smith[7] ; 4. 4-Michael Fischesser[9] ; 5. 91x-Aaron Middaugh[5] ; 6. A97-Cody Gardner[3] ; 7. 8-Lewie Christian[8] ; 8. 25-Eric Semple[2] ; 9. 86-Rick Holley[6]

Lias Tire / American Racer Heat 2 - (8 Laps, Top 5 to A)
1. 21-Carmen Perigo[2] ; 2. 99-Todd Kane[5] ; 3. 19-Matt Cooley[7] ; 4. 4J-Justin Owen[8] ; 5. 18D-Bobby Distel[1] ; 6. 9J-Jesse McCreary[3] ; 7. 9-Lance Webb[4] ; 8. 22D-Josh Davis[DNS]

Hoosier Race Tire Heat 3 - (8 Laps, Top 5 to A)
1. 89-Shawn Westerfeld[7] ; 2. 14-Chad Wilson[1] ; 3. 14c-Cooper Clouse[3] ; 4. 53-Steve Little[6] ; 5. 5-Bob McMillin[8] ; 6. 3-Joe Butera[5] ; 7. 3F-Rick Fraley[2] ; 8. 08-Andy Feil[4]

Superior Bearing & Supply B-Main - (10 Laps, Top 5 to A)
1. 9J-Jesse McCreary[2] ; 2. A97-Cody Gardner[1] ; 3. 86-Rick Holley[9] ; 4. 9-Lance Webb[5] ; 5. 3F-Rick Fraley[6] ; 6. 25-Eric Semple[7] ; 7. 3-Joe Butera[3] ; 8. 8-Lewie Christian[4] ; 9. 08-Andy Feil[DNS] ; 10. 22D-Josh Davis[DNS]

Rick's Trucks and Equipment of Kenton, OH A-Main - (25 Laps)
1. 89-Shawn Westerfeld[2] ; 2. 99-Todd Kane[1] ; 3. 4-Michael Fischesser[10] ; 4. 4J-Justin Owen[11] ; 5. 77-Dustin Smith[6] ; 6. 14c-Cooper Clouse[7] ; 7. 19-Matt Cooley[4] ; 8. 71-Stratton Briggs[3] ; 9. 21-Carmen Perigo[8] ; 10. 14-Chad Wilson[9] ; 11. 91x-Aaron Middaugh[13] ; 12. 9J-Jesse McCreary[16] ; 13. A97-Cody Gardner[17] ; 14. 5-Bob McMillin[15] ; 15. 40x-Adam Strausser[5] ; 16. 86-Rick Holley[18] ; 17. 9-Lance Webb[19] ; 18. 53-Steve Little[12] ; 19. 3F-Rick Fraley[20] ; 20. 18D-Bobby Distel[14]

The Bridge Restaurant of Sidney, OH - $50 Hard Charger - Michael Fischesser +7

The JF Construction of Bucyrus, OH - $50 Hard Luck Award - Eric Semple

The Hochstetler Trucking of Ashland, OH - $50 Perseverance Award - Michael Fischesser

The A Plus Automatic Transmission of Mansfield, OH - $50 Steel Block Bonus - Matt Cooley

The Apple Metal Polishing of Eldorodo, OH - $50 Lucky Pill Draw - Andy Feil

The McMillin Apiaries of Wampum, PA - $25 Sweet Move of the Night - Justin Owen

Lias Tire / American Racer of Indiana, PA - Free American Racer Tire - Michael Fischesser

Hoosier Racing Tire of Lakeville, IN - Free Hoosier Tire - Shawn Westerfeld