By: Ron Burt
Kody Swanson won the pole and led all 100 laps of the Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness Rollie Beale Classic for USAC Silver Crown cars at Toledo Speedway, last Saturday. It was the fourth victory in a row and sixth so far in his career at Toledo Speedway. The driver from Kingsburg, California, going into this race was tied with the driver this event is named in memory of, Rollie Beale. Swanson is now the all-time winner of USAC races at Toledo Speedway. He has led 655 laps out of the 1,000 laps ever run in this series at the Toledo half-mile track.
Kody Swanson has won the last three USAC Silver Crown races. Six races remain on the 2022 Silver Crown schedule. Swanson leads the point standings with 384 points to Logan Seavey’s 366 and C.J. Leary’s 346 as he seeks an unprecedented seventh series championship. He is already the winningest driver in series history. Saturday night’s victory was number 36. With this pole he became the series’ first driver to have at least six pole positions at two different tracks. In addition to Toledo Motor Speedway, he has excelled at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Next up for the USAC Silver Crown Series will be from World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill., on Aug. 19. Most Silver Crown races are streamed live on Flo Racing.
Last Friday Attica Raceway Park was off and will be again this Friday night because of their county fair. The track is located at the fairgrounds. Action was hot and heavy at Gas City I-69 Speedway Friday. Max Adams became the sixth different Non-Wing, Sprint Car feature winner at the track so far this year. Polesitter Scotty Weir and, the defending track Sprint car champion, led the first 10 laps of the 25-lap feature. Adams started 4th and worked his way to the lead by lap 12 and stayed out front until lap 18 when the caution came out and things got interesting. He was passed on the restart by Weir. Once again, the caution flag came out after a couple of cars tangled. On the next restart, Weir’s car biked and bounced badly in Turn 2 on lap 20. Somehow, he regained control, but he dropped from first to fifth during his wild ride. This opened the door for Max Adam to take the lead and the win. Bibent took 2nd and Weir was able to get 3rd. The UMP Modified winner was Derek Losh but it wasn’t easy as Dylan Woodling stayed with him all 25 laps. Nick Richards took 3rd.
At Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon. Casey Noonan survived several late race restarts to earn his second Oakshade Raceway DIRTcar UMP Late Model feature win of the season which highlighted a wild evening of racing. Devin Shiels stayed with the leader most of the race but had to settle for 2nd, Steve Kester was 3rd. In the UMP Sportsmen Division, Adrian, Michigan’s Carter Murday trailed most of the race, running in the second position. Without the aid of any caution flags to tighten up the field, he found lapped traffic to be to his advantage. Murday closed the gap and in some heavy lapped traffic and took the lead with just two laps remaining, for the win.
Three divisions raced at Fremont Speedway last Saturday. The 410-Winged Sprint winner was Craig Mintz. Paul Weaver won the 305-Sprint Feature and Jeff Babcock took the win in the Dirt Trucks. A complete recap from tri-state racetracks can be found my Facebook page, Ohio Sports Blitz. Until next week, keep your wheels down. Ron Out! ohiosportsblitz@yahoo.com
