Jim Fisher Photo
Under beautiful spring skies, the MPD Racing Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series rolled full tilt into their twelfth season of traditional sprint car competition. The scene was the historic Montpelier Motor Speedway and the event was the second annual “Let’s Go 30” in memory of Russ Cook. The Cook family generously contributed an additional $3,500 to the $13,000 standard tour payout. At the end of the night, it was Indiana native C.J. Leary scoring the win in the Brandon Gray number 81.
After drawing the dreaded eight in the NGK Spark Plugs Redraw, the crowd on hand AND those watching from home live on TheCushion.com knew they were in for a show! In a methodical drive on a diverse race track, Leary chose to ride the rim where it was “cowboy up” on the quarter mile bullring. Through 30 grueling laps and one red flag, Leary pushed harder into turn one, bicycling on more than one occasion. In victory lane when asked how tricky it was running the top, Leary said on a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 12.
The night began with Emerson Axsom laying down fast time of the night with a 13.965 second lap. Other fast timers during ARP Fasteners qualifying for the four heat race groups were Cody White, Leary and Kyle Shipley. The 2020 tour champion, Dallas Hewitt, took a wild ride during qualifying when he barrel-rolled in turns 1 and 2 in what seemed like a rodeo 8-second ride! Thankfully he was unhurt.
Heat race action saw Axsom claim TCB Speed heat number one. Mitch Wissmiller took the checkers first in Brave Breeds Dog Rescue heat 2. Leary scored an impressive win in TheCushion.com heat 3 and defending and two time BSS champion, Matt Westfall, picked up the win in Outsider’s Merchandise & Apparel heat 4.
Tour regular, Dustin Ingle, got upside down in turns 3 and 4 during heat race two, but that just made for some great drama in the B and A Mains. After making some hasty repairs, Ingle rolled off 10th in the 12 lap MSD Ignitions B-Main. Steve Little checked out on the field early but Ingle was on the move early. With the top 6 advancing to the main event, Ingle was safe before the halfway mark. But the Gross & Sons number 2di was on a rail and sprinted on to win the race.
Tour regulars Cody Gardner and Paul Dues brought the 22 car starting field to the green flag. Fourth starting Matt Westfall was the strongest car early on, but Emerson Axsom starting fifth was also on the move and took the lead and appeared to be the car to beat. About halfway through the main event, Leary found the magic he needed, reeling in the leader.
The only serious incident in the main event was on lap 23 when Rylan Gray got upside down off turn four. When the red flag was called over the driver radios, Ricky Lewis checked up entering turn 3, caught a rut, and took a wild series of flips through turn 3. Thankfully both were uninjured.
After a long red flag cleanup, the race went back green for a final 8 lap dash to the finish. Leary rode off into the sunset with the lion’s share of the cash. Axsom, who restarted second, slid off the track near the end, losing several positions. Matt Westfall raced up to take second with Isaac Chapple getting up to complete the podium. Koby Barksdale advanced 9 positions to finish 4th with Korbyn Hayslett having a strong run to round out the top 5.
Dustin Ingle’s comeback story ended with him taking the Accu-Force Dynos “Hard Charger” award advancing from 17th to 6th! Rounding out the top 10 were Mitch Wissmiller, Saban Bibent, Jesse Vermillion and Luke Hall.
Up next for the BOSS tour is Saturday, May 7th at Atomic Speedway. Following Atomic, the tour is set to go to Gas City Speedway on Friday, May 20th. The “To Be Announced” date of Saturday, May 21 will be announced this week.
ARP Fasteners Qualifying
Group 1: 1. 47bc-Emerson Axsom 13.965, 2. 10-Saban Bibent 14.593, 3. 00-Collin Grissom 14.924, 4. 99-Jack James 15.037, 5. 81G-Rylan Gray 15.063, 6. 16k-Kody Barksdale 15.082, 7. 9N-Luke Hall 15.155, 8. 1H-Korbyn Hayslett 15.598, 9. 21-Dallas Hewitt 00.000
Group 2: 1. 26w-Cody White 15.389, 2. 9-Cody Gardner 15.537, 3. 24-Landon Simon 15.672, 4. 29-Mitch Wissmiller 15.679, 5. 24L-Lee Underwood 15.687, 6. 2di-Dustin Ingle 15.880, 7. 73-Blake Vermillion 16.044, 8. 26-Cody Williams 16.270
Group 3: 1. 81-C.J. Leary 14.391, 2. 53-Steve Little 15.916, 3. 87-Paul Dues 15.917, 4. 78-Rob Caho 16.054, 5. 52-Isaac Chapple 16.123, 6. 42-Dylan Woodling 16.155, 7. 39-Kyle May 17.593, 8. 77fr-Ryan Thomas 00.000
Group 4: 1. 17gp-Kyle Shipley 15.170, 2. 41-Ricky Lewis 15.381, 3. 33m-Matt Westfall 15.389, 4. 2v-Brandon Long 16.006, 5. 39-Matt Goodnight 16.101, 6. 49-Brian Ruhlman 16.324, 7. 5-Jesse Vermillion16.326, 8. 44-Tom Davies 17.917
TCB Speed – Heat 1: 1. 47bc-Axsom[4] ; 2. 1H-Hayslett[8] ; 3. 10-Bibent[3] ; 4. 16k-Barksdale[6] ; 5. 81g-Gray[5] ; 6. 9n-Hall[7] ; 7. 99-James[1] ; 8. 00-Grissom[2] ; 9. 21-Hewitt[DNS]
Brave Breeds Dog Rescue – Heat 2: 1. 29-Wissmiller[1] ; 2. 9-Gardner[3] ; 3. 73-B.Vermillion[7] ; 4. 24-Simon[2] ; 5. 24L-Underwood[5] ; 6. 26-Williams[8] ; 7. 2di-Ingle[6] ; 8. 26w-White[DNS]
TheCushion.com – Heat 3: 1. 81-Leary[4] ; 2. 52-Chapple[5] ; 3. 87-Dues[2] ; 4. 77fr-Thomas[8] ; 5. 53-Little[3] ; 6. 39-May[7] ; 7. 42-Woodling[6] ; 8. 78-Caho[DNS]
Outsiders Merchandise & Apparel – Heat 4: 1. 33m-Westfall[2] ; 2. 39-Goodnight[5] ; 3. 41-Lewis[3] ; 4. 5-J.Vermillion[7] ; 5. 2v-Long[1] ; 6. 17gp-Shipley[4] ; 7. 49-Ruhlman[6] ; 8. 44-Davies[8]
MSD Ignitions – B Main: 1. 2di-Ingle[10] ; 2. 53-Little[3] ; 3. 9n-Hall[5] ; 4. 81g-Gray[1] ; 5. 99-James[9] ; 6. 2v-Long[4] ; 7. 49-Ruhlman[11] ; 8. 26-Williams[6] ; 9. 39-May[7] ; 10. 00-Grissom[13] ; 11. 17gp-Shipley[8] ; 12. 24L-Underwood[2] ; 13. 44-Davies[14] ; 14. 42-Woodling[DNS] ; 15. 26w-White [DNS] ; 16. 78-Caho[DNS] ; 17. 21-Hewitt[DNS]
MPD Racing – Let’s Go 30 – Main Event: 1. 81-Leary[8] ; 2. 33M-Westfall[4] ; 3. 52-Chapple[10] ; 4. 16k-Barksdale[13] ; 5. 1H-Hayslett[9] ; 6. 2di-Ingle[17] ; 7. 29-Wissmiller[6] ; 8. 10-Bibent[3] ; 9. 5-J.Vermillion[16] ; 10. 9n-Hall[19] ; 11. 53-Little[18] ; 12. 47bc-Axsom[5] ; 13. 39-Goodnight[11] ; 14. 73-B.Vermillion[12] ; 15. 99-James[21] ; 16. 2v-Long[22] ; 17. 77fr-Thomas[15] ; 18. 41-Lewis[7] ; 19. 81g-Gray[20] ; 20. 9-Gardner[1] ; 21. 87-Dues[2] ; 22. 24-Simon[14]
Accu-Force Dyno – Hard Charger: 2di-Dustin Ingle +9
Cowen Truck Line – Hard Luck: 26w-Cody White and 24L-Lee Underwood
All Pro Cylinder Heads – Perseverance Award: 77fr-Ryan Thomas
J F Construction – Lucky Pill Draw: 87-Paul Dues
Hoosier Tire Bonus: 81-C.J. Leary