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Gaines claims Putnamville Clash payday
By CAREY FOX
Times Sports Editor
PUTNAMVILLE - Twenty times Lincoln Park Speedway has
played host to the Putnamville Clash for sprint cars
and on Saturday night, Dickie Gaines scored the $2,000
victory, his second LPS feature win of the year.
Gaines started up front after winning his heat race in
the Pottorf Logging sponsored machine and once the
green flag dropped in the A-Main, he never looked
back. He quickly built a solid lead over Jeff Bland
Jr. who had his hands full with Casey Shuman and A.J.
Martin over the early stages of the feature.
Lapped traffic was the only real obstacle that Gaines
had to overcome through much of the event as he left
the rest of the field to battle for the runnerup spot.
Bland sank his teeth into that position and would
never relinquish it after starting on the pole
following his own heat race victory.
As Gaines dealt with the field's back markers, picking
his way methodically through traffic, Shuman closed
the gap on Bland for second spot. Kent Christian had
moved up to scrap with Martin for a top spot but the
two tangled, with Christian spinning. Martin would
keep his spot with Christian being sent to the back.
Several laps after the restart, Andrew Prather would
bring out the red flag when he got upside down off
turn two, collecting Shawn Krockenberger in the
process. Both drivers' nights' were over though there
were no injuries.
With nine laps remaining on the restart, Gaines again
pulled away from the competition to take the winner's
share ahead of Bland and Shuman. LPS points leader,
Billy Puterbaugh, rebounded following a heat race
accident, to take fourth ahead of Aaron Mosely,
Martin, Kenny Carmichael Jr. and Kenny Carmichael Sr..
Robbie Rice placed ninth and Christian raced back to
10th place overall.
For the Carmichael's, the solid sprint car placing was
just a sign of things to come.
Carmichael Sr., the two-time defending champion in the
sprint car division, claimed his first UMP Modified
feature win at LPS, leading green to checkered to help
reverse a frustrating summer.
Travis Shoulders made him earn every lap of that
feature victory, closing to Carmichael's bumper in
lapped traffic over the final five laps and nearly
edging the Terre Haute native at the line as each
navigated around back markers.
Carmichael was able to hold off Shoulders in Gary and
Debbie Hall's modified, sponsored by Bud's Auto
Salvage, VP Racing, David's Engine Service and
Carmichael's Exhaust.
Shoulders, who won two weeks ago in the last fully run
feature, moved past Paul Bumgardner in the early laps
and was able to slowly reel Carmichael in during the
last laps as traffic provided some blockage for both
drivers. But it was a grouping of several cars coming
off turns three and four on the final laps that nearly
changed the outcome of the race. With Carmichael
leading by a couple car lengths, Shoulders arrived on
his bumper behind a group of three cars racing for
position off the final corner. He made a final move on
Carmichael, but was unable to gain enough momentum for
the pass.
Carmichael grabbed his first checkered flag in a
modified at LPS with Shoulders, points leader, Paul
Bumgardner was third ahead of John Gurley and Chris
Brewer in the top-five. Jim Moore kicked off the next
five followed by Tim Meany, Phil VanSant, Jay Turner
and Gary Hall.
A thin crowd of 19 super stocks unloaded in
Putnamville on Saturday, but each of them had their
designs on taking the feature victory. But no one was
able to catch up to season points leader, Kenny
Carmichael Jr.
Starting on the outside of Joe Whisler on the front
row, Carmichael took the point from the green and was
able to maintain that advantage throughout the
feature. Whisler had his hands full with Kris Starks
over the early laps as the two put on a tight,
side-by-side fight for position.
Whisler would eventually win that race for position
and Starks settled into a third place spot. The top
three would remain that way with Doug McCullough
sorting out a new car for a fourth place finish ahead
of David Bumgardner. Mike Wright Jr. started the next
five followed by Curt Leonard, Jacob Wright, Mark
Dickerson and Carlos Bumgardner Sr.
Carmichael's win in the L&R Roofing, Bud's Auto
Salvage and Carmichael's Exhaust machine helped him
edge out to an 11 point lead over McCullough with
Whisler back in third place.
In the bomber feature, Lloyd Walls had no shortage of
challengers in the feature event.
However, he was up to the task of taking the victory
despite spirited exchanges with Ron Wallen Jr. over
the middle stages of the feature and Ron Wallen Sr.
down the stretch. Wallen Jr. had late mechanical woes
that dropped him out of the event despite his early
challenges for the top spot.
Walls would go on to take his fourth feature win of
the year ahead of Brazil's Wallen Sr., Kevin Kemp took
the third spot ahead of Tony Tidwell Jr. and
Rockville's Stan Sandusky. Ron Smith was sixth ahead
of David Wallen, Robert Hogan, Jeff Shepherd and Gary
Long.
Sprint Care Feature
1. Dickie Gaines, 2. Jeff Bland, 3. Casey Shuman, 4.
Billy Puterbaugh, 5. Aaron Mosley, 6. A.J. Martin, 7.
Kenny Carmichael JR. 8. Kenny Carmichael SR., 9.
Robbie Rice, 10. Kent Christian, 11. Geoff Dodge, 12.
Derek Campbell, 13. Derek Williams, 14. Mike
Murgoitio, 15. Lance Grimes, 16. Andrew Prather, 17.
Shawn Krockenberger, 18. Tim Creech II, 19. Troy Link,
20. Stephanie Tuttle
UMP Modified Feature
1. Kenny Carmichael Sr., 2. Travis Shoulders, 3. Paul
Bumgardner, 4. John Gurley, 5. Chris Brewer, 6. Jim
Moore, 7. Tim Meany, 8. Phil VanSant, 9. Jay Turner,
10. Gary Hall, 11. Doug Arnold, 12. Lee Bemis, 13.
Doug Bryant Jr., 14. Jared Hix, 15. Cullen Goodman,
16. Scott Ricketts, 17. Brad Robinson, 18. Rick
Fulford, 19. Sean Heerdink, 20. Dan Lewellen
Super Stock Feature
1. Kenny Carmichael Jr., 2. Joe Whisler, 3. Kris
Starks, 4. Doug McCullough, 5. David Bumgardner, 6.
Mike Wright Jr., 7. Curt Leonard, 8. Jacob Wright, 9.
Mark Dickerson, 10. Carlos Bumgardner, 11. Joe Starks,
12. Josh Allison, 13. Paul Wright, 14. Jefff Starks,
15. Dale McCullough Jr., 16. Scott Carrington, 17.
Karl Roethemeier, 18. Bryan Fagg, 19. Robert Haberle
Bomber Feature
1. Lloyd Walls, 2. Ron Wallen Sr., 3. Kevin Kemp, 4.
Tony Tidwell Jr., 5. Stan Sandusky, 6. Ron Smith, 7.
David Wallen, 8. Robert Hogan, 9. Jeff Shepherd, 10.
Gary Long, 11. Travis Heramb, 12. Steven Dayhuff, 13.
Mike Duncan, 14. Larry Shelley Jr., 15. Ron Wallen
Jr., 16. Chad Nolte, 17. Ben Williams, 18. Larry
Rowley III, 19. Doug Dunagan, 20. David Daniels
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