From David Sink
Rockford, IL – (June 4, 2016) – Jimmy McCune captured Saturday night’s Must See Racing Sprint Series presented by Engine Pro 50 lap feature event at Rockford Speedway. The victory completed a weekend sweep for McCune as the series made a trek through the Wisconsin/Illinois area.
McCune was forced to keep a hard-charging Jacob Wilson at bay the final 26 circuits to secure the victory. The victory was anything but easy for McCune. It was McCune’s fourth MSRSS victory of the year, but it may have been his hardest fought victory to date.
The feature event got off to a bizarre start when pole sitter Sierra Jackson spun in the warm-up session. She would be unable to start the event due to broken drive line issues. The lineup was quickly shuffled and would find veteran Jeff Bloom on the point with local driver Tim Cox alongside.
When the green flag flew, Bloom got the jump and would lead the opening 9 circuits before a hard-charging McCune took command. McCune began to build a sizeable lead until lap 24. Mike Stutzman made contact with Matt Vanderveer and catapulted him hard into the turn one retaining wall with the violent impact. A red flag was flown at this point. Stutsman was ok and walked away under his own power.
When the green flag was waved to restart the event, Wilson immediately began to pursue race leader McCune. The duo battled furiously the final 26 circuits in tight formation. Wilson was able to get alongside McCune several times but he couldn’t make it stick to gain the top spot. With four laps to go, Wilson dove under McCune entering turn one for one last ditch effort to gain the top spot. Wilson would be forced to settle for second after a valiant effort.
In victory lane McCune acknowledged he had his work cut out for him tonight. “My dad signaled to me and told me what was going on” explained McCune. “He let me know he (Wilson) was running pretty strong. I had to hit my marks and not make a mistake. I knew if I did it would be over. I could hear him out there.”
McCune breathed a sigh of relief after Wilson’s lap 46 last ditch attempt to gain the lead failed. He knew Wilson lost momentum, and wouldn’t have time to attempt a similar move. “When I knew that he dive bombed me like that, and I still pulled away from him, I knew that had to have broken his momentum a little bit. I drove the wheels off of it tonight. It’s been a great weekend” concluded McCune.
Wilson was the evening’s quick qualifier with a lap of 11.467 seconds around the high-banked quarter-mile.
The series is now idle until June 18 when it will make a return visit to Spitzer Motor Speedway in Mansfield, OH.
50 LAP FEATURE FINISH
1. Jimmy McCune (88) 2. Jacob Wilson (07) 3. Tim Cox (40) 4. Jeff Bloom (26) 5. Jerry Caryer (75c) 6. Kris Leming (9L) 7. Mike Stutsman (21) 8. Matt Vandevere (10v) 9. Jason Cox (1) 10. Brad Wyatt (81) 11. Sierra Jackson (22a) DNS