Experience speaks volumes as Bobby Jones captures Evergreen Raceway 602 Crate Modified laurels
COLUMN BY: Dino Oberto – EVERGREEN RACEWAY – BUTLER TOWNSHIP, PA – When it comes to experienced drivers on the eastern Pennsylvania short track asphalt circuit, Lehighton’s Bobby Jones stands out as one of the elites, and he proved that once again on Sunday afternoon at Evergreen Raceway winning the 602 Crate Modified feature and doing so by leading flag-to-flag.
And for Jones, winning is something he’s been doing for 35 years as the victory marked his 65th overall career win.
By luck of the draw, Jones started from the pole for the 30-lap main. Once the race got underway, he faced constant pressure from several challengers. Steve Shultz, Jayden Harman, and Brian Sones each took repeated shots at him, especially on restarts, but Jones never wavered. His experience showed in the way he adapted to every challenge and stayed in control throughout the race.
“These cars without the big motor in them it makes everyone so close on the restarts so I do a little bit of protecting and make sure they just can’t get me from underneath or the outside, so I slow down then and then pick up my rhythm from there,” said Jones.
Jones races for car owner Paul French and his victory wrapped up a fruitful weekend for the team. On Friday Jake Crum won the SMART Tour race at Virginia’s Franklin County Speedway and Saturday evening at Evergreen Bryce Bailey finished a solid second in the Tour Type Modified feature.
“We were tweaking all day, and I made some phone calls. I called Bryce and got information from last night and that really helped us today,” related Jones.
“And those guys set the bar for me this weekend with Jake winning on Friday and Bryce coming in second yesterday with the (Tour Type) Modifieds, so I had to win and this one was special too because it came on my grandson Luke’s birthday, so this goes out to him.”
Making his first appearance in a 602 Crate Modified, Brian Sones gave Jones a close chase to the finish and made a great impression with his runner-up tally. Harman, Micah Adams and Shultz completed the top five.
Nick Ross of White Haven showed up as the defending Late Model champion and made a statement that he will be tough again this year as he picked up the victory.
Ross got behind early leader Mike Sweeney by lap two and had Brian Romig Jr., on his tail. For Ross, he was able to clear enough space from Romig and then set his sights on Sweeney.
Over the past few seasons Sweeney and Ross have been the two most dominant drivers in Late Models, and they soon showed why as they went into a scintillating side-by-side battle while never once touching.
Ross was taking his fight to the top side and eventually eked past Sweeney on lap 13, however, the pass did not stick as the yellow flew and negated his efforts. But Ross would use the restart to try again and this time it worked. After that he was on his way, going on to notch his 41st career win.
On a lap 19 restart Romig was able to hustle by Sweeney and those two stayed second and third to the finish.
The Street Stock feature saw Scott Adams of Lake Ariel take the lead on lap 11 and go on to claim the win. But before he would go to the top spot there was a whole lot of intense action that took place.
Payton Arthofer had led from the outset, but she was surrounded by a slew of on-comers. Brandon Oltra tried but could not get by her, likewise reigning champ Gordie Buchman as well as Adams.
There then came a moment on lap 10 when a wild three-wide fight for the lead took place between Arthofer, Adams and Oltra plus hovering close to the trio was Buchman. And coming out of the tussle would be Adams who showed the way from that point on.
By lap 16 Mike Pollack moved up to second but had nothing for the leader as Adams was able to maintain a two car-length gap to the finish.
In the Four Cylinders it looked for a time that Michael Wambold was heading to a win. Wambold was leading for the majority of the race and holding his own nicely in the process. But with eight laps to go things took a turn for the worse when his car began to sputter and he was forced to pull out of the contest.
Taking over from there was Johnny Bennett of Jim Thorpe who would have to fend off Tyler Skordensky the rest of the way in securing the verdict.
In a repeat performance of the previous night, Josh Young of Berwick captured his second straight Rotten-and-Forgotten feature within a 24 hour period.
Young picked his way past Dan Jensen, Sam Jensen and John Cool which got him to second spot by lap 14. He was now behind leader Vince Corter and once there he began to plot his plan of attack. Using the outside groove to make his move, Young zipped by for the lead with 10 laps to go.
The win became even sweeter as his son, Jordan Young, came home in second.
It seems that when the East Coast Legend Series comes to Evergreen it has become the personal playground for Riley O’Keefe of Manorville, NY.
Just as he did back on May 3 when they last visited and just as he did at last year’s season-ending King of the Green, O’Keefe took the win, making it four straight.
This most recent win came by way of taking the lead on a lap six restart from Devin Thornton. He then held off a hard-charging Jeffery Farruggia en route to victory.
O’Keefe also garnered the “Make It A Double” award bonus of having the best average weekend finish among the Legends thanks to the night prior when he captured the season opener at Riverhead Raceway, which he also did on his last visit.
602 Crate Modified finish (30 laps): 1. Bobby Jones, 2. Brian Sones, 3. Jayden Harman, 4. Micah Adams, 5. Steve Shultz, 6. Jacob Kerstetter, 7. Mike Albasini, 8. Marty Noll, 9. Don Betterly, 10. Jerry Hildebrand, 11. Avery Arthofer
Late Model feature finish (30 laps): 1. Nick Ross, 2. Brian Romig Jr., 3. Mike Sweeney, 4. Evan Berretta, 5. Marc Aigledinger, 6. Brian Romig Sr., 7. Roger Maynor, 8. Brett Peters, 9. Joe Galada, 10. Michael Klotz, 11. Ryan Rochelle, 12. Steve Adams
Street Stock feature finish (25 laps): 1. Scott Adams, 2. Mike Pollack, 3. Brandon Oltra, 4. Gordie Buchman, 5. Peyton Arthofer, 6. Mallory Kutz, 7. Dennis Buss, 8. Paul Frantz, 9. TJ Kemmerer, 10. Tommy Flanagan
Four Cylinder feature finish (25 laps): 1. Johnny Bennett, 2. Tyler Skordensky, 3. Jared Frye, 4. Robert McNulty, 5. Jay Kanor, 6. Maggie Wambold, 7. David Carney, 8. Jacob Knittle, 9. Lauren Skuski, 10. Michael Wambold, 11. Caitlyn Makarewicz
Rotten-and-Forgotten feature finish (25 laps): 1. Josh Young, 2. Jordan Young, 3. Sam Jensen, 4. Vince Corter, 5. John Cool, 6. Dan Jensen, 7. Brice Jensen
Legends feature finish (20 laps) 1. Riley O’Keefe, 2. Jeffery Farruggia, 3. Chris Sinatro, 4. Brad Lowmaster, 5. Landen Herring, 6. Chris Piasecki, 7. Devin Thornton, 8. AJ Wright, 9. Cliff Shaw, 10. Brayton Malbeuf, 11. Joel Hall, 12. Jayden Hall
