CORNING – Eighty-three cars were in attendance Saturday night for Northland Oil Stock Car Night with Northland Oil Stock Car King of the Hill. The O’Reilly Auto Parts Late Models also made their first appearance at ACS in almost a month.
The pressure was high for the late model drivers as they came into Saturday night with just two points night remaining on the schedule. The three finalists voted on by the fans for Keystone Light Smoothest Driver for the Northland Stock Car class were Derrick Dredge, Brad Herring and Buck Schafroth. Herring won the award racking up more votes than anybody else in any class.
O’Reilly Auto Parts Late Models
Feature action began with the O’Reilly Auto Parts Late Models. Sterling Perkins started on the pole but was quickly overtaken by Andrew Kosiski for the lead. Kosiski never looked back from there, holding onto the lead despite hard charges from championship contenders Bill Leighton Jr. and Jason O’Brien.
Kosiski held on to pick up his first-ever win at ACS, while Leighton held off O’Brien for second, points leader Corey Zeitner finished fourth and Paul Glendenning rallied from his last place starting position to finish fifth. Sept. 2 is the only points night remaining on the calendar for the Late Models and the championship battle is destined to come down to the wire as Corey Zeitner is currently the man in charge, but he only holds a two-point lead over O’Brien with Leighton close behind, only eight points behind Zeitner.
Northland Oil Stock Cars
You’d be hard pressed to find one car in the event that didn’t deal with some sort of adversity, including Bedford’s Brad Derry, who overcame a broken shock to get to victory lane.
Things started off early when accident on the first lap of the race collected Jonathan Kinser, Rick Bissell, Kevin Sharp and Buck Schafroth, leaving extensive damage to Buck’s No. 92 Wreckers or Checkers Bar machine. Tony Hardisty quickly jumped out to a lead over Brad Derry while the two battled fiercely for the lead, however a broken ball joint on Hardisty’s machine while running door to door with Derry led to an accident between the two cars that cut Hardisty’s night short and sent Derry to the pits for his crew to repair a broken shock.
Kevin Sharp took the lead after this and looked like he might be on his way to the win, but Derry quickly charged through the field and got around Sharp on the last lap to pick up the win, his first in almost two years. Sharp came home in second followed by Buck Schafroth in third, Joe Zadina in fourth and Jesse Lund in fifth.
Tri-State Ford Compacts
Rookie Dustin Thompson has broke onto the scene in the Tri-State Ford Compacts this year. The Villisca native has four wins on the season, leads the weekly points standings and finds himself in the top three in the national standings. He kept his string of good luck going Saturday night in dominating fashion.
Thompson started the feature in sixth and took the lead on the first lap where he would hold onto it. Thompson held off charges from Chris Vannausdle and Buddy Haidsiak, but was never in any imminent danger even when a caution came out with just a few laps to go. Thompson cruised to his fifth win of the season while extending his points lead. Vannausdle finished second, Evan Hrabik finished third followed by Haidsiak in fourth and Dean Richards rounded out the top five.
Chat Mobility Hobby Stocks
“Lightning McQueen” Jerid Lund retired from last week’s Chat Mobility Hobby Stocks feature with an electrical problem. The same problem plagued Lund during hot laps, but he wouldn’t be denied as the Greenfield native captured his third win of the season in a wild feature race.
Lund started on the front row and quickly drove to the front while Brad Derry piloted the No. 17 machine up into the second spot. It appeared Derry might have something for Lund but a cut tire created an accident between Lund, Derry, David Weeda and Luke Ramsey. However, officials credited Lund with the lead following the accident. Lund had to hold off fierce charges from Weeda and Tom Myers but held on for the win. Weeda finished second followed by Myers in third, Chris Bates in fourth and Luke Ramsey rounded out the top five.
Poet Bio-Refining Modifieds
Ryan Jenkins had his work cut out for him in the Poet Bio-Refining Modified feature on Saturday night.
The Omaha native started in the 10th position and methodically worked his way up to the front while fellow Nebraskan Jacob Hobscheidt led the early half of the race. A caution at around the halfway point bottled things back up. Hobscheidt bobbled on the restart while Jenkins and Wiggins flew around him. The two then proceeded to battle for the lead, exchanging it a couple times before Jenkins finally pulled away for his second win of the season. Wiggins finished in second, followed by Jesse Dennis in fourth and Jacob Hobscheidt rounded out the top five.
King of the Hill
Action concluded on Saturday night with the stock car King of the Hill.
In the first round, Joe Zadina defeated Dillon Carlisle, Cody Clark defeated Jesse Lund, Tony Hardisty defeated Jonathan Kinser and Buck Schafroth defeated James Carroll. In the quarterfinals, Cody Clark defeated Joe Zadina and Tony Hardisty defeated Buck Schafroth to set up the showdown between Clark and Hardisty.
Things got dicey on the first lap as the two cars got together and went around. The accident prompted ACS officials to allow both drivers to attend to their crews for repairs and was ruled a complete restart. Hardisty hit his marks on the second try and cruised to royalty and the right to be named stock car King of the Hill.
This week
Saturday night at the Adams County Speedway promises to be an exciting night at the races. The Malvern Bank Super Late Model Series make their second appearance of the season and the Karl’s Chevrolet Dirt Truck Racing Association makes its first appearance at ACS in years. Grandstand admission is $15 for adults, $7 for kids age 7 through 17 and kids 6 and under get in free. Hot laps will begin at 6:30 p.m. with heat races at 7.