By Andrew Kunas
GREAT FALLS, Mont. – At 53 years of age Bill Boyce showed he can still get it done, scoring the ASCS Frontier Region sprint car victory Friday in the first night of the 20th Annual Montana Round-Up at Electric City Speedway.
The Lethbridge, Alberta driver, considered to be one of the all-time greats to come out of the Canadian province, admitted he couldn’t remember the last time he won a 360 sprint car race in Montana, saying it had been “several years.” It was a popular victory in the pit area amongst the local Montana drivers, many of whom grew up seeing Boyce win several races in the area.
Boyce took his own No. 1 Shark-powered Eagle and took advantage of a poor start by some of the cars ahead of him, powering from the seventh starting position to move into the Top 3 in the opening laps and then moving into second place. Early leader Dave Glennon of Casselton, North Dakota struggled to get around slower cars on a track that was slow and dry, seeing most drivers hug the very bottom of the race track in both sets of turns on the 3/10-mile clay oval.
Glennon eventually slipped up and allowed Boyce to get inside of him in Turns 1 and 2 and take the lead. Glennon would make a couple of runs at Boyce, but couldn’t get anything to work. Boyce skillfully worked his way around slower cars and held on to win.
“One for the old guys! This was my first win in a few (years). This is my home track. I started here when I was 16 and I’m 53 now. This is my home,” said Boyce, who despite living in Canada had regularly raced in, and often won, in the state of Montana, particularly at Electric City Speedway. “I just had to be calculating (when passing cars on a tight track). Calculate and execute.”
Glennon, a regular at North Dakota’s River Cities Speedway who made his first appearance at Electric City Speedway Friday, finished second aboard his own No. 5 ThomSand-powered J&J.
“It was a tricky race track, no doubt,” said Glennon, who had his share of bad luck in his home state in recent weeks, including accidents and motor issues. “I just made a mistake on a lapped car and opened the door up for Bill. He raced me hard and clean. I hate to say we’re happy with second, but with how our last six or eight weeks have gone we’ll take it. It’s always fun to go race at new tracks and with new guys and face some different competition. It makes you a better driver.”
Shepherd, Mont. driver Jeremy McCune earned his best finish of the season aboard his own No. 0J 2Dot-Tech/Carbone-powered Gf1. McCune had to work hard to keep the likes of Kelly Miller and Joe Perry behind him in the late stages.
“Luck, man. It was follow the leader,” McCune admitted, saying he was still pleased with his car’s performance, including a dominating heat race victory earlier in the evening. “We’re happy. We got a lot of help. It takes a lot of work to get this car right.”
Miller, out of Lethbridge, Alberta muscled his way around Perry late to secure the fourth place finish in the KDM Motorsports No. 44k AMS-powered Schnee, trying to stay ahead of points leader Joe Ramaker of Boise, Idaho. Ramaker, who entered the night with a 11-point lead over Miller, himself got around Perry to secure fifth place in the Ramaker Racing No. 98 Ostrich-powered J&J. It was the first regular Frontier Region race of the season to not see Ramaker finish on the podium. Miller shaved Ramaker’s lead to eight tallies unofficially.
Perry, Jerry Brey, J.J. Hickle, Trever Kirkland and Casey Adams rounded out the Top 10.
The 12-lap B-Feature event was won by Kirkland, who transferred to the main event with Jordan Milne, Gregory Hamilton and Darren Smith. Heat races earlier in the evening went to Boyce, McCune, Perry and Dennis MacEachern.
The Frontier Region of the American Sprint Car Series, presented in part by Speedmart Inc. is a winged 360 sprint car tour racing around the state of Montana and beyond. More information on the ASCS Frontier Region can be found online at frontier.ascsracing.com or you can also follow the series on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ascsfrontier. The national website of the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour presented by MAVTV American Real is www.ascsracing.com.
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ASCS Frontier Region
Montana Round-Up – Night 1
Electric City Speedway
Great Falls, MT
August 29, 2014
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
31 cars
Heat 1 (8 laps): 1. 1 Bill Boyce, 2. 98 Joe Ramaker, 3. 77 Bob Shiplet, 4. 23n J.J. Hickle, 5. 35m Cody Masse, 6. 81 Darren Smith, 7. 00 Roger Cummings, 8. 56 Ross Mathewson.
Heat 2 (8 laps): 1. 0J Jeremy McCune, 2. 5 Dave Glennon, 3. 53 Joe Beaver, 4. 72 Phil Dietz, 5. 37 Trever Kirkland, 6. 51t Tristan Spiers, 7. 4n Johnny Nelson, DNS – 24 Leroy Brush.
Heat 3 (8 laps): 1. 28 Joe Perry, 2. 44k Kelly Miller, 3. 12a Casey Adams, 4. 38b Bryan Brown, 5. 96 Gregory Hamilton, 6. 3j Jordan Milne, 7. 12p Randy Pierce, 8. 4 Junior Nelson.
Heat 4 (8 laps): 1. 3d Dennis MacEachern, 2. 44 Damon McCune, 3. 27dd David Hoiness, 4. 12 Jerry Brey, 5. 22 Chris Roberts, 6. 3a Shane Ainscough, 7. 11 Cliff Nelson.
B-Feature (12 laps): 1. 37 Trever Kirkland, 2. 3j Jordan Milne, 3. 96 Gregory Hamilton, 4. 81 Darren Smith, 5. 00 Roger Cummings, 6. 51t Tristan Spiers, 7. 22 Chris Roberts, 8. 35m Cody Masse, 9. 3a Shane Ainscough, 10. 11 Cliff Nelson, 11. 4n Johnny Nelson, 12. 12p Randy Pierce, DNS – 4 Junior Nelson, 24 Leroy Brush, 56 Ross Mathewson. First four finishers transfer to A-Feature.
A-Feature (25 laps): 1. 1 Bill Boyce, 2. 5 Dave Glennon, 3. 0J Jeremy McCune, 4. 44k Kelly Miller, 5. 98 Joe Ramaker, 6. 28 Joe Perry, 7. 12 Jerry Brey, 8. 23n J.J. Hickle, 9. 37 Trever Kirkland, 10. 12a Casey Adams, 11. 72 Phil Dietz, 12. 53 Joe Beaver, 13. 77 Bob Shiplet, 14. 3d Dennis MacEachern, 15. 38b Bryan Brown, 16. 3j Jordan Milne, 17. 44 Damon McCune, 18. 81 Darren Smith, 19. 96 Gregory Hamilton, 20. 27dd David Hoiness.