Jeff Rine completely dominated the field while taking the Late Model win Friday night at the Bedford Speedway. Rine’s win, the 35th of his Bedford career, came by over a half lap over the field and was meaningful as it was the Bob Elbin Memorial event, honoring the late driver and car owner, and it came in the car Elbin once owned.
In other action, Drake Troutman won the EMod event and Charlie Clise rallied late to score the Pure Stock win.
Drake Troutman was on the pole by the luck of the draw and jumped out to the early lead. With Troutman using the cushion, Rine tried the bottom several times before they switched lanes and Rine blew by on lap 10. The field was slowed only two laps later when several cars got together in turn 4 after several cars got tied up with Kyle Lee while Lee was slowing to go pitside. It would be the only caution in the event.
When the green flew, Rine zoomed away as Troutman held off Matt Sponaugle early and then later a charging Rick Eckert for second. But all eyes were on Matt Cosner who was rushing forward after starting 14th in the field.
Eckert finally as the got by Troutman in lapped traffic on lap 30 but Rine was long gone. Cosner, without the aid of another caution, ran down both Troutman and Sponaugle late, moving from fifth to third on the final two laps as Rine rushed on to take the win by almost 11 seconds, one of the largest victory margins in recent Bedford memory. Eckert, Cosner, Troutman and Sponaugle trailed. Rine and Troutman won the heats.
The Elbin family joined Rine in victory lane, having sponsored various bonus treats for the event as well as providing the winning car.
Doing double duty. Drake Troutman rebounded by winning the EMod event which followed. He started on the pole in the pill draw event and easily led the distance. Brandon Hoover chased Troutman the distance in the event which like the Late Model race featured only one caution, but settled for second at the line, Donnie Farlling, Travis Cottle and Brandon Householder trailed. Troutman and Jacob Marker won the heats.
The Pure Stock race featured a 5 car breakaway as Dalton Ritchey led the pack. Charlie Clise led the challengers with Dalton Weyant, Derek Hinish and Kyle Deneen in tow, That gang was broken up when several of them all got together in turn one on lap 12, leaving Clise to challenge Ritchey alone. And that he did.
Lap after lap Clise was able to stick a nose under Ritchey in each turn but could not effect the pass. Finally on lap 19, Ritchey dove to the bottom to block and Clise gladly swept by on the outside. Clise then led Ritchey to the finish, scoring his second win of the year. Behind the top two, the field ran in a knot as earlier spinners Weyant and Kyle Beckett wrestled their way through traffic. Beckett rallied late to take third ahead of Weyant and Cody Jarvie.
Heats were won by Anthony Fama and Derek Hinish. The second heat featured a wild crash as Barry Clark, returning after a wild front stretch flip a few weeks ago, got involved in a wild three car crash in turn four, almost flipping again. Clark was uninjured but the recently repaired car was again heavily damaged.
The events on the Elbin Memorial night went for distances of 40 laps, 26 laps and 26 laps with the total of 92 being the Elbin family car number, with many drivers and fans receiving bonuses provided by the Elbin family..
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LATE MODEL 40 LAPS 1 Jeff Rine, Rick Eckert, Matt Cosner, Drake Troutman, Matt Sponaugle, Jon Lee, Dan Stone, Chuck Clise, Andy Haus, Nathan Lasalle, Travis Stickley, Kyle Lee Tim Smith, Wayne Johnson, DNS Trevor Feathers.
EMOD 26 LAPS 1 Drake Troutman, Brandon Hoover, Donnie Farlling, Travis Cottle, Brandon Householder, David Green, John Whitfield, Mike Meck, Jacob Marker, Harlan Group, DNS Jacob Whitt.
PURE STOCK 26 LAPS 1 Charlie Clise, Dalton Ritchey, Kyle Beckett Dalton Ritchey,l Cody Jarvie, Anthony Fama, Bill Shehan, Derek Hinish, Kyle Deneen, Darien Ritchey, DNS barry Clark, Cole Stickel, Anthony Troutman, Denver Dishong.
