By Mike Clother

OMG!! Jones makes it 3 in a row

Jim Jones seems unbeatable recently. In the past 3 Vintage Modified events Jones has set fast time and won the feature main at each, picking up the South Sound Speedway track record along the way. Even after a hot lap mishap with stand in driver Darren Berg behind the wheel tore off the right front suspension of Jones’ car he , his crew and several competitors got the car fixed in time to set fast time for the night of 15.008 seconds. By the end of the night Jones had moved past Bob Fulmer to take over the season points lead.

Charley West, Jr. in his bright orange Dodge Coupe won the B heat from the 2nd row. He passed Mel Smith and Dan Watkins to gain the lead and stay there for 8 laps. Chuck Peterson and John Mustered followed him.

The A heat was lead off by Josh Wyne in the “fastest Ford in the VMRA”. He was flanked by Robert Rux and followed by Mike Clother. Wyne got a great start with Clother on his bumper into turn one. Bob Fulmer worked his way past Dave Trapp to take over 3rd. Kiel Hobbs’ car left the track with transmission failure. Stand in driver Darren Berg took a black flag to the pits for his part in the only caution flag. It appeared that Wyne would lead flag to flag until the last lap when he slipped a bit and allowed Clother to get below him on the back straightaway. Clother completed the pass to take the checkers.

Because cautions plagued the preliminary mains the track race director, Nick Benn, challenged the VMRA to run a caution free main event. It was not to be. Charley West led off the field with John Mustered on his right. Chuck Peterson and Josh Wyne followed them. The pack stayed in tight formation until lap 8 when rookie points leader, Josh Petersen, who had started in the rear of the field, pulled his car to the infield with a blown engine. Unfortunately his engine oil was still in turn 3 and 4. As the field roared through those turns cars began spinning. Bob Fulmer spent a short time up on two wheels and Chuck Peterson spun to the infield. The race was stopped while the track was cleaned up. All the cars, except Petersen, were able to continue. On the restart West was still in the lead but Jones was working his usual high line and heading for the front. Clother passed Peterson and followed Fulmer past Mustered. Fulmer worked hard trying to pass young Kiel Hobbs but finally watched as Hobbs followed Jones passed West for the lead. The rest of the race was incident free and Jones took his 4th victory of the season and moved into the point lead. Kiel Hobbs finished 2nd. He was heard saying he is “tired of being a bridesmaid to Jones”. With that finish Hobbs moved past Clother into 3rd place in the points chase. Charley West finished 3rd in only his second start of the season. Fulmer was 4th and Clother 5th with Dave Trapp hot on his trail in 6th. John Mustered finished 7th.

The points chase is tighter than Larry the cable guy’s Tee shirt. Next race is at State Line Speedway in Post Falls, Idaho.