By David Smith Jr.
as the National Championship Racing Association of Park City, Kansas presented by Precise Racing Products sprint car division made a Labor Day Saturday night stop at 81 Speedway in Park City.
J.D. Johnson and Danny Jennings started on the front row for the twenty-lap-feature with Johnson taking the lead as the green flag fell. Jennings, Jeff Stasa, Droud and Jeremy Campbell were the top five after the first lap with Johnson opening up a ten-car-length lead after lap three.
Lap five saw his lead stretch to a half-stretch over Jennings before Johnson reached the slower cars one lap later allowing Jennings to cut the deficit to five car lengths. But Jennings would slide high off the track exiting turn two one lap later allowing Droud, Stasa and Campbell to get by, dropping Jennings back to fifth.
Droud began to reel in the leader and was within six car lengths by lap eleven. Two laps later Droud got a run coming out of turn two down the backstretch and passed Johnson for the lead on lap seventeen.
Campbell and Stasa would pass Johnson for second and third respectively while Droud began to pull away from the field.
In the end, there was no catching Droud as he would cruise the rest of the way to claim the half-straightaway victory over seventh starting Campbell. Stasa’s best series run of the year garnered him a third-place finish while Johnson and Jennings rounded out the top five.
The two, eight lap heat races for the sixteen-car field were won by Stasa and Jeninngs.
The NCRA Sprint Car division will be back in action one week from tonight, September 9, as they make their second and final appearance of the season at Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction, Nebraska in a co-sanctioned event with the Nebraska 360 Sprint Car Series in an event that will pay $2500 to win and $500 to start the night’s feature finale.
NCRA Sprint Cars
81 Speedway/Park City, Kansas
September 2, 2017
16 Cars
1st Heat (8 Laps): 1) 91-Jeff Stasa, [1]; 2) 85-Forrest Sutherland, [2]; 3) 10C-Jeremy Campbell, [4]; 4) 1X-Don Droud Jr, [7]; 5) 26M-Fred Mattox, [5]; 6) 92J-J.R. Topper, [3]; 7) 7-Michelle Decker, [6]; 8) 21R-Andrew Deal, [8]
2nd Heat (8 Laps): 1) 1J-Danny Jennings, [3]; 2) 98-J.D. Johnson, [6]; 3) 6-Kaden Taylor, [2]; 4) 81-Jon Freeman, [7]; 5) 5H-Cameron Hagin, [5]; 6) 50Randy Woodside, [8]; 7) 5-Jason Schroeder, [1]; 8) 20G-Jake Greider, [4]
A Feature (20 Laps): 1) 1X-Don Droud Jr, [4]; 2) 10C-Jeremy Campbell, [7]; 3) 91-Jeff Stasa, [3]; 4) 98-J.D. Johnson, [1]; 5) 1J-Danny Jennings, [2]; 6) 81-Jon Freeman, [5]; 7) 26M-Fred Mattox, [10]; 8) 21R-Andrew Deal, [14]; 9) 85-Forrest Sutherland, [6]; 10) 5H-Cameron Hagin, [11]; 11) 20G-Jake Greider, [16]; 12) 7-Michelle Decker, [13]; 13) 5-Jason Schroeder, [15]; 14) 92J-J.R. Topper, [12]; 15) 6-Kaden Taylor, [8]; 16) 50-Randy Woodside, [9]
Lap Leaders: Johnson 1-13; Droud 14-20