by Steve Birmingham
Granite City, IL – Tom Seets wasted little time getting in front of the title chase by sweeping the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series presented by Dodge season opener at Tri-City Speedway.
Seets, by virtue of his win in the second qualifying heat, watched from the third row as front row starters Bob Capps and Tommy Seets, Jr., led the Late Model main into turn one. Capps emerged the leader on the backstretch but Seets the senior quickly disposed of Pat Ryan and Capps to lead lap two. First qualifying heat winner Terry McClintock, making his return to Tri-City after a one-year hiatus, picked his way through traffic to claim the second spot at the halfway point.
Seets stretched his lead to 20 lengths over the flat half-mile dirt but McClintock was able to shave off 10 of those by the checkered flag. Ryan, Ken Johnson and Capps rounded out the top five.
Veteran Sportsman driver Bubb Mitchell notched his first career victory in the rough and tumble ShorTrack Series main event. Sam Kizer and Mitchell slugged it out for three laps before Mitchell was able to land the knockout punch. With Mitchell setting the pace first heat winner Brian McCormick, Pat Chalmers, second heat winner Terry Chester and Bert Jacoby laid into each other in a fierce side-by side battle to the checkers.
Mark “The Gas Man” Gass stunned the crowd with a blazing turn four pass to win his first career Mini-Sprint feature at Tri-City. Tom Ritter led the first five rounds but “The Gas Man” stuck his foot through the floorboard, yanked his winged speedster to the high side and flew past Ritter at the line for the lead and win. First qualifying heat winner Jason Howe took the place position and Ritter the show.
B.J. Seets, making his return to Tri-City after many years, remembered where the fast groove was and drove to the Modified checkers ahead of Joe Dresch and Rich Norden. Norden and Dresch won the qualifiers.
Bill Ernst fought off a hard-charging Billy Liebe to win the Street Stock main ahead of Jim Laughlin and David Parker. Benson won the qualifier.
Mel Perkins won the Hornet Swarm over Josh Porch and Billy Rose. Robert Crawford, Jr., and Rose took the Buzzes.
www.tricitymotorsports.com
Granite City, IL – Tom Seets wasted little time getting in front of the title chase by sweeping the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series presented by Dodge season opener at Tri-City Speedway.
Seets, by virtue of his win in the second qualifying heat, watched from the third row as front row starters Bob Capps and Tommy Seets, Jr., led the Late Model main into turn one. Capps emerged the leader on the backstretch but Seets the senior quickly disposed of Pat Ryan and Capps to lead lap two. First qualifying heat winner Terry McClintock, making his return to Tri-City after a one-year hiatus, picked his way through traffic to claim the second spot at the halfway point.
Seets stretched his lead to 20 lengths over the flat half-mile dirt but McClintock was able to shave off 10 of those by the checkered flag. Ryan, Ken Johnson and Capps rounded out the top five.
Veteran Sportsman driver Bubb Mitchell notched his first career victory in the rough and tumble ShorTrack Series main event. Sam Kizer and Mitchell slugged it out for three laps before Mitchell was able to land the knockout punch. With Mitchell setting the pace first heat winner Brian McCormick, Pat Chalmers, second heat winner Terry Chester and Bert Jacoby laid into each other in a fierce side-by side battle to the checkers.
Mark “The Gas Man” Gass stunned the crowd with a blazing turn four pass to win his first career Mini-Sprint feature at Tri-City. Tom Ritter led the first five rounds but “The Gas Man” stuck his foot through the floorboard, yanked his winged speedster to the high side and flew past Ritter at the line for the lead and win. First qualifying heat winner Jason Howe took the place position and Ritter the show.
B.J. Seets, making his return to Tri-City after many years, remembered where the fast groove was and drove to the Modified checkers ahead of Joe Dresch and Rich Norden. Norden and Dresch won the qualifiers.
Bill Ernst fought off a hard-charging Billy Liebe to win the Street Stock main ahead of Jim Laughlin and David Parker. Benson won the qualifier.
Mel Perkins won the Hornet Swarm over Josh Porch and Billy Rose. Robert Crawford, Jr., and Rose took the Buzzes.
www.tricitymotorsports.com
