From Duane Turner
Birch Run, MI — (May 17, 2013) — Mike Ling from Mount Brydges Ontario, Canada made the most of his return to the seat of the Wayne Stickney owned #99 with an opening night win at Dixie Motor Speedway. The win would be his ninth in Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Super Sprints action, with the last win coming nearly one year ago in the same car.
Veteran drivers Tim Cox and Ling would bring the AVSS field out of turn four to start the 30 lap main event. The duo would race side by side heading in to turn one, but Ling used the high side to take the early lead. Third starting Troy DeCaire would follow suit taking the second position away in turn two.
As Ling and DeCaire set the early pace, the battle for third would set the stage for the intense racing action throughout the race. Kevin Feeney would pull even with Tim Cox on the fourth circuit, taking the position with a high side pass in turn four one lap later. At the same time, eighth starting Jason Blonde was moving his way to the front of the field.
By the ninth circuit, Blonde had closed in to challenge for the forth position, taking the spot in turn four. One lap later, Blonde would take third from Feeney in heavy lapped traffic. While Blonde was working his way to the front, DeCaire managed to close in on the race leader as they worked the lapped traffic.
With just 10 laps to go, DeCaire had closed in on Ling and appeared to have the speed to challenge for the lead. Blonde was also closing in on the lead duo, but lapped traffic would keep him from contending for the lead. Just a few laps later, Ling cleared the lapped traffic, and began to pull away. Blonde had caught DeCaire in lapped traffic with just a few laps to go.
As the checkers flew, Ling would grab the win with a quarter lap lead over DeCaire in second. Blonde faded slightly at the end in third, followed by Feeney, and Cox in the top five.
In Hamilton Trucking qualification, Jason Blonde would set the pace with a lap of 12.416 seconds, or 116 miles per hour. Tyler Underwood, Troy DeCaire, and Jim Swain would grab the heat race wins.
Up next for the stars of the Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Super Sprints, a trip to the famed ½ mile Berlin Raceway on Saturday, May 18th. Then the series will travel to the 3/8th mile speed plant of Kalamazoo Speedway on June 1st. For more information, log on to the official website at www.supersprints.com, or the facebook page at www.facebook.com/avbbss
Event Summary:
1) 42 Jason Blonde 12.416 (115.979 MPH) 2) 7 Joe Swanson 12.855 3) 61 Kevin Feeney 12.937 4) 24 Bill Tyler 12.968 5) 40.1 Troy DeCaire 13.060 6) 46 Jim Swain 13.075 7) 99 Mike Ling 13.175 8) 40 Tim Cox 13.289 9) 3a Mike Astrauskas 13.297 10) 16 Kyle Feeney 13.351 11) 37 Hank Lower 13.410 12) 87 Brian Gibbs 13.644 13) 14c Tyler Underwood 13.804 14) 88 Frank Neill 13.866 15) 44 Teddy Alberts 14.033 16) 3 Phil Rutledge 15.609 17) 45 Ryan Gillenwater No Time
Heat Race #1
1) 14c) Tyler Underwood 2) 42 Jason Blonde 3) 99 Mike Ling 4) 24 Bill Tyler 5) 16 Kyle Feeney 6) 3 Phil Rutledge
Heat Race #2
1) 40.1 Troy DeCaire 2) 7 Joe Swanson 3) 88 Frank Neill 4) 37 Hank Lower 5) 40 Tim Cox
Heat Race #3
1) 46 Jim Swain 2) 44 Teddy Alberts 3) 87 Brian Gibbs 4) 61 Kevin Feeney 5) 3a Mike Astrauskas
A-Main:
1) 99 Mike Ling 2) 40.1 Troy DeCaire 3) 42 Jason Blonde 4) 61 Kevin Feeney 5) 40 Tim Cox 6) 46 Jim Swain 7) 7 Joe Swanson 8.) 24 Bill Tyler 9) 3a Mike Astrauskas 10) 14c Tyler Underwood 11) 16 Kyle Feeney 12) 37 Hank Lower 13) 88 Fran Neill 14) 87 Brian Gibbs 15) 3 Phil Rutledge 16) 44 Teddy Alberts