If the second night of racing at Volusia Speedway was anything like the first night, fans were going to be on the edge of their seat. Bicknell Racing Products customers were heating up the track, looking to score their second gator of the event.
During the qualifying session, Bicknell Racing Products customers set fastest time in 3 of the 4 sessions. Alan Johnson, who was fast on the Friday night as well, was at the top of his group along with Matt Sheppard and Tim Fuller leading their groups.
The heats were a great indication that BRP drivers were on point for the night. Half of those drivers that made it to the redraw were BRP customers. Alan Johnson would continue his good runs picking up the heat win over Erick Rudolph. Heat 2 would see the Doctor Danny Johnson and Mario Clair advance, heat 3 was all Matt Sheppard over Billy Dunn, and heat for saw Tim Fuller pick up the checkers in his new Graham Racing ride for 2017.
After Friday night’s stellar performance from Justin Haers, a finish out of the top 5 in his heat relegated him to the consi, in which he would pick up the win to advance him to the A main event along with Larry Wight.
The sun had long since set over Volusia, and the track Saturday night was over 2 seconds slower than Friday night. A totally different monster to tame, but that did not seem to deter anybody from going after what they came there to get, the gator. Brett Hearn was at an advantage after pulling the outside pole position, and everyone knew as the night had rolled on that passing was going to be at a premium. At the Drop of the green Hearn and Max McLaughlin, who had pulled the pole position in the redraw were 1 and 2 followed closely be Sheppard. Lap traffic would come into play on lap 10 of the 40 lap feature event, but the caution would come out for Larry White who fell off the pace with brake line issues. The field would get doubled up, and on the drop of the green it was Hearn back to the front leading over McLaughlin and Sheppard. It seemed to be Hearn’s race to loose since the drop of the green flag. Mike Bowman and Justin Haers would both have tire issues sending them pit side for new just past the half way point. A restart with 14 to go would see a little bit of shuffling in the field as Danny Johnson would move himself into the 4th positions, but Billy Dunn would bring out the caution with 10 to go. He would take his car pit side for the remainder of the race. On the restart the Doctor would move to third, Fuller to second and that’s how it would remain till the checkers fell over the field. Eric Rudolph would take home sixth, while Alan Johnson and Larry Wight would all finish eighth and ninth.
Although BRP did not go home with the gator on Saturday night. It is safe to say that BRP customer s are not going to back down easily in the 2017 season. A strong showing from all drivers over the past week demonstrated why BRP is the number chassis manufacturer. Over the two nights of racing BRP customers would set fastest time in 5 of the 8 groups, pick up 6 of the possible 8 heats wins, have 5 drivers in the top 10 at the end of both feature events, pick-up the win in the non qualifier race, and were able to snag 1 gator.
The Super Dirt Car Series officially kicks off their season in 2 months’ time at the Fulton Speedway on Saturday April 29th.