[singlepic id=67 w=320 h=240 float=right]DJ Troutman, only a week removed from having let one slip away, returned with a vengeance by dominating the Late Model event Friday at the Bedford Speedway. It was Troutman’s first Late Model win at the track in 2012 although he had scored a Limited win earlier While Troutman left no doubt in the Late Model event, each of the other races featured late race drama and in two cases a surprise winner. Josh Berrier went from 4th to first on the chaotic last lap of limited action, Travis Group slid into the Pure Stock win on the white flag and Cale Martin scored his first ever 4 Cylinder win.
Only a week ago DJ Troutman had a big lead wiped out when he tangled with a lapped car late in the race. That misfortune lowered his point average and rewarded him with an up front start this week. The Late Model race got off to a rocky start as pole sitter Chris Harr spun in front of the field in turn one. After the chaos was cleared, Troutman found himself on the pole. He jumped into the initial lead and ran off from the field.
Jeff Rine, driving his own #2 for the event arrived in second spot but failed to mount a serious challenge to Troutman, even though three cautions slowed the event. At the finish it was Troutman by a wide margin over Rine, followed by Chuck Clise, Greg Fetters and Jack Pencil. Lincoln Ritchey, Wayne Johnson, Eric Zembower Cory Weaver and Harr trailed. Point leader Matt Parks, who was in and out of the pits during the feature and Clise won the heats.
It was a bizarre turn of events at the end of the limited event which saw Josh Berrier snag his second Bedford win of the year. Travis Calhoun was the pole sitter and early leader. He held a lead over Ralph Morgan wjo moved into second on lap 7 but couldnt close over the first 19 all green flag laps. Berrier moved into third and held that spot as the field slowed for the first time on lap 19. for Rance Garlock. That set the stage for the wild one lap shootout that changed the order dramatically.
On that restart, Mike Altobelli got by Berrier for third, but second place runner Morgan spun in front of the field in turn three. The resulting caution nixxed Altobelli’s move on Barrier, But then Calhoun’s car broke while coming to the yellow and he headed pitward. Berrier inherited the lead and this time held off Altobelli’s advances for the win. Altobelli was close but trailed, followed by Robby Black, Matt Howsare, Tim Smith and Donnie Farlling. Nathan Lasalle, Ron Bottenfield, Troy Swindell and Doug Weller completed the top 10. Morgan and Black won the heats.
The Pure Stocks went 30 laps in their event and Travis Group needed all of them for the win. Bill Replogle was the pole sitter and early leader but he could not shake Group, Chad Gambol and late in the race Terry Norris
Norris caught the leaders and slithered through to show up in second on lap 18. Once there though he could not get by Replogle, lap after lap. At times a resurgent Group challenged the pair but the order did not change for many laps.
Everything changed though on lap 27 as Replogle stopped on the track with a broken car., Norris finally had thelead at that point but Group rallied. He slid by Norris on the white flag and romped on to his fourth win of the season. Norris was close but finished second, followed by RT Troutman, Ed Vogel, Bill Kennel and Jarrod Brown. Gambol , who dropped out from third on lap 17, and Replogle won the heats.
The 4 Cylinder race started off wildly as five cars all tangled at the drop of the green. After mayhem, all kept going only to get involved in a 9 car crash on the backstretch a half lap later. Phil Best was the pole sitter and early leader but Cale Martin got by early. He seemed to have things under control until Ron Valentine rallied late.
He closed but on the last lap he banked off the wall, just as Dustin Drake lost a wheel in turn two,.Valentine recovered but fell to fourth as Best and Dave Lambert scooted by as Martin raced to the win. The order at the finish was Martin, Best, Lambert, Valentine, EJ Johnson and Robert Pluta. Martin and Andrew Pluta won the heats.
LATE MODEL 25 LAP 1 DJ Troutman, 2 Jeff Rine, 3 Chuck Clise, 4 Greg Fetters, 5 Jack pencil, 6 Lincoln Ritchey, 7 Wayne Johnson, 8 Eric Zembower, 9 Cory Weaver, 10 Chris Harr, 11 Matt Parks, 12 Matt Sponaugle, 13 Tom Ericksen, 14 Nick Dickson,
LIMITED 20 LAP..1 Josh berrier, 2 Mike Altobelli Jr, 3 Robby Black, 4 Matt Howsare, 5 Tim Smith, 6 Donnie Farlling, 7 Nathan Lasalle, 8 Ron Bottenfield, 9 Troy Swindell, 10 Doug Weller, 11 Travis Calhoun, 12 Ralph Morgan, 13 Rance Garlock.
PURE STOCK 30 LAP 1 Travis Group, 2 Terry Norris, 3 RT Troutman, 4 Ed Vogel, 5 Bill Kennell, 6 Jarrod Brown, 7 Brad Feight, 8 Bill Replogle, 9 Mike Siegele, 10 Chad Gambol. 11 Tim Brown, 12 Adam Daniels,
4 CYLINDER 12 LAPS 1 Cale Martin, 2 Phil Best, 3 Dave Lambert, 4 Ron Valentine, 5 Dan Jackson, 6 EJ Johnson, 7 Robert Pluta, 8 Steve Frederick, 9 John Diehl, 10 Ernie Bowser, 11 Dustin Drake, 12 Kyle Beckett, 13 Josh Datko, 14 Andrew Pluta,
