Columbus, MS - It's still "The Baddest Bullring in the South".
Saturday night, July 2nd, the crowd in attendance at Columbus Speedway was reminded of that fact. The event was the third race of the 5-part Firecracker Five Crown Summer Speedweek Super Late Model series. 130 race cars filled the pits and an excellent crowd of race fans filled the stands for an evening of wild, exciting racing action at Johnny Stokes' high-banked speedplant.
"The Ragin' Rebel" David Breazeale, still seeking his first "big" event win at The Bullring, would blister the track in qualifying with a 13.69-second attempt, besting Jason Smith's 13.87. With the top 12 locked into the feature, Two B-Mains - won by Chris Ragan and Garrett Durrett - would fill the 24-car field.
Breazeale would take command at the start of the 40-lap, $2,000-to-win Five Crown feature event, with Jason Smith leading the battling duo of Tombo Callahan and Rodney Wing. Callahan would bring out the first caution following the first lap, with David Gentry already up to 4th place from his 8th place starting spot. Breazeale continued to lead after the restart as Gentry raced door-to-door with Smith for second ahead of a dueling pair of #10 machines driven by Wing and Duck River Speedway Five Crown feature event winner Jay Brinkley. Behind those, yet another door-to-door battle was taking place between Mike Boland and Ronny Lee Hollingsworth.
Lap 4 would bring another break to the action with Breazeale, Smith, Gentry, Wing, and Brinkley in the top five. Gentry would take over second place on lap 5 in turn 4, with the battle for second going 4-wide by the time the pack reached turns 1 and 2. Brinkley would reclaim third exiting turn 4, only to have Wing and Boland once again pull up to make it a 3-wide race behind Gentry. The last of the early cautions would fall on lap 7, with Breazeale, Gentry, Brinkley, Wing, and Boland making up the top five.
The field fanned out all across the speedway on the restart, with Breazeale emerging once again as the leader on the rim as Gentry dove to the hub to challenge for the lead. Breazeale would hold on off of turn 4 as Wing drove outside of Brinkley and took over third place. Brinkley would move back in, this time with Mike Boland joining the battle for yet another 3-wide shot, and in turns 1 and 2, Gentry would be eaten up in the now 4-wide race for second place. By lap 10, Wing would have claimed second place with Brinkley in third, leaving Boland and Gentry to battle high and low for fourth place.
Gentry, running the rim of the track, would try to swoop down and around Boland on lap 14, but Boland held on to finally claim 4th place as Breazeale began to enter lapped traffic. Brinkley would overcome Wing to take second on lap 17, and Wing would move back in on the inside of Brinkley as Boland pulled up to their rear bumpers. The final caution would fall for Neil Baggett on lap 19, with Breazeale, Brinkley, Wing, Boland, and Gentry in the top five.
Breazeale raced ahead high on the rim of the track following the restart. Boland would clear Wing and go inside the middle-running Brinkley in a door-to-door battle for second place between the two top Five Crown points leaders that would last the entire remaining 21 laps of the event. Breazeale would once again enter lapped traffic ahead of the dueling duo on lap 27, while Gentry and 14th-starting Garrett Durrett battled for 5th place behind Wing. Breazeale would find himself boxed in behind one of many side-by-side battles in lapped traffic, allowing Brinkley and Boland to catch up on lap 36.
Brinkley would shoot under Breazeale in turns 3 and 4 on the same lap, but Breazeale would hold on down the front stretch and finally work his way through the traffic on the following lap, leaving Brinkley to once again have to deal with Boland. Gentry would ride high on the rim to challenge hub-running Wing on lap 38, and on the final circuit Boland would finally get around Brinkley and take over the runner-up spot. Breazeale would take the checkered flag and the win, followed by Boland, Brinkley, Wing, and Gentry. Durrett, Scott Dedwylder, Smith, Kelly Hanvey, and Brandon King would earn hard-fought top-ten honors.
Rusty Duncan would take the early Open-Wheel Modified feature race lead, then engage in a close-quarters double-wide battle with Jimmy Brasfield for the lead. Jason Hollis, Brian Rickman, and Chad Winkles would all take turns in a great battle for third place, but Rickman would emerge to draw Brasfield away from Duncan and race for second place by lap 16. Rickman, driving a V6-powered machine, would shed Brasfield and go for the lead on the final lap as he drove outside of Duncan, but Duncan would hold on to take his second consecutive Bullring feature win. Rickman, Brasfield, Winkles, and Hollis made up the top five.
The Late Model Stock event would turn out to be an exercise in attrition, with five cautions falling in the first 8 laps. Terry Mosley, who took the lead from Ruble Maxey on lap 3, would finally emerge as the winner, followed by Chris Jimerson, Jason Sanderford, Jeremy Glasgow, and Judson Littlejohn, who had to come from the rear of the 21-car pack twice over the course of the event.
The Street Stock event was another brutal slugfest, with David Honeycutt trying to hold off TK King in between numerous cautions. King would run on Honeycutt's bumper until the final lap, throw a slidejob deep into turn three coming to the checkers, and lead Honeycutt off of turn 4 onto the front stretch. Honeycutt swooped under King and would barely beat the #6 machine to the line in a true photo finish. Scott Stripling would nail down third place with Danny Gable and Richard West rounding out the top five.
The Mini Stock event would be a "family affair" as the Toyota-driving Minor family swept the podium. Bo Minor and Mike Minor would duel hard to the finish, with Bo taking the win, and Heath Minor would come home in third. Aaron Peay and Nick Deese would earn top-five honors, while the Minor clan would line up nose-to-tail on the front stretch following the race for the victory lane photo shoot.
Wayne & Jamie Sudduth would take the Two-Person Cruiser win over Kris & Kevin Monahan and Benji Jones & Curt Smith, while Daniel Honeycutt claimed the Hot Shot victory.
The Firecracker Five Crown Summer Speedweek series stays in Columbus for a Sunday evening race at Magnolia Motor Speedway in July 3rd. Stop by the Magnolia Motor Speedway website at www.MagnoliaMotorSpeedway.net for details. The next Columbus Speedway event will be a Weekly Racing Series show on Saturday, July 9th featuring Local Divisions, followed by the MSCCS-SUPR Challenge 6th Annual John L. Cliett Tribute on July 16th paying $4,000 to the Super Late Model winner. For more details stop by the Columbus Speedway official website located at www.ColumbusSpeedway.net .
Firecracker Five Crown Event 3 of 5
SUPER LATE MODEL
Pos. Car# Driver (Started)
1ST 54 DAVID BREAZEALE (1)
2ND 222 MIKE BOLAND (9)
3RD 10 JAY BRINKLEY (7)
4TH 10 RODNEY WING (3)
5TH 56 DAVID GENTRY (8)
6TH 58¢ GARRETT DURRETT (14)
7TH 33 SCOTT DEDWYLDER (12)
8TH 12 JASON SMITH (2)
9TH K0 KELLY HANVEY (16)
10TH 14 BRANDON KING (18)
11TH 121 ANTHONY BURROUGHS (10)
12TH 2 MARK STOKES (15)
13TH 21 NEIL BAGGETT (17)
14TH C16 CHRIS RAGAN (13)
15TH 12 JAMIE ELAM (5)
16TH 1 RONALD DUNN (21)
17TH 54 DANE DACUS (11)
18TH 5 SHAWN EDWARDS (22)
19TH 2R GLENN ROBERTS
20TH 3 TRACY PICKERING (20)
21ST 18 RONNY LEE HOLLINGSWORTH (6)
22ND 30 BRYAN DEESE (23)
23RD 20 TOMBO CALLAHAN (4)
24TH 15W RANDALL WALKER (24)
MODIFIED
Top 10
1ST 12 RUSTY DUNCAN
2ND 90 BRIAN RICKMAN
3RD 11 JIMMY BRASFIELD
4TH 12 CHAD WINKLES
5TH 5 JASON HOLLIS
6TH 2 LEE RAY
7TH W7 GREG WILHITE
8TH 7 JEROD ROLLER
9TH 15 DAVID HONEYCUTT
10TH 18 ROSS CAMPONOVO
LATE MODEL STOCK
Top 10
1ST 1T TERRY MOSLEY
2ND 18 CHRIS JIMERSON
3RD 76 JASON SANDERFORD
4TH 7 JEREMY GLASGOW
5TH 3 JUDSON LITTLEJOHN
6TH 75M RUBLE MAXEY
7TH 21 BEN MCCREARY
8TH 11 TIM TURNER
9TH H1 JERRY LUCAS
10TH 47 MITCH HARRISON
STREET STOCK
Top 5
1ST 15 DAVID HONEYCUTT
2ND 6 TK KING
3RD 10 SCOTT STRIPLING
4TH 47 DANNY GABLE
5TH 4 RICHARD WEST
6TH 74 NICK STOOP
7TH -1 JONATHAN EDWARDS
8TH LS1 JAY COLLUM
9TH 888 MIKE PEARSON
10TH 34 JOHN JONES
MINI STOCK
Top 5
1ST 1 BO MINOR
2ND 2 MIKE MINOR
3RD 21 HEATH MINOR
4TH 11 AARON PEAY
5TH 51 NICK DEESE
6TH 16 TIM RITTER
7TH 00 ADAM ROGERS
8TH 6 STANLEY BUSBIN
9TH R1 GREG RUFFIN
10TH 7 SCOTT GABLE
TWO-PERSON CRUISER
Top 5
1ST 11 WAYNE & JAMIE SUDDUTH
2ND 14 KRIS & KEVIN MONAHAN
3RD K6 BENJI JONES & CURT SMITH
4TH 00 JON STANFORD & RICKY LEWIS
5TH 56 KEVIN MCWILLIAMS & SHANE TILLEY
6TH 00 HOUSTON MOONEY & BRENT MITCHELL
7TH M2 JEREMY ROBERTSON & ALLEN HALL
8TH 8 JAMES SOLAR & GLEN AKIN
9TH 22 JOHN BEARD & RICHARD BARTON
10TH 37 JEREMY & MIKE HARRIS
