Andy Haus, with a dominating performance, took the longest Bedford event of the season, the Labor Day 55, at Bedford Friday night. It was Haus’ first win in the prestigious event and he became the first second generation winner, following two wins by his father in the 90s. In other action on the final point race of the season, Jonathan Taylor, Erik Weyandt and Darren Howsare also scored wins.
Andy Haus made the best of a front row starting position in the Late Model 55. He shot off to the lead at the start and basically never looked back. Several early minor cautions slowed the field but Haus got away on every restart. Rine found himself locked into a ferocious battle with Dylan Yoder for second which started on about lap 10 and lasted for the duration.
Haus’ only worry happened on lap 24 as he was clipped while lapping Jeff Johnson. The resulting action saw Johnson impact the inside guardrail heavily while Haus suffered only slight damage. After that action, the event went all green. Matt Cosner secured fourth spot with 20 to go and began to reel in the battle between Rine and Yoder, but he fell short at the finish.
Haus secured the win. Rine was able to survive Yoder’s challenge to keep second, while Cosner was fourth. Colby Frye completed the top five. Haus and Rine won the heats. In earlier time trial action, both Chad Hollenbeck and Matt Parks crashed in the first turn. Parks was able to join the feature lineup, but Hollenbeck, who crashed after setting a new track record on his lap, was done for the evening. Just by starting the event, Rine claimed the 2017 point title.
The EMod event started off wildly as front row starter Rich Goodman spun in turn one in front of the field. Mass Chaos ensued but both the point contenders, Bill Pluta and Alyssa Rowe made it through cleanly.
On the second attempt, Mike Altobelli Jr was the leader but Jonathan Taylor came charging from his fifth starting spot to blast by for the lead. Vandergrift followed Taylor through the field and emerged in second but was unable to close on him.
The point race took adramatic turn for Rowe as she pitted for a flat tire during a mid race caution, seemingly destroying her hopes. But fast pit work allowed her to rejoin the field without losing a lap.
Pluta seemed like the beneficiary of that bad luck as he needed only to finish ahead of Rowe to claim the title, but his day ended when an engine expired on the front stretch. With Pluta out, Rowe had to finish well to take the title and point counting began.
At the finish, Taylor took the checkered flag ahead of Vandergrift, with Altobelli, Derek Dusenberry and Mike Reynolds in the top five. Rowe was tenth, taking the title by only four points over Pluta.
The Pure Stock event was a wild one and also had the point title in play. Laura Chamberlain took the initial lead and held off the field. Denny Pittman led a mob of 12 cars chasing Chamberlain but she did not waver. Lap after lap Pittman challenged Chamberlain until he finally squeezed by on lap nine. When Trent Clark also tried to go by, there was a collision which saw Clark into the fourh turn wall. Since the lap hadn’t been completed, Chamberlain resumed the lead.
On the restart, Pittman again made the big move but Erik Weyandt whipped by them both to secure the lead. Chamberlain again held off Pittman. After the field took the white flag, Chamberlain got sideways in turn two. She saved it but the bunched up field behind her scattered in all directions. Going three and four wide up the backstretch, it was wild as cars banked off each other going for positions. Barry Weyandt made the biggest move in the mayhem as he secured second, But Brad Feight made the most productive move. Feight, hopelessly behind point challenger Kyle Weyandt at the star of the lap, moved up six positions in the melee, including Weyandt and emerged for a fifth place finish, securing the 2017 title.
At the finish, the wildly reshuffled finish saw the Weyandts one and two, followed by Pittman, Tyler Ritchey and Feight. Kyle Weyandt finished 7th.
Steve Frederick led the 4 Cylinder event early but it was a wild 4 car breakaway. Darren Howsare, Kolby Crawley ans Chris Graybill ran in a pack with Frederick, until Howsare got by. After that, Howsare led the distance to score the win over Crawley, Graybill, Wayne Brenize and Frederick. Brenize had the 2017 title sewed up before the event started. Crawley and Brenize won the heats.
LATE MODEL 55 LAP 1 Andy Haus, Jeff Rine, Dylan Yoder, Matt Cosner, Colby Frye, Austn Hubbard, Dab Angellichio, Allen Brannon, DJ Troutman, Matt Sponaugle, Wayne Johnson, Gene Knaub, Brian Bernheisel, Chuck Clise, Jeff Johnson, Jason Covert, DNS Chad Hollenbeck, Dave Troutman.
EMOD 18 LAPS 1 Jonathan Taylor, Vic Vandergrift, Mike Altobelli Jr, Derek Deusenberry, Mike Reynolds, Beau Aikey, Rich Goodman, Drake Troutman, Dennis Perigo, Alyssa Rowe Jamie Kohan, John Whitield, Bruse Dreistadt, Justin Milburn, Todd Goss, Brian Fife, Mike Meck, Bill Pluta, Dave Brown
PURE STOCK 15 LAPS 1 Erik Weyandt, Barry Weyandt, Denny Pittman, Tyler Ritchey. Brad Feight, Dave Lambert, Kyle Weyandt, Laura Chamberlain, Josh Frankenberry, Reed Stickel, Nathan Gilliland, Kevin Weyandt, James Foor, Trent Clark, Kyle Beckett, Bill Replogle, Travis Group, DNS Dakota Foor
4 CYLINDER 12 LAPS 1 Darren Howsare, Kolby Crawley, Chris Graybill, Wayne Brenize, Steve Frederick, Todd Price, Josh Fetters, Delmar Donivan, Eric Zimmerman, Bryan Ickes, Kyle Frankenberry
Rusty Martin
