Mason, MI (07/28/2021) – Race fans were treated to a rare mid-week race event Wednesday night at Corrigan Oil Speedway. “Prime Time” was the theme touted by track personnel and the event lived up to its name. The Shaheen Chevrolet Outlaw Super Late Models were the first half of the racing show as they were participating in the fifth race of the NorthsideTowing.net Big 8 Super Late Model Series. The other half was Modified Challenge Series Race #5 for the Sawyers Chevrolet Modifieds.
17 Outlaws registered at the pit gate for the show and heat race winners included Jason Felver, Blake Childers, and Phil Bozell. The top three finishers in each heat race then redrew for feature starting positions. During pre-race introductions, the drivers were then asked, from first to ninth, if they would like to accept the Charlie Ryan Jr. challenge by starting at the rear to earn the $600 hard charger award, posted by Northside Service. One by one, each driver declined the challenge, and the field stayed as originally planned. This put Doug True and Blake Childers on the front row. Childers jumped out front from the outside lane to pace the field. Early on, drivers tried to settle in and pace themselves for the 65 lap affair. The 65 laps celebrates the 65th anniversary of the historic speed plant.
By lap 5 most the field was single file with Childers leading, followed by True, Felver, Bozell, and Justin Claucherty. Childers starts to pull away as the battle for second heats up. Felver kept trying to dig under True off the corners, but couldn’t keep the momentum down low to complete the pass. While this is going on, Bozell starts poking his nose outside of Felver. Pretty soon, it’s a three car battle with cars stacking up behind them, and Childers pulling away.
On lap 13, Bozell completes the pass outside of Felver, and three laps later, he has True caught on the outside of him to take second. By now, Childers has a straight away lead, but he also has slower traffic to negotiate in front of him. This is just what Phil needed, as once he was clear of True, he ran Childers down in a matter of a few laps. But getting around Blake proved to be more of a challenge. Bozell hounded Childers as they maneuvered through traffic, and finally on lap 35, Bozell was able to trap Childers behind a slower car and take over the lead. After the pass for the lead, Phil never looked back. He distanced himself from everyone as this race went caution free to the end.
Bozell claimed his fourth win in five tries in the series and holds a sizable point lead going into the last three races. His climb from sixth to first was good enough for the hard charger award. Felver caught Childers also once Bozell was by, but it took him far too long to get around Blake, finally on lap 56, to be able to mount any charge on Bozell. Felver would settle for second, followed by Childers, True, and Claucherty the top five. With Kyle Drake, Adam Terry, Craig Everage, Andy Bozell, and Jimmy O Smith completing the top ten.
The next NorthsideTowing.net Big 8 Super Late Model Series race is scheduled for Friday, August 13 at Corrigan Oil Speedway. Go to http://www.corriganoilspeedway.com for updates and more information.
Story - Ed Inloes, Horsepower Happenings
Photo - Jim DenHamer