On a night when temperatures were cooling down the racing action was heating up at Natural Bridge Speedway.  Saturday night, five new winners picked up their first victories of the young season. 

Track conditions were perfect as the late models pulled onto the speedway for their hot lap qualifying session.  David Watts set fast time with a lap of 15.831 and an average speed of just over 86 mph.  The previous night Watts had qualified his machine for the Steel Block Bandits race in Cumberland, Maryland.  However, Watts made the decision to load up and head south to Natural Bridge Speedway, forfeiting his starting position in the Bandits season opener. Watts’ fastest lap would be over a half second faster than Walker Arthur’s fast lap on opening night.  The top five qualifiers were Watts, Gerald Wolfe, Philip Woods, David Bennett, and Timmy Stalnaker.  Watts, as fastest qualifier, would draw the inversion pill to set the line-up for the feature event.  Watts drew a number four, putting Bennett and Woods on the front row for the 35-lap feature.

The late models would see action later in the night’s racing program.  The first feature of the night would be the street stocks.  Skye Reynolds and Stephen Campbell brought the field to the green flag with Reynolds jumping to lead.  His lead was short-lived as veteran racer Lester Lyons took command on the second circuit.  Lyons held onto the lead until lap 9 when Campbell took his turn at the front of the pack.  Meanwhile, the defending champion, Michael Taylor was steadily moving his way to the front.  Taylor moved into second on lap 13 and set his sights on Campbell. Michael Taylor finally got the run he needed to make a move on Campbell for the lead on lap 19 

Also on the move to the front was Charles Wyant who started deep in the field.   As Taylor and Campbell battled for the lead lap after lap, Wyant joined the two at the front of the field, moving from fourth to second on lap 23.  Wyant looked like he was ready to make a run at Taylor but with two laps to go, Wyant lost control of his car entering turn three.  Wyant spun off the track setting up a green, white, checkered finish.  Taylor’s mount would show signs of heavy smoke during the waning laps but he held on to take the victory over Lyons, Campbell, Troy Fitzgerald, and Earl Brooks.  An emotional Taylor commented in victory lane, “I made up my mind I would race when I wanted to this year and not run for points.  The car sat all winter so that might be where the smoke came from.”

Clifton Mays and Todd Campbell used their front row starting positions to take control of the sportsman feature event at the drop of the green flag.  The two held down the top two positions throughout the entire 25-lap feature.  Mays, of Madison Heights, led the event flag to flag with Campbell in hot pursuit.  Lexington’s Shad Cooper had a strong run going only to slow with mechanical problems on the tenth lap.  After starting shotgun on the field, Timmy Mays worked his way through the field to finish third.  Eric Groah, whose car seems to be set up for the long run, made a late race charge to claim his second top five of the season.  Rounding out the top five was Toby Stalnaker.
After qualifying earlier in the night, the stage was set for the 35-lap late model feature event.  At the drop of the green flag, outside pole sitter Philip Woods seemed to spin his tires and lose traction.  Woods would spin sideways in front of the entire field at the flag stand.  The front straightaway became a parking lot of crinkled-up late models.  Nearly the entire field would suffer some sort of damage from the accident.  The machines of Woods, Ricky Wells, and Watts would suffer significant damage that sidelined them from the event. 

The restart found two Covington drivers doing battle for the lead.  David Bennett started on the pole, but it was Gerald Wolfe who jumped into the lead heading into turn one, never looking back.  Wolfe, who also suffered slight right front damage in the opening lap crash, led all 35 laps.  Wolfe was followed across the line by defending late model champion Ricky Knight.  J.R. Overstreet had another solid run finishing third. Bennett would fade to finish fourth, and rounding out the top five would be Mount Sidney’s John Michael.  In victory lane, Wolfe thanked his long time friend and former competitor Wilson Shanks, “Every time we pull onto the race track I thank Wilson.  He is the reason we are able to do this. I had not won a race in awhile.  This is such a thrill to be back in victory lane.”

A full field of pure stocks was on hand for their 25-lap feature.  Jason Thompson, who missed opening night, put his number 5 machine in victory lane the first time out.  Thompson started on the front row and took the lead heading into turn one.  He was never seriously challenged until the final lap of the feature.  Ronnie Martin, who started third and moved into second on lap six, bumped Thompson off of turn two but could not make a move down the back stretch.  Ricky Mayberry, last week’s feature winner, was third.  Derrick Ayers had his first top five finish of the season.  Howard Hall, who moved up to pure stock this season, rounded out the top five.  The defending champion, Justin Williams, started deep in the field and rallied to third before running over a piece of debris under caution, suffering a flat right rear tire.  He finished 8th.

The final feature event was the All-American division.  Jeff Mays, who battled Jeremy Pooley for the victory last Saturday night, put his machine in victory lane with an impressive flag to flag win.  Mays was challenged by the number 53 of Ryan Kassab throughout the 20-lap feature.  Kassab made a run off of turn 4 on the final lap but came up just short at the checkered flag.  Pooley finished third, followed by James Campbell and Robbie Barger. 

Natural Bridge Speedway will sit idle next Saturday night.  Racing will resume in two weeks, April 24th, with a 30-lap Pure Stock feature event paying $300 to win.  On May 1, the Three State Flyer Super Late Model series will invade Natural Bridge Speedway.  This will be the first of two super late model races hosted by the speedway during the 2010 season.  Some of the nation’ best regional super late model drivers will be on hand.