BOSS at Richmond Raceway Sat
 

22 Sprinters in the house.

Sprint cars on the track at 6:50.

Heat 1

4j Justin Owen
3 Joe Butera
87 Paul Dues
23s Kyle Simon
24L Lee Underwood
12 Ted Hines
51Curtis Mulenkamp
41 Cole Ketchum


Heat 2

53 Steve Little
44 Joe Ligouri
44f Michael Fischesser
9g Cody Gardner
31 Buddy Lowther
18 Dallas Hewitt
42 Tilton


Heat 3

82 Mike Miller
77 Kory Crabtree (in Dustin Smiths car)
6 Bill Rose
19 Matt Cooley
5 Bob McMillin
96 Riley Van Hise
14 Chad Wilson

Based on his tweets, Dustin smith was looking for a ride for this race. I would guess he is no longer involved with the 77 ,but I am only speculating.

Heat Race Finishes:

1st

23s Simon
4j Owen
87 Dues
24L Underwood
3 Butera
51 Mulenkamp
12 Hines
41 Ketchum

Lap 3 Ketchum did a half roll after contact with another car.

Heat 2

9g Gardner
44f Fischesser
44 Ligouri
18 Hewitt
42 Tilton
53 Little
31 Lowther

3 different leaders

Heat 3

82 Miller
19 Cooley
77 Crabtree
6 Rose
96 Van Hise
14 Wilson
5 McMillan

Feature Starting Lineup

87 Dues
4j Owen
44f Fischesser
9g Gardner
44 Ligouri
23s Simon
77 Crabtree
19 Cooley
82 Miller
24l Underwood
18 Hewitt
6 Rose
3 Butera
42 Tilton
96 Van Hise
51 Mulenkamp
53 Little
14 Wilson
12 Hines
31l Lowther
5 McMillan
41 Ketchum

L4 Red. Ketchum upside down in Turn 3

Top 5

Dues
Owen
Fischesser
Cooley
Simon

L15 Red. Gardner Butera & Underwood get together in turn 2. Little on the hook with damage. Fischesser was turned around in turn 1. Hewitt parked in the infield and Crabtree pushed to the pits.Damn what a mess.

They attempted to push off but turned the red on again because of a problem in turn 4. Dues gets pushed to the pits. I couldn't give you a top 1 much less a top 5 at the moment.

Top 5 at 15 laps

Dues
Owen
Cooley
Rose
Ligouri

I must have misread Dues before. Back to green.For some reason I sometimes get his car mixed up with Muhlenkamp. Not sure why.

Dues wins it.
Cooley 2nd sideways
Rose third
Owen 4th
Ligouri 5th

Dues kept it in front despite some hungry drivers behind him. Cooley and Rose swapped positions and Owen was never far behind.

Congrats to Paul Dues. He earned it.

Thanks for the updates! Just curious.... in the past, open wheelers have had difficulties drawing a crowd south of the Ohio River. Was there a good crowd?

Originally Posted by btg1963:
Thanks for the updates! Just curious.... in the past, open wheelers have had difficulties drawing a crowd south of the Ohio River. Was there a good crowd?

Well, you would not have had a hard time finding a good seat.
It was a shame too, track crew worked hard to get that race in and the feature was a heck of a show.

Originally Posted by Newport13:
Well, you would not have had a hard time finding a good seat.
It was a shame too, track crew worked hard to get that race in and the feature was a heck of a show.

Unfortunately this is the case in my home state. It has been that way many years. They raced sprints all over this state. So many folks are brain washed with late models and NASCAR. To each his own. I can't tell you the last time I went to a late model race. As for me I will drive 2 Hours every weekend to see the sprinters rather than drive 30 minutes to see a late model race. To me they are missing out on the best grass roots racing on the planet.

Re: BOSS at Richmond Raceway Sat
 

Some Charles Nungester-style takeaways:

-The crowd was a little on the light side for sure. Hopefully the word gets out and more people fill the stands this evening. It would be great to see sprint cars have more of a presence in central Kentucky.

-A first-time track for me; a bit of a paper clip with maybe a little less banking (especially turns 1 & 2) than Bloomington. You probably will never get the sprinters to go 4 wide on the parade lap at this bull ring.

-I turned onto Green Crossing Road which is a small country road and went a ways wondering where it was. Then I remembered the first time I went to Twin Cities and said to myself "press on". I was rewarded for my patience.

-Outside of the 15th lap which got a little crazy, it was a good sprint car feature. You could throw a blanket over P2-P4.

-The checker for the sprint feature flew at 10:45.

-Talking to Michael Fischesser, he told me a heavy mid afternoon shower passed through there. That set the racing program back an hour. I give the track prep people credit for getting the track in as good of shape as it was. They weren't dealt a very good hand.

-The BOSS sprinters did their pill draw but every other class did qualifications. The track would qualify two cars at a time, separated by a half lap which I thought was a little unique way of doing it.

-Returning from Richmond I saw flashes of lightning from there on home. I had the wipers on for about 3-5 minutes before I hit I-75, otherwise no problems with rain.

-I was on the fence with going all afternoon and even on the way I was ready to turn around with a heavy rain shower hitting the Greater Cincinnati area. Glad I didn't.

Re: BOSS at Richmond Raceway Sat
 

First time for us to see the BOSS sprinters and first time track for us also. I thought the track worked hard to put on a good show under some challenging circumstances. Certainly can't complain at all about the racing. Thought Owen might have something for Dues at the end but he faded after the last red. The last lap was fantastic when Cooley passed Dues and then Dues passed him back to take the checkers with Rose close behind in third. Hats off to BOSS and Richmond! Really glad we went.