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Mother Nature Loses Again

April 20th, 2019

     It’s nothing new that the weather in April can be quite unpredictable in Idaho as was the case on Saturday night.  Mother nature threw wind, rain, dust, and cold temperatures on the Nascar Home Track 1/3 mile oval but didn’t prevail.  The drivers, teams, staff, and our diehard fans toughed it out and in the end, saw a great show on Watkins Distributing Easter Weekend night.

     The night started out with the first of two Bud Modified main events as the class is now part of the Division 1 NASCAR Home Tracks program.  A full field of 12 modifieds took the green and after a few laps, Utah’s Lynn Hardy found himself in the lead.  Zach Webster, Eric Rhead, and Zach Telford all took shots at Hardy during the 35 lap main event, but Hardy’s car was too strong and took the checkered flag in the opening race of 2019 for the Bud Modifieds.

     The Cactus Pete’s Street Stocks made an appearance for the second consecutive week.  Mitch Pehrson held the early lead after last week’s main event winner, Ryan Walker, was hounding his rear bumper.  Walker was patiently waiting for the right moment to make his move as Pehrson was elbows up trying to fight a loose car.  That moment came as Walker was able to get underneath Pehrson for the lead and held it all the way to the end to capture his second main event win in a row. 

     The always exciting Quale’s Electronics Jr Stingers took to their infield track and at the drop of the green, Zach Rydalch looked like a man on a mission grabbing the lead within the first few laps.  He extended that lead to the point where he lapped the entire field at the ¾ mark of the race.  Last week’s main event winner, Brayden Sweatfield, who found the wall and put the car on its roof during practice earlier in the day, drove his backup car back around Rydalch to put himself back on the lead lap which almost paid off for him but a late race caution put Sweatfield on the rear bumper of Rydalch for the restart but Rydalch’s car proved to be too much and drove it all the way to the checkers.

     The Sawtooth Auto Sales Hornets found a couple of different combinations of tracks for their main event.  The first half of the main event saw the cars going clockwise using both the infield and the big track where 2018 champion, Shelby Dalton, was cutting through the traffic like a hot knife through butter and didn’t take long before she was in the lead.  She continued to mow down the lap cars but a hard charging Chad Everett was coming to the front.  A late race caution and a change of direction on the track for the hornets found Chad Everett taking command of the lead on the restart and held it all the way to the checkers, therefore adding a hornet victory to his impressive list of victories in different classes. 

     The final main of the event of the evening was the 2^nd main events for the Bud Modifieds.  As the green flew, the first 5 laps of the race saw side by side battles throughout the entire field.  It was soon sorted out as Eddy Cole found sole possession of the lead but the fast guys in the back were coming to the front.  2018 Intermountain Outlaw Modified Champion, Eric Rhead, picked his way to the front.  Zach Telford, Lynn Hardy, and quick qualifier from earlier in the day Jason Quale, all found trouble during the middle portion of the race bringing out separate cautions.  All 3 drivers were relegated to the rear of the field but all 3 were able to fight their way back up to the front.  In the end, Telford had his chances to grab the lead away from Rhead on a couple of restarts but the veteran modified racer Rhead was able to keep Telford behind him each time and drove it to victory making the Redbone Trucking team double main event winners on the evening. 

     Next Saturday night, April 27th, will be La Fiesta Restaurant night where we will feature the return of the Magic Valley Pipe Midgets, Denny’s Minis, Project Filter Bombers, Quale’s Electronics Jr Stingers, and the exciting ISRL sprint cars.  Gates open at 5:00pm, McDonalds Qualifying at 5:30, and racing at 6:00pm.  We will see you at the races!!

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