Groah Goes Back to Back, Wins Sportsman Special

Natural Bridge Speedway’s hottest driver continued to impress Saturday night in his quest for his first career championship.  Eric Groah went to victory lane for the second straight week as he collected the $500 winner’s check in the 50 lap sportsman special event.  The consistent Groah has finished in the top five in each of the first six events of the 2010 season.  His win on Saturday night vaulted him into the point lead in the sportsman division. 

Groah kicked the evening off by setting fast time in hot lap qualifying.  He turned a lap of 17.595 seconds with an average speed of 77.749 miles per hour.  However, as a result of winning the prior week, Groah had to start sixth on the grid.  Timmy Mays and Clifton Mays led the field to green with Clifton Mays getting the jump into turn one to take the lead.  While Mays was setting the pace out front, Groah was working his way through the field.  Groah moved into third on lap eight and into the second spot on lap fifteen.  Lap after lap he would follow the tracks of Mays waiting for a mistake by the leader.   With Groah challenging Mays for the lead on lap forty, the two leaders entered turns one and two when Mays suddenly lost traction.  Mays retired from the event with a broken axle.  Groah inherited the lead and went on to claim his second straight victory. Timmy Mays finished in the runner-up spot.  Shad Cooper, who started seventh, had his first top three finish of the season.  Toby Stalnaker finished fourth and Robert Steen rounded out the top five.

Neil Murray, making just his third start of the season, used his outside front row starting position to take the lead on lap one and never look back.  Stephen Campbell made Murray work for the win as he stayed within a car length or two throughout the 25-lap feature event.  Campbell used every groove on the speedway searching for a way around Murray but came up short when the checkers fell.  Murray picked up his second win of the season.  Following Murray to the finish were Campbell, Charles Wyant, Lester Lyons, and Earl Brooks.  The street stock feature was red flagged on lap four when Don Lugar slammed into the turn one guardrail and flipped several times.  Lugar was transported to a local hospital as a precautionary measure.
Fourteen late models were on hand to battle for the victory in their 35-lap feature event.  Gerald Wolfe, Jr. was the fastest qualifier earlier in the evening but drew a number 5 for the inversion.  The front row of David Watts and Ricky Knight brought the field to green with Knight getting the jump on the outside.  Knight, the current point leader and defending champion, led from flag to flag to claim his second victory of the season and extend his point lead over J.R. Overstreet.  Overstreet entered the night’s racing action third in the standings but, after another solid top five finish, now finds himself in the runner-up spot.  Overstreet moves past Wolfe in the standing after Wolfe lost his left front wheel on lap eleven and dropped out of the event.  In Victory Lane, Knight donated his winnings to the Make-A-Wish-Foundation.  Ricky Wells scored his best finish of the season coming home second.  Rounding out the top five were David Watts, David Bennett, and J.R. Overstreet. 

Justin Williams found his way back to victory lane in the pure stock feature event.  Williams started seventh and quickly worked his way to the front of the field.  Jimmy Baber started on the pole and led the first ten laps before surrendering the lead to Williams.  Four laps later, Ronnie Martin, Jr. worked his way past Baber for the second position.  Martin then began his pursuit of Williams.  Williams had other ideas as he pulled away from Martin and cruised across the finish line nearly three seconds ahead of Martin.  Jimmy Baber held on for third, followed by Derrick Ayers in fourth and Fred Giles in fifth.  Unofficially, Martin leads Williams in the point standings by one point.

Brian Newton has had nothing but bad luck so far this season in the All-American division but all of that changed Saturday night.  Newton knew it was going to be a good night when he pulled the pole position for the feature event.  Newton won the drag race into turn one and was able to keep the rest of the field in his rearview mirror the entire distance.  The top five were nose to tail dicing it up throughout the 20 lap event.  Brandon Link came home second followed by Jeremy Pooley, James Campbell, and Ryan Kassab.  The top five drivers were separated by just over one second as they crossed the finish line. 

Natural Bridge Speedway will have regular feature events for all five divisions coming up this Saturday night.  The street stock division, who had one of their feature events rained out earlier in the season will also compete in preliminary heat races.  Gates are scheduled to open at 4:00 p.m. with the driver’s meeting beginning at 6:00 p.m.