Lomax wins again; Hartzell back on podium
PLYMOUTH (JULY 8, 2017) – Frank Marshall closed in on Jamie Lomax with three laps to go in the Modified feature at Plymouth Speedway Saturday night, as the lead cars battled lapped traffic late in the race. Lomax held the lead and took the win, his fifth of the season.
After one caution on lap four, Lake Village, Ind.’s Lomax led the next 21 laps to the checkers. “We just tried to go where they (lapped traffic) wasn’t,” he said. “We just tried to find the escape route. I saw Frank (Marshall) back there and thought, ‘we gotta get going.’”
Marshall, of Valparaiso, netted his eighth top 10 finish this season. “That lapped traffic I thought was really gonna help me out. Jamie was really fast tonight; we didn’t’ have much for him,” Marshall said.
“It feels good to be up here,” Schererville’s Rich Dawson said, “I’ve got to thank my kid, every time he’s here we run top five.”
Randy Lines (Marion) was fourth and Bradley Jameson (Logansport) was fifth.
Eight cars ran 20 laps in the Pro Sprints race. Lakeville’s Eric Saunders started in the front, with Warsaw’s Michael Summers. Garrett Saunders (Lakeville) quickly took the lead from his third starting spot, while Plymouth’s Zane DeVault moved from eighth to third by the time a caution came out with two laps to go.
Setting up the green/white/checker, Garrett Saunders maintained the lead, with Eric Saunders and DeVault finishing second and third. Summers finished fourth and John Gurley of Osceola was fifth.
“Tonight we struggled a little bit,” Garrett said of the track. “I was expecting the top to be a little wider than it was. But it was really cool to have everyone out here tonight.”
“He’s (Garrett’s) crazy, he goes way up top and gets momentum up there,” Eric said of taking the low line on the track.
“That car was awesome from what we had in the heat race,” DeVault said. “I was sweating, that car was fast.”
Six cars were involved in a Turn 1 crash bringing out a caution on lap one of the 600 Open. The race was red flagged momentarily and when it went green, a spectacular flip by Dalton Richards (Lowell, Ind.) brought out the red again. Richards came around Turn 3 and went end over end, but wound up landing on his wheels.
Chad Hartzell (Granger) took the lead from Andy Hall (Fowler) when the race went green, and after a caution on the fifth lap, Hartzell never looked back. Nick Schaefer (Granger) slid into second and Morgan Castle pulled into third. Trey Johnson (Warsaw) made his way from his 15th starting spot to fourth, when Castle and Johnson tangled, flipping Johnson in Turn 3. Once the third red flag of the race was lifted, there were three laps to go.
Hartzell held off Schaefer for the win. “It’s about time. It’s been about a month of tough draws,” Hartzell said. “I gotta give a lot of thanks to Garrett Saunders. He spent some time with me over the last few weeks to really get this thing going.”
“I was more concerned with hitting my own marks,” Schaefer said. “Overall, it was a pretty good race.”
Mike Landis was third; Hall was fourth and South Bend’s Jacob Ruppe was fifth.
“The car was pretty decent,” Hobart’s Bob McLean said of leading all laps of a caution-free Super Streets race. Calvin Peek, Jr (Kokomo) came from sixth to finish second, and Shaun Wiltjer (Gary) finished third. Charlie Poague (Portage) was fourth and Winamac’s David Fritz was fifth.
In the Mini Wedge division, Clinton Hunter (Kokomo) took first place, followed by Ryin Zelmer (Eau Claire, Mich.), Justin White (Stevensville, Mich.), Preston Prater (Rochester) and A.J. White (St. Joe, Mich.).
There was no Thunder Stock race Saturday; next Saturday, July 15, there will be no Super Street race.
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