Good Morning! With the Border Country Sports Report, I'm Keith Harrington.
The first thing I want to do this morning is send a huge compliment to Mike and Alayne Bruno and their staff at Devil's Bowl Speeday. Sunday night Devil's Bowl hosted one of their biggest events of the year, the annual Battle at the Bowl. Some of the top modified drivers in the northeast invaded Devil's Bowl for $10,000 to win the 67 lap CJ Richards Classic feature race. The Sunoco Sportsmen Modifieds, the weekly headline division at "The Bowl" also competed for $2,000 in a 40 lap showdown.
About an hour into the show a brief but heavy rain shower hit the speedway causing the fourth modified heat to be haulted and fans to run for cover. Every time it looked like the rain was stopping it picked back up. After the shower it looked like there was no way the track surface could be prepared to race again.
I have been to many dirt track racing shows during my life, and I never remember going to one where a staff was so determined to fix the track and get the racing event completed. It took around two hours to dry out the track and for racing to restart, but Bruno and his staff got it done. Most shows I have been to in the past at other tracks, after that amount of rain fell on the clay track the racing was done for the night and fans went home disappointed.
Kudos to Bruno and his staff for working to get the track back into racing shape so the fans could get the show they came to see. My brother Ken drove all the way from Virginia Beach to New Hampshire on Saturday, then drove to Vermont for the race on Sunday so that we could have a great family night out with our father. Thanks to the Devil's Bowl staff his effort's were not wasted and we saw a great show.
Thanks again Mike, Alanye and your staff. Your hard work didn't go unoticed.
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Rocky Warner "Flies to Victory at The Battle at the Bowl
Rocky Warner's nickname is "The Flying Squirrel." At times it seemed like flying is exactly what Warner was doing as he roared to the front of the field and went on to win the $10,000 CJ Richards Classic 67 lap main event at "The Battle at the Bowl" Sunday night.
In victory lane Warner joked that he was okay with the event being canceled after the rain storm that halted racing for about two hours. He was going to take his wife to a nice dinner in Lake George on the way home. After collecting one of the biggest checks of his career Warner backed off that statement.
Jack Speshock and the "Adam Bomb" Adam Pierson led the field to Bob Bigelow's green flag with Albany-Saratoga regular Speshock grabbing the point and dominating the early laps.
Meanwhile, it was obvious to even the casual observer that the fastest three machines on the track belonged to Warner, Tim Fuller and Mike Mahaney. "Matty D" Matt Delorenzo who was forced to qualify through the last chance race was also on the attack through the field.
By lap 20 Fuller had seized control of the race and given his history at "The Bowl" some in attendance thought you could start putting his name on the winner's check. Warner had other plans. Warner grabbed the lead off turn two on a restart and led the rest of the way. Fuller closed in on Warner in lapped traffic at one point, but when he had a clean track ahead of him Warner was untouchable.
Fuller followed Warner to the checkers with Mahaney finishing third, "The Dark Knight" Marc Johnson fourth and Speshock rounding out the top five.
In the $2,000 to win 40 lap Sunoco Modfied feature Justin Comes took the lead early and rolled to his elusive first win of the season.
Comes was dominant the entire race as he held off invader David Rogers and weekly contender Todd Stone for the win.
While Comes was cruising at the front of the pack he liked what he saw in his mirror as Rogers and Comes were putting on a fierce battle for second. Rogers pressured Comes a couple of times during restarts but the #51 would eventually muscle away.
Rogers held off Stone for second. Stone was third with Johnny Bruno fourth and Tim LaDuc fifth.
Bruno, who was making his final start of the year before heading back to college at Central Florida University may have had the fastest car on the ttack has he rode the inside line to navigate his way to the top five.
The Elmo's Pit Stop Bonus Bucks went to Brian Whittemore who picked up $100 at a drawing during the pit meeting. The Paul Cummings Hard Charger Award went to Jimmy Ryan who moved from 23rd to 8th to put $100 in his pocket.
Here are the Quick Results for all divisions:
C.J. RICHARDS CLASSIC
BATTLE AT THE BOWL
MODIFIEDS (67 LAPS)
1 - Rocky Warner (98)
2 - Tim Fuller (19)
3 - Mike Mahaney (35)
4 - Marc Johnson (3j)
5 - Jack Speshock (08)
SUNOCO RACE FUELS
SPORTSMAN MODIFIED (40 Laps)
1 - Justin Comes (51)
2 - David Rogers (44)
3 - Todd Stone (1×)
4 - Johnny Bruno (22)
5 - Tim Laduc (54)
O'REILLY AUTO PARTS
LIMITED SPORTSMAN (25 Laps)
1 - Randy Ryan (60)
2 - Jason Quenneville (813)
3 - Evan Roberts (50x)
4 - Gary English (53)
5 - Alex Layn (751)
MINI STOCK FEATURE #1 (15 Laps)
1 - Cody Dion (143)
2 - Chris Conroy (78)
3 - Tom Sevarance (29)
4 - Matt Wade (510)
5 - Jarod Colburn (3)
MINI STOCK FEATURE #2 (15 Laps)
1- Adam Mahoney (27)
2- Ron Alger (54x)
3 - Austin McKirryer (1x)
4 - Levi Cram (x9)
5 - Chase Allen (4)
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With the Border Country Sports Blog, I'm Keith Harrington.
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