I think the spirit of the One Armed Bandit was looking over Paragon Speedway and Keith Ford, tonight. They got just the right amount of rain. The temps stayed mild. And there was just enough cloud cover to keep the moisture gained, from being lost. This all resulted in a track that didn't take much rubber at all and stayed racy till the very end. Brady Short was definitely the man tonight and was never in serious danger, once he took command. What went on right behind him, however, was the kind of stuff that legendary races of Paragon's past are made of and did justice to the name of the great Chuck Amati.

After the leader reached lapped traffic, he was caught by Jon Stanbrough. As he was caught by Robert Ballou. As he was reeled in by Chris Windom. Then, after a mid race restart, Brady slipped away again and those three just went at it tooth and nail, for a whole lot of laps. They raced each other clean and hard and each was creative in finding their own way around this "driver's track." It was the kind of stuff that you just couldn't take your eyes off of. Robert Ballou finally emerged the winner of this marathon battle. Then, with ten laps left, Windom spun and we had a ten lap shootout for the trophy. As the green flew, Brady put distance between himself and Robert and Robert did the same between himself and Jon. It looked settled, but as they gave the five to go signal, Ballou made one last run at the leader. As they gave the two to go, it looked like we might just have a race to the finish. Ballou getting real good bite coming out of two, but Brady just killin' him getting in and out of three and four. Robert closed the distance as the white flag flew, but by the time they got to the back stretch Brady surged, extending his lead and ending all speculation. He cruised home with a decent amount of breathing room. It was a powerful, impressive performance. And the way the top four or five guys were running, tonight, anything less would have fallen short (no pun intended).

Here's to the memory of the great Chuck Amati. A legend that was so much more than just a driver, to the fans of my generation. I think the last two Chuck Amati Classics have done justice to that memory.

Jerry