Saturday’s double feature night at Kalamazoo Speedway presented the fans with all five series racing two features. It was extremely busy down pit road, with everyone prepared to run two features and some drivers running all ten. The excitement didn’t let up throughout the night of non-stop feature races.
Cyber Stocks were the first feature to roll off pit road. Half way through the 15-lap race Jason Ratashak No. 17 and Logan Knight No. 24 made it two wide the rest of the way. At the end it was Ratashak with the win. He hadn’t been out for a couple weeks but was glad to be back for his third race this season. Jason said, “I thought I’d come out and give it a shot. Logan and I had a wonderful race, the best race I’ve ever had side by side the whole night. It was a lot of fun.”
Pure Stocks came second in the lineup. An early race collision between the race leader Steve Brown No. 5 and Lloyd Brooks No. 22 paved the way for the rest of the race. Brown was unable to get the car back to the front after the collision cut down the left front tire and sent him to the pits twice. Brooks went on to win the feature over Matt Bainbridge No. 88. Brooks was glad to be in the winner's circle, “We both went to the same spot and I thought he (Steve Brown) was going high. The yellow came out and I guess I didn’t let up when I should have. I’m lucky ours didn’t go flat, his did and I’m sorry about that.”
The Sportsman feature was littered with cautions and gave a lot of driver the chance to move up as long as they kept their cars clean. In the end it was Andy Bozell No. 16 over last years champion Courtney Weston No. 23. Bozell’s drive for ten was looking up after his first win of the night. Instead of pictures and trophies he had to pull into the pits and jump into his modified car for the next race. Bozell talked about it after the night, “The win was a surprise. We got the car on Thursday night, put an engine from my modified in it and didn’t even scale it.”
The Modified feature went by quickly with few cautions. In the end it was Ben Raber No. 3 over Chris Singleton No. 42. Raber had a bump and run on Singleton and was gone after that. Raber said, “He run me high a couple times and I decided screw it I’m going there anyway. We hit the left front wheel and it pushed the slider box all the way in. We had a really good race car all year, all we needed was some luck.” Raber felt good about their chances in the second race as long as they could get the coolant issue taken care of.
The first Late Model feature started a big upset in the points for the rest of the night. A wreck in turn one took the point leader Terry Senneker Jr. No. 37 out of the race. The win went to Andy Bozell No. 83. This added to his sportsman feature win earlier in the night. Bozell had a chance to reflect on the race at the end of the night, “We had a good car in the race, it feels good to win a couple.” The question after the race was if Terry Senneker was going to be able to participate in the second feature of the night. Senneker’s car was unable to be repaired in time so fellow driver lent him his racecar so that he could compete in the second feature.
The second Cyber Stock feature included another amazing finish. Dale Leonard No. 94 worked his way through the field and found himself in the lead. With only a handful of laps to go a caution came out. Nick Layman No. 5, in second, tried to get a jump on Dale during the restart. Finishing side by side it was Dale Leonard who came out with the victory. With his second feature win of the year Dale said, “That was tough one to get right there. You can’t race with a better bunch of guys. Between the two race it was a lot of work.”
The second Pure Stock feature did not disappoint. Andy Bozell’s original car had problems but Steve Brown lent him his No. 5 car so that he could continue his quest for all ten races. Matt Bainbridge No. 88 won over Keith Wilfong No. 75. After his second place finish in the first feature Bainbridge was happy to get his first feature win of the year. “I made some minor adjustment but the car was actually worse in the second. I was just able to hold them off.”
The second Sportsman feature was emotional for the winner Chris Shannon No. 8 who topped Phil Bozell No. 6 for the victory. Chris started on the pole and after a scuffle for the lead took off, “My dad said I ran out to a good lead but then I came up on lapped traffic and that got me worried. I had to go inside and outside and my dad said they were gaining on me but once I got around the traffic I was gone.” This is Chris’ first feature win in two year and said, “This race was huge. We’ve been racing all year thinking about my grandma who we lost last year to cancer. We’ve been racing hard for her and this win is in her memory.”
The second Modified race of the night was a great battle but it was not first the drivers fought over. In the end, the toughest fight of the night was over second place. The leader and winner was AJ Foote No. 88, who drove away from the field. AJ was excited, “This is awesome, never won a feature out here. We’ve come close a couple times finishing second. My guys have worked hard all season and I don’t even know what to say this is unreal. I still don’t believe it; you’d think I’d just won a NASCAR race. I’ve won a lot of races but it’s impossible to win them out here and when you do it’s an accomplishment.”
The final feature of the night was the Late Models and the struggle for Terry Senneker continued. His teammate Steve Needles gets his first feature of the season, “When we started off we weren’t really good. We’ve kind been that way all year where the car doesn’t start off to well but after about fifteen laps in it take off.” What’s this going to do for you in the points? “Hopefully it will pick us up a couple spots. We’ve been struggling this year with a couple DNF’s early this season and it hurt us in the points so hopefully this will give us a little boost.” Terry Senneker had the lead in the points going into the night but after finishing 20th in the first race and 18th in the second, Senneker gave up the lead in points to Andy Bozell.
