From BOSS
Imperial, PA — (July 4, 2015) — Apparently the magic number for the Mo Vaughn Transport / Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series is 8. For the third consecutive race, the driver starting from the number eight position has raced to victory on the tour. Last night at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway, it was Kingsburg, California driver Kody Swanson who drew the worst pill in the bucket for the feature lineup, yet managed to find victory lane with an impressive run to catch race long leader Shawn Westerfeld.
What was supposed to be a doubleheader weekend that began on Friday night ended up being washed out at Lernerville Speedway as mother nature claimed her fifth victory of the season. A great field of 33 cars were signed in for the Friday night program that fell victim to the rain right after the heat races.
On Saturday at PPMS, 26 cars were on hand to do battle on the largest track the touring drivers will see all season long. Preliminary heat races were won by Michael Fischesser, Cooper Clouse, and Justin Owen. The B-Main event was taken by Michigan invader Steve Irwin.
The main event found Shawn Westerfeld and Chad Wilson making up the front row with Cooper Clouse and Joe Butera in row number two. Aaron Middaugh and Michael Fischesser were in the third row, while Justin Owen and Swanson made up the fourth row. Brandon Spithaler from nearby Evans City, Pennsylvania also made the redraw, but a mechanical problem in the Tom Burkey owned Superior Tank #57B forced Spithaler to another car. By BOSS rules, he had to start at the rear of the 20 car main event.
At the drop of the green flag, Shawn Westerfeld rocketed to the early lead in search of his first career BOSS victory with Cooper Clouse and Chad Wilson in tow. Very early on it was evident that Swanson was going to be a threat as he bolted from 8th to 4th in just a few laps.
The main event’s only caution flew with 4 laps completed when Mike Miller made contact with the wall and coasted to a stop. The defending series champion was through for the evening. The running order under the caution flag was Westerfeld, Clouse, Wilson, Swanson and Middaugh making up the early top five.
Back under green, Westerfeld again asserted command and looked like the car to beat running the low line. By lap #7, Swanson had gotten to 3rd place as he began to experiment with multiple lines on the very wide PPMS oval. A few laps later Swanson was able to slip past Cooper Clouse for the runner-up spot as the cars hit the halfway point of the 21 lap main event. The running order at the halfway was Westerfeld, Swanson, Clouse, a hard charging Dustin Smith, and Michael Fischesser.
As the laps clicked away, Swanson began to try some higher grooves while Westerfeld was content to run the bottom. Having seen no prior threat early on, it may have come as a surprise when Swanson appeared on the outside and the duo raced through traffic putting on a dazzling display of driving. Swanson took the lead on lap 14, but a reenergized Westerfeld got up on the wheel to reel the Californian back in to retake the top spot on lap 16.
With traffic becoming a bigger factor, Swanson made the winning move on lap 17 to retake the lead as he chose the path less traveled putting the car high on the Monster Half Mile. Westerfeld was pinned behind some slower cars and had to hesitate off turn 4 to get by. This allowed Swanson to pull away to lead from lap 17 to the checkers. However, Shawn Westerfeld was determined and over the final 2 circuits pulled back up on the bumper of Swanson and challenged one final time to lose the race by less than a car length. The margin of victory officially was 0.102 seconds making it the second closest finish in BOSS history.
Following Swanson and Westerfeld were Dustin Smith, Michael Fischesser, and Cooper Clouse rounding out the top 5. Steve Irwin charged from 16th starting spot to finish 6th and claim the Bridge Restaurant “Hard Charger of the Night” award. Rounding out the rest of the top 10 were Justin Owen, Chad Wilson, Kent Wolters and Kirk Jeffries.
The traveling stars of the BOSS tour now moves on to Waynesfield Raceway Park in Waynesfield, Ohio next Saturday, July 11th. This event annually attracts one of the largest car counts of the season with 54 cars signed in last season. Complete detailed results will be posted soon along with updated points.
Mo Vaughn Trucking Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series
Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway
Imperial, PA
Saturday July 4, 2015
Feature:
1. 21K – Kody Swanson
2. 89 – Shawn Westerfeld
3. 77 – Dustin Smith
4. 4 – Michael Fischesser
5. 14c – Cooper Clouse
6. 0 – Steve Irwin
7. 26 – Justin Owen
8. 14 – Chad Wilson
9. 12 – Kent Wolters
10. 59J – Kirk Jeffries
11. 91X – Aaron Middaugh
12. 53 – Steve Little
13. 46 – Cody Gardner
14. 31 – Chuck Wilson
15. 5 – Bob McMillen
16. 4T – Josh Turner
17. 83 – Adam Cruea
18. 3 – Joe Butera
19. 27 – Zach Morrow
20. 82 – Mike Miller