OPINION — The racing weekend started early with Bradford Speedway hosting their final event of the season on Thursday night.  Bradford reopened this summer with a new owner running Friday nights and brought down the curtain on Thursday night with the Sept. 7 make-up.  Bradford takes you back to racing from years gone by.  The track is a uniquely-shaped ?-mile oval with a real tight turn on the inside, but wide on the outside.  Bradford made for my 150th different lifetime track.

On hand were 12 Crate Late Models, 10 Stock Cars, 12 Pure Stocks, and 15 Mini Stocks.  Garrett Mott has been racing for several years now and was never able to make it to victory lane.  The Smethport, Pa. racer has now ended the year strong with two straight wins and garnered the track championship as well!  Steve Mowery won the Stock Cars with Joe Layfield taking the Pure Stocks and Brian Conn winning the Mini Stocks.  For more information on Bradford, check out their website at www.bradfordspeedway.com.

The “Apple Festival Nationals” kicked off on Friday night at Sharon Speedway as 150 race cars jammed the pit area. For awhile it looked like the second straight rainout and eighth of the season was a likelihood, but track officials decided to wait out the slow progressing rain. After four hours of light rain, it finally ended at 6:30 p.m. and racing got started about two and half hours later with the May 27 Open Stock Car make-up feature.

After winning three of the first seven features this season, Will Thomas III hit a dry spell over the next seven events; however, on Friday night the FASTRAK Late Model point leader put on a stellar performance to hold off standouts Max Blair and Mike Pegher, Jr. for the 20-lap $1,000 feature win. The 36-year-old Sharpsville racer is in his first full season of FASTRAK after a great asphalt career.

Not only had defending E-Mod track champion Carl McKinney not won a feature this year at Sharon, but the 41-year-old Mars veteran had been shutout of victory lane on the UEMS circuit, which he currently leads the points. McKinney picked a good night to get his first of the season as he led all 25 laps to become the season’s ninth different winner. The victory was worth $1,000.

The night kicked off with the May 27 Open Stock Car make-up feature and it was Tommy Fox winning his first ever at the track. The race was shortened to 15 laps as just 12 cars made the call for the $750 to-win feature. The Jamestown, New York racer became the ninth different winner of the season.

In the night’s regularly scheduled 20-lap Open Stock Car event, Brian Carothers put on the best ever performance of his career charging from the 19th starting position to win the $500 event. The victory was the 33-year-old Youngstown, Ohio racer’s second of the season and just fourth of his career.

Making his first ever appearance, recently turned 14-year-old Casey Bowers put on a dominating performance leading wire-to-wire in the 15-lap Econo Mod feature to become the youngest winner in the 84-year history of the Hartford, Ohio oval. Bowers was the season’s ninth different winner in the highly-competitive division, which produced a record car count on Friday night of 23 cars. The victory for the Cranesville driver was worth $350.

After finishing second for five straight weeks and seven times in the season’s first 10 races, Jamie Wrightsman has really picked up the pace winning for the third time in the past six races. The 22-year-old Cortland, Ohio driver’s $200 win came in the 12-lap Deforest Mini Stock feature, which was opened up to allow six-cylinders to compete.

The “Apple Festival Nationals” concluded on Saturday at Sharon with perfect weather conditions as the car count topped Friday’s by one car- 151 to 150!

After a rough night at the FASTRAK Weekly Series Late Model event on Friday night at Sharon, Chad Wright was unsure if he was going to return for Saturday’s Tour event; however, the last minute decision provided fruitful as Wright put on the best performance of his career with a dominating effort for his first career Northeast Touring Series victory. The 18-year-old Springboro racer passed John Over early in the race and was never challenged for the $1,200 victory in the non-stop 25-lap event timed in 7:17.958. Wright became the 11th different Sharon FASTRAK winner.

Joel Watson continued to show his muscle in the E-Mods. The Conneaut, Ohio ace led all 25 laps of the feature and held off a hard charge by 25th starting Andy Buckley of Stoneboro to capture the UEMS-sanctioned event. Ironically at the last regular Sharon event it was Buckley holding off Watson for his first career E-Mod win. Watson’s fourth win of the season at Sharon was worth $1,000 and came over a star-studded field of 41 cars!

Earlier this season Rod Laskey won his first career Sharon Speedway feature after years of trying.  On Saturday night, the 36-year-old Oil City racer ran the race of his life coming from 18th to win the $1,000 Open Stock Car 20-lap feature. This was one night after another Sharon regular, Brian Carothers, charged from 19th to win the biggest race of his career. For the second straight night, a great field of 46 cars was on hand.

On July 13 at Raceway 7, Casey Bowers stopped Brandon Blackshear’s domination of the Econo Mods for his first career win.  The 14-year-old racer decided to come to Sharon Speedway for the first time ever this weekend and may have just made a name for himself. After leading all 15 laps on Friday night to become the youngest winner in the 84-year history of the speedway, Bowers backed it up with a last lap pass on Saturday night for the clean sweep of the $700 “Apple Festival Nationals” weekend!

After finishing second for five straight weeks and seven times in the season’s first 10 races, Cortland, Ohio’s Jamie Wrightsman has appeared to replace Jim Haefke. Jr. as the driver to beat. Wrightsman made it a clean sweep of the $400 “Apple Festival Nationals” Mini Stock Weekend as he won for the third straight race and fourth time in the past seven races!

Sharon Speedway will be in action this Saturday night at 7 p.m. featuring the Big-Block Modifieds, FASTRAK Late Models, E-Mods, Econo Mods, and Mini Stocks.  There will be no Stock Cars due to Mercer Raceway Park’s “Little Guy Nationals”.

Mercer didn’t host any racing action this past Saturday due to truck and tractor pulls, but their 12th annual “Little Guy Nationals” will be contested on Friday and Saturday with complete shows each night for the “358” Modifieds, Open Stock Cars, Limited Sprints, Mod Lites, Micro Sprints, and Mini Stocks. 

Lernerville Speedway returns to action on Saturday night as the World of Outlaw Sprints return for their second and final stop of the 2012 season.  The event will pay $10,000 to-win.  It’ll be the last race before the season ending “Steel City Stampede” on October 26-27.

On Sunday, I headed west to Waynesfield Motorsports Park located right smack in the cornfield just south of Waynesfield, Ohio. It was my first visit to the ?-mile track in about five years since making my first visit there for an Ohio Speedweek All Star Sprint Car event.

Sunday’s event was the fourth annual “Jack Hewitt Classic” featuring the non-wing Sprint Cars- and what a field turned out; 54 cars strong with drivers

that I know represented from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, New York, Michigan, California, Arizona, and Florida.  Waynesfield was totally overwhelmed with the amount of cars in the pits as there were also 38 E-Mods, 26 Mini Sprints, and 20 Trucks.

Racing was supposed to get underway at 6 p.m., but due to the extra time it took to hot lap and then qualify the Sprints, it was after 7 before racing got underway.  The racing was tremendous in the Sprints, but way too many divisions and too late of a start time for a Sunday night.  The Sprint Cars was the first of four features and it didn’t start until a few minutes past 11.

The 30-lap Sprint feature was a good one as the amazing Kyle Larson just continues to win in anything he jumps in.  The California driver qualified second fastest, went from sixth to second in his heat, then finished the night going from fifth to win the $3,000 feature.  Larson was third after one lap, passed fellow CA racer Robert Ballou on lap four then made the winning pass of race-long leader Bryan Clauson on lap 15.  Larson went unchallenged in a race that had just one stoppage.  Larson could put the Fox #53 anywhere he wanted to on the track and pass race cars.

Last weekend, Larson won the $20,000 Gold Cup with the World of Outlaw Sprints in Chico, CA.  Earlier this season Larson grabbed local headlines scoring Ohio Speedweek All Star Speedweek wins at the nearby Wayne County and Cannonball Speedways then lost the Sharon event with a flat tire on the last lap.  Sunday was Larson’s 102nd race he’s run this season, while it was my 101st race attended!

Clauson held off Ballou for second with fast qualifier Coleman Gulick and Shane Cottle completing the top five.  It was a tough break for the Evans City racer Brandon Spithaler, who was leading his heat race only to have the rear end go out ending his night.  It was good to see Jack Hewitt behind the wheel of a race car again as he competed in a Sprint for the first time in many years  Congrats to third generation racer Ryan Blaney on his first career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory on Saturday night at Iowa Speedway.  Ryan is the grandson of the late Lou Blaney and son of Dave Blaney.   

Waynefield is a great little racey speedway campaigning normally on Saturday nights featuring the non-wing Sprints.  For more information, check out their website at www.waynesfieldmotorsportspark.com. 



Mike Leone writes this weekly motorsports column for Allied News. Follow  his  updates on Twitter @mikevleone