As close as it gets at Adams Co. Speedway

CORNING — In stock car racing the winner of a race is the first car to complete the given race distance in the least amount of time. And even if the margin of time between the first place car and the second place car is less than one one-thousandth of a second, a win is a win. And that’s just what Jeremy Purdy did in his Chat Mobility hobby stock when he nipped Jeremy Auten by inches at the finish line on Saturday.

Racing on the first night that felt like summer at ACS saw one repeat winner, one defending champion, and three new faces in the Miller Lite Victory Lane. Along with Purdy, it was defending Northland Oil pro-stock champion Jason Rold, repeat winner Jeff Jones in the Stalker Chevrolet b-mods, Larry Foote in his Poet Biorefining modified, and Corey Zeitner’s Coors Light Silver Bullet late model in the Miller Lite Victory Lane.

The evening started off rough when B-mod rookie Andrew Clark ended his night with less than one completed lap as he rolled in turns three and four ending up on his lid against the north berm. Clark was transported to Alegent Hospital in Corning for a precautionary check but was back at the track before the evening was through.

Hobby stock

By the time the features rolled around the air was still warm and humid and the track was providing racing in multiple grooves from top to bottom. The Chat Mobility hobby stock feature turned into a marathon event punctuated by multiple cautions, but when the last chance call went out with three laps to go the drivers kept it clean and green to the closest finish in recent memory.

Kenny Champ used his pole position start to lead the first four laps of the feature until Jeremy Purdy piloted his number 4 machine to the lead by lap five. Throughout many cautions Purdy hung on until a lap 12 caution grouped the field one last time. By this point Jeremy Auten had moved from his 12th starting position to second, and by the time they came out of turn four headed to the checkers they were side by side.

At the line it was Purdy with the win, but with an imperceptibly small margin of victory. Auten was followed by Champ, defending champion Matt McAtee and last week’s winner Rick Ritchie.

B-modified

Jeff Jones made it two weeks in a row taking the Frank Tomkinson owned 14J car to victory lane in the Stalker Chevrolet b-mod feature. Jones made it a steady march to the front by starting tenth in the 15-lap feature and, after a great opening lap picked off one car per lap to take the lead on lap six. Essex’s Blain Peterson moved to the front with Jones and the two were side by side coming out of turn two on lap 14 when both made contact with a lapped car.

Petersen was the victim having to go to the pits to change a tire and restart at the rear of the field. Jones held on to get his second win in two weeks followed by Tyler Gross, Ron Ballinger, Brett Sheppard, and Petersen finding his way back to fifth place at the finish.

Pro stock

With eight time track champion Greg Miller starting on the pole in the Northland Oil pro-stock feature it looked like maybe he would walk away with a win, but Clarinda’s Craig Garner and defending champion Jason Rold would have none of that. Lap after lap those three drivers swapped positions and paint racing so close you could have thrown a single blanket over all three cars. And as those three battled for the lead it was Tony Hardisty, Kevin Sharp, Brad Derry and Cody Clark mixing it up with their own battle for position.

In a race that went caution free it was Rold ahead of Garner for the win in a margin of 15 one-hundredths of a second followed by Miller in third. Fourth through seventh were Hardisty, Sharp, Derry, and Clark all within a one-half second gap.

In the Poet Biorefining modifieds veteran racer Larry Foote drove a flawless race to lead from start to finish after starting on the pole. While Jared Stiens had won both features so far this year it was apparent we would see a new face in victory lane when Stiens hit the pits early with motor trouble. Altoona’s John Davis came from his inside row four starting position to second place with 10 laps to go in the event but Foote refused to give up the lead. Davis was followed by Dan Mueller, Ryan Stiens, and Eric Hanna in fifth.

Late models

The feature division Coors Light Silver Bullet late models again started 22 roaring competitors for their 25-lap feature. With race cars using virtually every available racing lane on the track it became apparent moving to the front was not going to be an easy task on this evening. Tim Cooney lead early from his pole position start, only to give up the lead to late model rookie Justin Cooper who had started beside him.

It wasn’t until the midpoint of the race with Omaha’s Corey Zeitner took over a lead he would never relinquish. Zeitner has returned to race regularly at ACS this year after a multi-year stretch racing other area tracks but has quickly shown he knows his way around the Adams County oval.

Zeitner was followed beneath the checkers by Cooney, multi-time track champion Chris Spieker, Justin Zeitner, and Jason O’Brien.

Helicopter tours

Racing returns to ACS this Saturday with USG Night and more NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action. Additionally, Johnson Helicopter Services from Red Oak will be back on hand providing helicopter tours of ACS and Lake Icaria beginning at 5 p.m. from the speedway parking lot.

For full race results and details see www.acspeedway.com www.facebook.com/acspeedway.