Park City, Kansas – March 30, 2018 – Tim Crawley of Benton, Arkansas out ran pole sitter Sammy Swindell to turn one on the opening lap and held on the rest of the way to claim the opening night of the eighth annual “Park City Cup/Air Capital Shootout” at 81 Speedway in Park City, Kansas on Friday night to open the 29th consecutive season for the National Championship Racing Association of Park City, Kansas presented by Precise Racing Products.
With the original start waved off due to Matt Covington’s spin in turns three and four, the complete restart saw Crawley take the lead entering low between turns one and two. Swindell, Brian Brown, Blake Hahn and Daryn Pittman were the top five after lap one with Crawley jumping out to a quick six-car-length advantage.
Crawley and Sammy put a half-stretch distance on third place on back as they set a torrid pace out front with Crawley still maintaining a six-car-length advantage.
The second and final caution fell on lap seven when Covington again spun, this coming in turns one and two.
The final restart saw Crawley, the second time out this year aboard the Ronnie Pitts owned #1xx, utilized his Shark Racing Engines powered Triple X chassis deep into turns one and two and would hold off several challenges from Swindell the balance of the event to claim his first career NCRA victory and $1500 first place prize.
“I knew the track would take rubber, but I wasn’t sure how long it would take,” said Crawley. “We went out pretty tight and it got us to the front, then we just managed to hang on from there. We were pretty tight the last six or seven laps but hey, we got’r done. Thanks to all of our sponsors: MPV Express, Fleming Electric, AC Sport, Southern Renovations, Speed Mart, West Little Rock Eye Care, Lawhon and Sons, All American Towing, ATM Trucking, Valvoline, Katzkin and XRG Graphics as well as car owner Ronnie Pitts for letting me wheel this thing!”
Coming out of turn four on the last lap, Sammy slid high trying to get around Crawley at the flag stand and barely held on to second by a half car length over Brown. Pittman came home fourth while Bergman rounded out the top five.
The first set of heat races for the forty-nine-car field were won by Swindell, Brown, Sam Hafertepe, Jason Martin and Jack Dover while the second set of heat races were won by Brown, Brandon Hawks, Swindell, Blake Hahn and Brant O’Banion.
Saturday night will wrap up the two-day “PCC/ACS” with another two sets of heat races, followed by last chance and the $13,000 to win championship finale. Gates will open at 4:00 PM with a special start time of 6:00 PM.
NCRA Sprints
81 Speedway/Park City, Kansas
March 30, 2018
49 Cars
First Set Heats
1st Heat (10 Laps): 1) Sammy Swindell, 2) Seth Bergman, 3) Jeff Stasa, 4) Brandon Hawks, 5) Cody Ledger, 6) Dylan Peterson, 7) J.D. Johnson, 8) Ray Seeman, 9) Forrest Southerland, DNS) Terry McCarl
2nd Heat (10 Laps): 1) Brian Brown, 2) Johnny Herrera, 3) Blake Hahn, 4) Tim Crawley, 5) Jeremy Campbell, 6) Wade Nygaard, 7) Carson McCarl, 8) Brandan Mullen, 9) Kaden Taylor, 10) John Carney II
3rd Heat (10 Laps): 1) Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 2) Roger Crockett, 3) Daryn Pittman, 4) Harli White, 5) C.J. Hulsey, 6) Wyatt Burks, 7) Tucker Klaasmeyer, 8) J.R. Topper, 9) Shayle Bade, 10) Randy Woodside
4th Heat (10 Laps): 1) Jason Martin, 2) Matt Covington, 3) Paul Nienhiser, 4) Wayne Johnson, 5) Danny Jennings, 6) Jake Bubak, 7) Don Droud, Jr., 8) Brant O’Banion, 9) Ryan Roberts, 10) Nick Howard
5th Heat (10 Laps): 1) Jack Dover, 2) Kyle Bellm, 3) Jamie Ball, 4) Ryan Bickett, 5) Lee Grosz, 6) Tony Bruce, Jr., 7) Bill Balog, 8) Jake Greider, 9) Mason Daniel
Second Set Heats
1st Heat (10 Laps): 1) Brian Brown, 2) Bill Balog, 3) Jack Dover, 4) Wayne Johnson, 5) Kaden Taylor, 6) Wade Nygaard, 7) Matt Covington, 8) Jake Greider, 9) J.D. Johnson, 10) Shayle Bade
2nd Heat (10 Laps): 1) Brandon Hawks 2) Ryan Bickett, 3) Daryn Pittman, 4) Cody Ledger, 5) Jamie Ball, 6) Don Droud, Jr., 7) Danny Jennings, 8) John Carney II, 9) Jeff Stasa, 10) Carson McCarl
3rd Heat (10 Laps): 1) Sammy Swindell, 2) Jeremy Campbell, 3) Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 4) Kyle Bellm, 5) Seth Bergman, 6) C.J. Hulsey, 7) Ryan Roberts, 8) Jake Bubak, 9) J.R. Topper, 10) Harli White
4th Heat (10 Laps): 1) Blake Hahn, 2) Tim Crawley, 3) Lee Grosz, 4) Tucker Klaasmeyer, 5) Tony Bruce, Jr., 6) Dylan Peterson, DNS) Nick Howard, Forrest Southerland, Randy Woodside
5th Heat (10 Laps): 1) Brant O’Banion, 2) Johnny Herrera, 3) Paul Neinhiser, 4) Brandon Mullen, 5) Ray Seeman, 6) Jason Martin, 7) Wyatt Burks, 8) Mason Daniel, 9) Terry McCarl
A Feature (25 Laps): 1) Tim Crawley (2), 2) Sammy Swindell (1), 3) Brian Brown (6), 4) Daryn Pittman (3), 5) Seth Bergman (4), 6) Sam Hafertepe, Jr. (7), 7) Blake Hahn (5), 8) Wayne Johnson (10), 9) Kyle Bellm (14), 10) Paul Nienhiser (12), 11) Johnny Herrera (11), 12) Bill Balog (22), 13) Jack Dover (13), 14) Jeremy Campbell (17), 15) Brandon Hanks (9), 16) Ryan Bickett (8), 17) Jamie Ball (21), 18) Jason Martin (16), 19) Lee Grosz (20), 20) Tony Bruce, Jr. (18), 21) Matt Covington (15), 22) Roger Crockett (19), 23) Brant O’Banion (23)