Hillman wins third straight at Lincoln Park Speedway

Monday, May 19, 2008
Kent Christian took the lead with four laps to go in the sprint car feature and held on for the win Saturday night at Lincoln Park.

Mooresville's Chris Hillman has found Lincoln Park Speedway to his liking this year. Coming in with back-to-back super stock feature wins at the Putnamville oval, following Saturday's action you can make three the magic number.

With a track that took rubber quickly during the evening, Hillman's William's Precision Engine was more than enough to power him to victory followed by Doug McCullough and David Bumgardner.

Hillman won his heat race and drew the pole for the feature event and never let up from green flag to checkered.

Bumgardner made several charges at McCullough down the stretch, but didn't quite have enough to make the pass for second.

Much of the battle took place further back in the pack.

Curt Leonard and Kenny Carmichael Jr. duked it out for several laps in a contest for fourth place that eventually went to Leonard. Joe Whisler and Kris Starks were also in the thick for the fourth place hunt, but Starks spun late to drop back to 10th place as Whisler placed sixth overall. Slick Griffin scored a seventh spot with Travis Heramb and Elijah Himinger in ninth.

Thirty-one sprint cars unloaded for Saturday's card at Lincoln Park Speedway.

Terre Haute's Shawn Krockenberger won the opening heat race with Ty Deckard and Troy Link also scoring victories.

In the A-Main, Link powered his way out to a seemingly comfortable early lead, followed by Kent Christian and Deckard. Krockenberger and Danny Holtsclaw kept the front-runners in their sights and bided their time for a shot.

As Link built a half straightaway lead near the midpoint of the feature, Holtsclaw slipped off turn two to lose a few spots and Blake Fitzpatrick moved up to fifth place and Shane Hollingsworth advanced to seventh ahead of Bill Rose.

With seven laps remaining, Jonathan Hendrick got into the left rear tire of Kenny Carmichael Jr. in turn four and got upside down and ended the night for both drivers.

The red flag period seemed to give Christian just the break he needed.

On the re-start, Christian began reeling in Link in a hurry and eventually slipped past Link with four laps remaining and wouldn't be caught in his sprinter.

Christian crossed the finish line ahead of Deckard, Link, Krockenberger, Holtsclaw, Hollingsworth, Rose, Dickie Gaines, Billy Puterbaugh and Shain Matthews.

One night after taking a 13th place in a WolfPack Challenge event at Bloomington and breaking the qualifying record on the red clay, Ray Humphrey found victory lane.

The Bloomington driver registered himself as one of the men to beat by winning his UMP Modified heat race along with Paul Bumgardner and Mark Auler.

Starting up front, Humphrey grabbed the lead from the green flag with Bumgardner, Travis Shoulders and Daryl Herbert in pursuit.

All three are talented veterans and, though they raced each other hard for that second place spot, still raced a clean race while bringing the fans to the edge of their seats.

Shoulders got a good, aggressive run into turn one late in the feature to challenge Bumgardner and likely could have spun him for the spot, but checked up to avoid the contact that could have taken both drivers out.

Humphrey's Franklin-built racecar maintained his lead for the feature victory. Bumgardner retained second ahead of Shoulders, Herbert, Auler, Kenny Carmichael Sr., Wes McClara, Jaymie Turner, Carlos Bumgardner and Wayne Cooper in the top-10.

It's been a long while since C.J. Bryan cruised into victory lane according to the Terre Haute-driver, who took a while off from racing.

On Saturday, he re-visited the winners' area, holding off a very determined Lloyd Walls, who came from the back after winning the bomber feature last weekend.

Bryan chased down Kevin Kemp in the early laps to grab the lead in his machine.

Bryan and Brazil's Ron Wallen Jr. put on a side-by-side show with Kemp and Walls joining the fray.

The group managed to avoid any real contact despite a thrilling show for the crowd.

Bryan moved into the top spot and both Wallen and Walls continued their side-by-side battle. Walls eventually slipped past into second place and closed on Bryan during the final laps, but couldn't quite catch him in the waning laps.

Bryan took his first win of the year ahead of Walls, Wallen, Kemp, Michael Thompson, Ryan Freeland, Marc Yakel, Sean Yakel, David Daniels and Brad Neese.

Next week will be a regular card of sprints, modifieds, super stocks and bombers and will also feature a kids' bicycle race for several different age groups.

At Lincoln Park Speedway

Sprint car feature

1. Kent Christian, 2. Ty Deckard, 3. Troy Link, 4. Shawn Krockenberger, 5. Danny Holtsclaw, 6. Shane Hollingsworth, 7. Bill Rose, 8. Dickie Gaines, 9. Billy Puterbaugh, 10. Shain Matthews, 11. Blake Fitzpatrick, 12. Kenny Carmichael Sr., 13. Jason Holt, 14. Andrew Prather, 15. Rex Norris III, 16. Todd Kimmell, 17. Kenny Carmichael Jr., 18. Jonathan Hendrick, 19. Robbie Rice, 20. Aaron Mosley

B-main winner: Robbie Rice

Heat winners: Shawn Krockenberger, Ty Deckard, Troy Link

UMP Modified feature

1. Ray Humphrey, 2. Paul Bumgardner, 3. Travis Shoulders, 4. Daryl Herbert, 5. Mark Auler, 6. Kenny Carmichael Sr., 7. Wes McClara, 8. Jaymie Turner, 9. Carlos Bumgardner, 10. Wayne Cooper, 11. Harold Grayless, 12. Brian Kempf, 13. Jared Hix, 14. Robert Albright, 15. Tom Black, 16. Greg Amick, 17. Chris Brewer, 18. Doug Bryant Jr., 19. David Kingery Jr., 20. Michael Sterrett

B-main winner: Harold Grayless

Heat winners: Ray Humphrey, Paul Bumgardner, Mark Auler

Super Stock feature

1. Chris Hillman, 2. Doug McCullough, 3. David Bumgardner, 4. Curt Leonard, 5. Kenny Carmichael Jr., 6. Joe Whisler, 7. Slick Griffin, 8. Travis Heramb, 9. Elijah Himinger, 10. Kris Starks, 11. Joe Starks, 12. Scott Carrington, 13. Tami Lawson, 14. Joe Jeffries, 15. Derk Doub

Heat winners: Chris Hillman, Doug McCullough

Bomber Feature

1. C.J. Bryan, 2. Lloyd Walls, 3. Ron Wallen Jr., 4. Kevin Kemp, 5. Michael Thompson, 6. Ryan Freeland, 7. Marc Yakel, 8. Sean Yakel, 9. David Daniels, 10. Brad Neese, 11. Dustin Shoulders, 12. David Wallen, 13. Gary Long

Heat winners: Kevin Kemp, Dustin Shoulders

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