By T.J. Buffenbarger
Quincy, MI — Chad Blonde won his second consecutive feature event Saturday night at Butler Motor Speedway. Blonde started on the pole, held off early race challenges from Ken Mackey, and held on through several late race restarts for the victory. Blonde was driving the Sean Robinson owned Pennington Gas Service, Buckshot Auto Sales, KLT sponsored Don Ott powered Maxim Chassis.
Blonde and Mackey drew the front row for the 25-lap main event. Blonde immediately drove into the lead with Mackey keeping pace. Meanwhile Gregg Dalman, Jared Horstman, and Brian Lay began moving up from 10th, 11th, and 12th starting spots towards the front.
By lap five Blonde approached slower traffic that gave Mackey a couple of looks on the bottom of turns one and two to take the lead, but Blonde used his momentum to hold down the top position. Just as Blonde approached a large pack of traffic the red flag appeared with six laps in for Mike Huff sliding off turn four. Huff was uninjured, but had to retire from the event.
Blonde pulled away after the restart while Dalman moved up to sixth and started closing in on Zimmerman for fifth. After another caution for a tangle between Mike Baker and Marques Huffer on lap 11, Blonde pulled away again on the restart. Dalman and Zimmerman battled for fifth with Shelby Bilton right in front of them trying to hold onto fourth.
As Blonde tore through lapped traffic Mackey was held up and allowed third place Mark Aldrich and the rest of the field to close in. The battle between Bilton and Dalman heated up as Dalman’s brake rotor was glowing and sparking with Dalman getting the upper hand into the fourth spot. After a caution for a spin by Tony Bures, Dalman cooled his brakes and moved past Mark Aldrich for third with three laps to go.
Even after a caution with one lap to go for Andy Chewhowski’s spin off of turn three on last lap Blonde pulled away for the victory over Mackey, Dalman, Aldrich, and Bilton.
Lay, Aldrich and Blonde won heat races while Tom Davies won the B-Main event.
Summary
Feature: 1. 1 Chad Blonde, 2. 25m Ken Mackey, 3. 49t Gregg Dalman, 4. 1a Mark Aldrich, 5. 27 Shelby Bilton, 6. 19 Doug Zimmerman, 7. 45 Brian Lay, 8. 17 Jared Horstman, 9. 39 Gery Hart, 10. 39jr Chad Hart, 11. 38 Aaron Smith, 12. 58 Tony Bures, 13. 44 Tom Davies, 14. 29s Marques Huffer, 15. 2 Joe Gribe, 16. 20a Andy Chehowski, 17. 50b Mike Burns, 18. 12b Mike Baker, 19. 8 Aaron Huff, 20. 27k Ryan Kirkendall
Heat Winners: Brian Lay, Mike Aldrich, Chad Blonde
Photo Gallery
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