By Aaron Fry
Princeton, Indiana’s Kyle Cummins scored his first ever MPD Racing BOSS win Friday night at Rock Crest Raceway. One night later, Martinsville, Indiana’s Nick Bilbee claimed his second career tour win on the fast high banks of the immaculate Lawrenceburg Speedway.
Friday’s field was split into 2 groups for ARP Fasteners qualifying. J.J. Hughes paced the field in group 1 over Jesse Vermillion and Justin Owen. Group 2 was shown the quick way by Isaac Chapple with Kyle Cummins and Lee Underwood filling the top 3. TCB Speed heat race number one was taken by Justin “The Juice” Owen after a great race with Hughes and polesitter Saban Bibent. The Brave Breed Rescue second heat race was claimed by Kyle Cummins after starting 3rd, foreshadowing the main event. Following Cummins were Dustin Webber and Underwood.
The MPD Racing main event lined up with Chapple and Owen on the front row with Cummins and Hughes in row 2. The field was brought to starter Tim Montgomery’s green flag and in an encore performance, Cummins wasted no time rocketing from 3rd to the lead to show the way all 25 laps. Early in the event, Chapple gave Cummins all he wanted as he was working off the bottom of turns 3 and 4 and closed the gap many times. But as the race wore on, Cummins inched away to the win with Chapple and Justin Owen completing the podium run. Saban Bibent and J.J. Hughes ran fourth and fifth with the rest of the top 10 being Lee Underwood, Steve Little, Ricky Lewis, Dustin Webber and Jesse Vermillion.
On Saturday, quick qualifiers in their heat race groups were Max Adams, Tyler Kendall and Michael Fischesser. Kendall was overall quick time with a lap of 14.446 seconds. Heat race wins went to Joss Moffatt, Nick Bilbee and Saban Bibent. NGK Spark Plugs redraw saw Bilbee draw the pole with Moffatt alongside. Kendall and Bibent would roll off from the second row as Max Adams and Michael Fischesser made up row 3.
For the second night in a row, Tim Montgomery waved the green flag, sending 20 brave souls sailing into the Indiana night. The outside row got going quickest early as Moffatt took the early race lead with Saban Bibent in tow, as Bilbee dropped to third early. After showing the way for 7 laps, Bibent was able to slide by to take the point. That move began a “slider fest” the likes of which White Castle could not compete with. The entire top 10 cars carried out the majority of the 25 lap main event with a “slide or die” driving style with more car-to-car contact and car-to-wall contact than most touring series see in months!
Bibent would go on to lead laps 8 through 21, however, a scary incident off turn 2 found Moffatt climbed onto the back of Bibent’s number 10, but the insane action carried on. A lap later, Moffatt rolled to a stop in the infield and the race’s only yellow flag flew for debris in turn 1. When action resumed, Bibent still showed the way, but Nick Bilbee had found the magic he needed to pull this one out of the hat. As the laps wound down, it was 10th starting Justin Owen closing fastest on the lead duo!
After exchanging more sliders, Bilbee was able to wrestle the lead away from Bibent for good to lead lap 22. The hard charging Owen got Bibent on the final lap, with Saban holding on the round out the podium. Max Adams and Sterling Cling completed a very strong top 5. Michael Fischesser, Tyler Kendall, Garrett Abrams, JJ Hughes and Ricky Lewis rounded out a very stout top 10.
Next up for BOSS is a very rare tripleheader weekend July 1-3. Friday, July 1 will see a return to the bullring at Ohio Valley Speedway near Lubeck, West Virginia for a standard $2,000 to win purse. The Saturday race is just a few miles up the road at the awesome 1/2 mile West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells which will see a $3,000 to win / $500 to start payday! The holiday weekend concludes with a Sunday race at the old home track for traditional sprint cars in the Buckeye state, the Waynesfield Raceway Park and the “Jack Hewitt Classic” with an enhanced purse that will be announced in the coming days.
BOX SCORE
Rock Crest Raceway
North Vernon, IN
Friday, June 17, 2022
TSB Speed – Heat 1: 1. 4J-Justin Owen[2] ; 2. 76-J.J. Hughes[4] ; 3. 10-Saban Bibent[1] ; 4. 41-Ricky Lewis[7] ; 5. 5v-Jesse Vermillion[3] ; 6. 73-Blake Vermillion[5] ; 7. 37-Joss Moffatt[6]
Brave Breed Rescue – Heat 2: 1. 3r-Kyle Cummins[3] ; 2. 9-Dustin Webber[1] ; 3. 24L-Lee Underwood[2] ; 4. 52-Isaac Chapple[4] ; 5. 53-Steve Little[7] ; 6. 73L-Zach Lamb[5] ; 7. 87-Paul Dues[6]
MPD Racing – A Main: 1. 3r-Cummins[3] ; 2. 52-Chapple[1] ; 3. 4j-Owen[2] ; 4. 10-Bibent[6] ; 5. 76-Hughes[4] ; 6. 24L-Underwood[7] ; 7. 53-Little[9] ; 8. 41-Lewis[8] ; 9. 9-Webber[5] ; 10. 5v-J.Vermillion[10] ; 11. 87-Dues[13] ; 12. 73-B.Vermillion[12] ; 13. 37-Moffatt[14] ; 14. 73L-Lamb[11]
Lawrenceburg Speedway
Lawrenceburg, IN
Saturday, June 18, 2022
TCB Speed – Heat 1: 1. 5J-Joss Moffatt[1] ; 2. 32-Garrett Abrams[2] ; 3. 34-Sterling Cling[3] ; 4. 37-Max Adams[4] ; 5. 73-Zach Lamb[5] ; 6. 5A-Toby Alfrey[6] ; 7. 53-Steve Little[7]
Brave Breed Rescue – Heat 2: 1. 17-Nick Bilbee[2] ; 2. 20-Tyler Kendall[4] ; 3. 4j-Justin Owen[3] ; 4. 52-Isaac Chapple[1] ; 5. 5v-Jesse Vermillion[5] ; 6. 24L-Lee Underwood[6] ; 7. 73-Blake Vermillion[7]
TheCushion.com – Heat 3: 1. 10-Saban Bibent[1] ; 2. 76-J.J. Hughes[3] ; 3. 4-Michael Fischesser[4] ; 4. 41-Ricky Lewis[2] ; 5. 21B-Ryan Barr[5] ; 6. 9-Dustin Webber[6]
MPD Racing – A Main: 1. 17-Bilbee[1] ; 2. 4j-Owen[10] ; 3. 10-Bibent[4] ; 4. 37-Adams[5] ; 5. 34-Cling[9] ; 6. 4-Fischesser[6] ; 7. 20-Kendall[3] ; 8. 32-Abrams[7] ; 9. 76-Hughes[8] ; 10. 41-Lewis[12] ; 11. 52-Chapple[11] ; 12. 21B-Barr[14] ; 13. 9-Webber[17] ; 14. 5v-J.Vermillion[13] ; 15. 5A-Alfrey[15] ; 16. 53-Little[18] ; 17. 24L-Underwood[16] ; 18. 73-B.Vermillion[19] ; 19. 5j-Moffatt[2] ; 20. 73L-Lamb[DNS]
J & F Construction – Lucky Pill Draw: 20 – Tyler Kendall
Accu-Force Shock Dyno – Hard Charger: 4j – Justin Owen +8
All Pro Cylinder Heads – Hard Luck: 73L – Zach Lamb
Hoosier Tire – Free Tire Bonus: 17 – Nick Bilbee