Bedford regulars Jeff Rine and Matt Cosner turned back the stiff challenges from the outsiders in Friday night qualifications for the Keystone Cup at Bedford. In the twin 20 heat race format, Rine held off Garrett Smith to win the first one and Cosner defeated Gregg Satterlee and Chris Ferguson in the second. Those racers plus Rick Eckert all advanced to the dash to determine the first six starting positions in the Saturday night 60 lapper.
In other action, Nick Bechtel came from deep in the field to snag the Semi Late win, Cody Jarvie took his first ever Pure Stock win and Chris Graybill survived a slam bang action filled 4 Cylinder event for the win.
With the lineups for the qualifiers set directly from time trials, fast timer Jeff Rine started on the pole. After one false start, when Jim Bernheisel hit the wall in turn one, Rine shot by fellow front row starter Garrett Smith for the initial lead. But Smith stayed in the game challenging Rine repeatedly. Finally on lap 8, Smith shot by for the lead.
This time Rine was the aggressive challenger, hounding Smith. Two laps later, Rine retook the lead and this time he was able to move away from Smith, who fell into the grasp of Rick Eckert as the laps wound down. The top nine finishers qualified for the big Saturday show and they were Rine, Smith, Eckert, Colton Flinner, Mason Zeigler, Jared Miley, Gerg Moore, Ryan Montgomery and Bryan Bernheisel.
Matt Cisner grabbed the lead at the start of the second qualifier ahead of visitor Chris Ferguson. That event was wildly interrupted on lap three when Khi Swanger and Darras Deneen crashed hard in turn three. That crash was serious enough to cause an extended red flag period as crews worked to remove Swanger from his car and administer medical attention.
On the restart, Cosner was able to extend his lead as Gregg Satterlee moved in to challenge Ferguson. Satterlee finally got by for the spot on lap 17, chasing Cosner to the line. Ferguson, Kyle Hardy, Justin Weaver, Ross Robinson, Travis Stickley, Tim Smith and Alex Ferree were the qualifiers.
Jesse Snyder led the Semi Late event from the start but he drew a crowd at the front. Kyle Demeen and Brian Weyandt Jr shadowed the leader until Nick Bechtel caught them all. Bechtel picked his way through the gang, moving to second on lap 8. Two laps later he got by Snyder and led to the finish. Snyder held on for second, ahead of Weyandt, Deneen and Kyle Weyandt. Snyder and Travis Calhoun won the heats.
After a season of frustration, Cody Jarvie led from start to finish to win his first ever Pure Stock win. He led a four car pack for the first 12 laps until action was interrupted by the second red flag of the night when hard luck driver Mason Replogle got into, up on and against the backstretch wall.
After the clean up, Jarvie was challenged again but held on fir the win, Dalton Ritchey, Dalton Weyant, Jason Haggerty and Charlie Clise trailed Jarvie and came across the finish line in a tight group. Kevin Weyandt and Clise won the heats.
The slim 4 cylinder field also featured a red flag as several balled up at the start. When thongs got underway, Chris Graybill had the lead ahead of Brad Marker. That pair ran each other hard, making contact several times, including the last lap when Graybill held on for the win. Marker failed at the scale, moving Matt Kauffman, Deshawn Dempsey and Wayne Brenize into the top spots. There were no heats for the slim field.
SEMI LATE 15 LAP 1 Nick Bechtel, Jesse Snyder, Brian Weyandt, Kyle Deneen, Kyle Weyandt, Travis Calhoun, Bill Replogle, Josh Bumgartner, Laura Reilly, Bob Jay, Andrew Stough, Bradlee Means DNS John Miller
PURE STOCK 15 LAP 1 Cody Jarvie, Dalton Ritchey, Dalton Weyant, Jason Haggerty, Charlie Clise, Keith Killander, Darian Ritchey, Dominic Weyandt, Barry Clark, Mark Shope, Mason Replogle, Shawn Smthj, Kyle Beckett, DNS Kevin Weyandt
4 CYLINDER 15 LAP 1 Chris Graybill, Matt Kauffman, Chris Kauffman, Brandoin Bowman, Colin Welsh, Keshawn Dempsey Wayne Brenize, DNS Dusti Kinser, Jimmy Delozier
