Fitzpatrick wins King of Non-wing title

Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Ethan Barrow (No. 15) and Blake Fitzpatrick (No. 10) fight for the top spot during the King of Non-wing sprint feature at Lincoln Park Speedway Saturday. Fitzpatrick went on to score his fifth feature win of the season.

PUTNAMVILLE -- Saturday night was a great night for Terre Haute based sprint car drivers as Blake Fitzpatrick, sponsored by First Financial Bank, Lucas Oil and Indy Race Parts, piloted his No. 10 sprinter to a victory in the King of Non-wing feature at Lincoln Park Speedway. Shortly thereafter, Kenny Carmichael Sr. claimed the second sprint feature of the evening. Both drivers hail from Terre Haute and topped a talented group of 36 sprint cars in Putnamville.

Overall there were 130 cars on hand in a busy night of action at the central Indiana hotbed of racing.

Of special note on Saturday were the debuts of new color schemes for sprint car driver, Jared Harris, and modified pilot, Travis Shoulders. Both drivers unwrapped special Breast Cancer Awareness designs on beautiful cars and have goals of raising plenty of money to help find a cure. Jason Lawson, the car owner of Shoulders' No. 59, raised $30 donations toward the cause. Fat Head Sunglasses and Frameworks Marketing helped with the wrap design on the car.

Fitzpatrick won his heat race and started outside of row two for the A-main alongside Lance Grimes as Danny Holtsclaw and Ethan Barrow made up the front row. Behind them, Jon Stanbrough lurked with a 12th-place start.

Once the green flag dropped, it quickly became apparent that it was going to take a Herculean effort from another driver to pry the feature win away from Fitzpatrick, who already owned four feature wins this season. The new Spike race car was on a rail and Fitzpatrick was locked into the quick path around the top of the track. Barrow led a couple of early laps before Fitzpatrick was able to rip around Barrow on the top of turn two. From there, he began to pull away quickly and built a straightaway lead. Behind him, Barrow and Holtsclaw fought, side-by-side, for second with Grimes in fourth and Stanbrough quickly arriving on the scene after picking his way through traffic.

Up front, Fitzpatrick had found his way into lapped traffic and began to work through masterfully as Stanbrough worked his way into third and set his sights on Holtsclaw with Barrow behind him and Grimes holding off Jesse Cramer, Shane Hollingsworth and Casey Shuman.

Fitzpatrick continued to work his way through the back markers, lapping nearly half the field as Stanbrough picked off Holtsclaw for the runner-up spot over the final laps. No one would catch Fitzpatrick however as Stanbrough scored the runner-up spot ahead of Holtsclaw, Barrow and Shuman in the top five. Grimes, Cramer, last week's winner, Jonathan Vennard was eighth with Hollingsworth and Jeff Bland in the top 10.

The second feature of the evening was all Carmichael Sr. as he led from the outset ahead of Jared Harris and Braylon Fitzpatrick. Carmichael built a solid lead before Fitzpatrick made a late run and made things interesting over the final couple of laps. However, Carmichael claimed the prize with Tommy Rockwell in third ahead of Kenny Carmichael Jr. and Brian Lake in the top five.

In the UMP Modified feature, Craig Conyer and Matt Bex hooked up in a duel between a pair of No. 31s. The door-to-door race lasted for nearly the entire feature before Conyer was able to edge away for a one-car length win at the finish line.

Shoulders won his heat and started up front alongside Bex with Conyer and Brad Barrow behind them.

From the start, Bex and Conyer were all over each other with Shoulders and Barrow neck and neck for the second spot. Wes McClara led both Carlos Bumgardner and Paul Bumgardner behind him.

A couple of cautions slowed the battles briefly near the mid-point, however, over the final 10 laps Bex took the high line and nosed ahead of Conyer through turns one and two, but Conyer rocketed back ahead through three and four. The fight went to the wire as the pair was side-by-side over the final few laps before Conyer got an extra bit of bite on the bottom of turn three and held Bex at bay as the checkered flag waved. Barrow came home third ahead of McClara and Shoulders with Mark Grosvener, Brian Yeatman, Chris Brewer, Kenny Carmichael Sr. and Josh Boller in the top 10.

In the UMP Super Stock main event, Jeremy Hines was the class of the field on this night, leading from the drop of the green and holding off a challenge from Chris Hillman and Steve Peeden down the stretch. Hines survived a couple of early cautions in the Stuckwisch Appliances, F.O. E. Post 655, Bedford Transport machine and averted near disaster on the final lap as his car stalled in turn three. However, he was able to re-start it while maintaining the lead through turn four to hold off Hillman charging behind him. Carmichael Sr. was fourth ahead of Doug McCullough, Travis Butler, Steve Hollars, Slick Griffin, Rob Paris, who won the B-main and moved up from 16th. Scott Tidwell was 10th.

There were 42 bombers on hand Saturday night and the decision was made to run a pair of features.

The first feature was claimed by a familiar face as Dustin Shoulders claimed his 11th feature win of the season with Ben Williams edging out Corey Gregory at the finish line for second. JR Watkins came home fourth ahead of Junior Shepherd, Frank Cotton, Dale Lewis, Greg Riser, Kevin Kemp and David Shepherd.

In the second feature, it was Brazil's Ron Wallen Sr. coming home with a hard-fought third win of the season. He edged out Josh Fagg, C.J. Bryan, Eric Miller, Chad Nolte, Tom Courtney, David Wallen, Joe Jeffries, Josh Presley and Tony Cochenour.

This weekend there will be back-to-back nights of racing as the USAC Sprint Cars invade for the Billy Marvel Classic. The UMP Modifieds, UMP Super Stocks and bombers will also be on the card that night. On Saturday, the Patriot 50 for UMP Modifieds will pay out $2,000 to the winner and sprints, bombers. UMP Super Stocks will also be in action.

Lincoln Park Speedway

King of Non-wing sprint feature

1. Blake Fitzpatrick, 2. Jon Stanbrough, 3. Danny Holtsclaw, 4. Ethan Barrow, 5. Casey Shuman, 6. Lance Grimes, 7. Jesse Cramer, 8. Jonathan Vennard, 9. Shane Hollingsworth, 10. Jeff Bland, 11. Todd Kimmell, 12. Bub Cummings, 13. Chris Babcock, 14. AJ Hopkins, 15. JC Bland, 16. Dickie Gaines, 17. John Dick, 18. Bret Triplett, 19. Troy Link, 20. Doug Heck

B-main winners: Bret Triplett and Todd Kimmell

Sprint feature #2

1. Kenny Carmichael Sr., 2. Braylon Fitzpatrick, 3. Tommy Rockwell, 4.

Kenny Carmichael Jr., 5. Brian Lake, 6. Blake Nimee, 7. Josh Cunningham, 8. Jared Harris, 9. Tim Creech II, 10. Jimmy Romig, 11. Tyler Waltz, 12. Jack Stephenson, 13. J "Randy" Johnson, 14. Jeremy Giles, 15. Daylan Chambers,

16. Seth Parker

UMP Modified feature

1. Craig Conyer, 2. Matt Bex, 3. Brad Barrow, 4. Wes McClara, 5. Travis Shoulders, 6. Mark Grosvener, 7. Brian Yeatman, 8. Chris Brewer, 9. Kenny Carmichael Sr., 10. Josh Boller, 11. John Hipps, 12. Steve Sheeks, 13. John

Grenier Jr., 14. Jerry Stewart, 15. Carlos Bumgardner, 16. Dan Lewellen, 17. Michael Beatty, 18. Paul Bumgardner, 19. Shane Kelley

B-main winner: Chris Brewer

UMP Super Stock feature

1. Jeremy Hines, 2. Chris Hillman, 3. Steve Peeden, 4. Kenny Carmichael Sr., 5. Doug McCullough, 6. Travis Butler, 7. Steve Hollars, 8. Slick Griffin, 9. Rob Paris, 10. Scott Tidwell, 11. Mike Staggs, 12. Joe Starks, 13. Travis Heramb, 14. Don Duncan, 15. Steve Ware, 16. Kenny Carmichael Jr., 17. Greg Logsdon, 18. Harold Grayless, 19. Jacob Wright, 20. Kris Starks

B-main winner: Rob Paris

Bomber feature #1

1. Dustin Shoulders, 2. Ben Williams, 3. Corey Gregory, 4. JR Watkins, 5. Junior Shepherd, 6. Frank Cotton, 7. Dale Lewis, 8. Greg Riser, 9. Kevin Kemp, 10. David Shepherd, 11. Gerald Bennett, 12. Jeff Cast, 13. Sally Yakel, 14. Alan Bassett, 15. Bob Farris, 16. Jared Zike, 17. Gerald Bennett Jr., 18. Josh Settles, 19. Jake Hodge

Bomber feature #2

1. Ron Wallen Sr., 2. Josh Fagg, 3. C.J. Bryan, 4. Eric Miller, 5. Chad Nolte, 6. Tom Courtney, 7. David Wallen, 8. Joe Jeffries, 9. Josh Presley, 10. Tony Cochenour, 11. Blake Cross, 12. Michael Thompson, 13. Kenny Treash, 14. Bob Roark, 15. Russell Bennett, 16. Robert Blystone, 17. Jeremy Payne, 18. Ronald Blake