Puterbaugh repeats as sprint winner at LPS

Monday, August 18, 2008

By CAREY FOX

Times Sports Editor

PUTNAMVILLE -- Brownsburg's Billy Puterbaugh, accumulated his third sprint car feature win of the season at Lincoln Park Speedway on Saturday night, winning in convincing fashion over Jon Siscoe and Dickie Gaines.

Thirty-five sprint cars filled the pits at LPS with Siscoe, Gaines, Kyle Hill and Jared Harris scoring heat race victories and earning solid grid spots for the A-Main.

Puterbaugh, however, had the best spot of all, right up front alongside Michael Bridges after the inversion.

The field was quickly thinned as a first lap crash claimed five of the starting 20 cars. Tyler Reddick, Todd Kimmell, Bobby Stines, Cole Carter and Stephanie Tuttle all had to head to the pits after the pile up in turn one.

On the restart, Puterbaugh jumped to the point and assumed his familiar spot on top. On this occasion, a nice cushion was in place for those brave and consistent enough to keep their car flying high.

Not surprisingly, Gaines was closely in tow behind Puterbaugh with Siscoe trying to reel the pair in over the first half of the race.

Only a couple of car lengths separated the pair before another caution dropped after a big hit by Troy Link that ended his evening.

When the green flew again, Puterbaugh and Gaines resumed their tussle out front with Siscoe, Broc Burton, Bridges and the quickly closing Kenny Carmichael Sr. piloting the No. 14 Sweepster Inc. machine in place of his regular No. 92.

As the laps mounted, so did Puterbaugh's lead as Siscoe caught Gaines and the two went to the wire to tackle the second spot. Puterbaugh rode the Creative Design Embroidery sponsored sprinter to nearly a full straightaway victory ahead of Siscoe, who edged Gaines for the runner-up spot.

Carmichael won the three-way battle for the fourth spot ahead of Burton and Ryan Kaplan, the B-Main winner. Aaron Mosley rolled to seventh ahead of Bridges, Jonathan Hendrick and Ryan Hamilton.

The UMP Modified feature proved to be a battle of attrition amongst the front runners, with Kenny Carmichael Sr. and Paul Bumgardner both challenging for a top spot early in the feature before each dropping out over the second half of the feature.

Daryl Herbert led the early stages of the feature with a spirited tussle with Shoulders and Carmichael.

Herbert slipped over the cushion slightly in turn three, which opened the door for the field to narrow the gap. Ray Humphrey, who missed a Friday night win at Bloomington by inches, had no intention of leaving anything on the table on Saturday.

The Bloomington pilot of the Reeves Logging, Monroe County Equipment, Blue Rhino, Ferrell Gas and Fox's Cycle Sales machine was better than any other modified on the top.

He made the most of a huge run off turn two, pulling alongside both Shoulders and Herbert into turns three and four before a caution negated the pass.

Carmichael had since left the track with some problems and a strong run by Brad Thrasher was slowed when he went to the back after a spin.

On the re-start, Humphrey took his Franklin-built mod to the top into turn two and slingshot himself right past Shoulders and into the lead. Clint DeMoss joined the fray in the fight for a top-three spot as Bumgardner pulled to the pits after running fifth.

Humphrey checked out on the field after grabbing the lead and held on to the top spot ahead of Shoulders, DeMoss, Herbert, Carlos Bumgardner, Brad Robinson, Mark Auler, Cullen Goodman, Dan Lewellen and Brian Kempf.

In the UMP Super Stocks, Greg Amick parlayed a fourth-place Bloomington finish on Friday night into a feature win at LPS on Saturday, his first of the year.

Amick and Greencastle's David Bumgardner put on a front row show for the fans over the entire length of the A-Main, running side-by-side searching for an advantage. Despite several cautions, the two immediately went back to door panel to door panel racing after the restart.

The 2008 points leader, Kenny Carmichael Jr., was close behind in third-place trying to reel in the front runners, but would eventually have to settle for his spot. Doug McCullough, Kris Starks, Joe Whisler and Tami Lawson were scrambling to better their spots as well.

On the white flag lap, Amick and Bumgardner came off turn two alongside one another. Amick slid to the outside of the track as Bumgardner lifted ever so slightly while running out of room alongside the fence. The advantage was just enough for Amick to solidy by a car length and earn his first LPS win of the year.

Bumgardner grabbed second-place and remained second in the points (630 to 580). Carmichael was third ahead of McCullough, Starks, Whisler, Lawson, Scott Carrington in eighth with Josh Fagg and Travis Heramb wrapping the top-10.

In the bomber A-Main, Brazil's Chad Nolte went wire-to-wire for his first win of the year, edging out fellow Brazilian, Ron Wallen Sr., by mere inches on the way to the victory.

The two swapped the lead back and forth down the stretch as Dustin Shoulders gave it everything he had in closing to third. The two-time 2008 feature winner even made a brief pass on an eye-popping 'slide job' heading into turns three and four, but couldn't make it stick as a caution flag flew..

On the restart, Nolte was just able to hold off Wallen's final turn four charge for the win. Shoulders spun on the final lap in turn four and fell back to 14th. Ron Smith moved into the third spot ahead of Bob Farris, Michael Thompson, Arvis Shepherd, C.J. Bryan, Ron Wallen Jr., Gary Long and David Bumgardner II.

On Aug. 23, the Putnamville oval will host a regular scheduled show before holding the King of Non-wing show for sprint cars along with UMP Modifieds, UMP Super Stocks, bombers and the End of Summer Fireworks Extravaganza.

Lincoln Park Speedway

Sprint Car Feature

1. Billy Puterbaugh, 2. Jon Siscoe, 3. Dickie Gaines, 4. Kenny Carmichael Sr., 5. Broc Burton, 6. Ryan Kaplan, 7. Aaron Mosley, 8. Michael Bridges, 9. Jonathan Hendrick, 10. Ryan Hamilton, 11. Jared Harris, 12. Troy Link, 13. Blair Julian, 14. Ethan Barrow, 15. Kyle Hill, 16. Stephanie Tuttle, 17. Cole Carter, 18. Bobby Stines, 19. Todd Kimmell, 20. Tyler Reddick

B-Main winner: Ryan Kaplan

Heat winners: Jon Siscoe, Dickie Gaines, Kyle Hill, Jared Harris

UMP Modified Feature

1. Ray Humphrey, 2. Travis Shoulders, 3. Clint DeMoss, 4. Daryl Herbert, 5. Carlos Bumgardner, 6. Brad Robinson, 7. Mark Auler, 8. Cullen Goodman, 9. Dan Lewellen, 10. Brian Kempf, 11. J.D. Francis, 12. Gary Hall, 13. Gordon Curtis, 14. Harry Shepherd, 15. Brad Thrasher, 16. Jared Hix, 17. Rick Toney, 20. Phil VanSant

B-Main winner: Cullen Goodman

Heat winners: Brad Robinson, Ray Humphrey, Brad Thrasher

UMP Super Stocks

1. Greg Amick, 2. David Bumgardner, 3. Kenny Carmichael Jr., 4. Doug McCullough, 5. Kris Starks, 6. Joe Whisler, 7. Tami Lawson, 8. Scott Carrington, 9. Josh Fagg, 10. Travis Heramb, 11. Mark Blalock, 12. Dustin Bruce, 13. Donald Smiley, 14. Slick Griffin, 15. Mark Dickerson, 16. Chris Hillman, 17. Curt Leonard, 18. Randy Newport, 19. Justin Davis, 20. Larry Miller

Heat winners: Greg Amick, David Bumgardner

Bomber Feature

1. Chad Nolte, 2. Ron Wallen Sr., 3. Ron Smith, 4. Bob Farris, 5. Michael Thompson, 6. Arvis Shepherd, 7. C.J. Bryan, 8. Ron Wallen Jr., 9. Gary Long, 10. David Bumgardner II, 11. Jeremy Payne, 12. Jake Hodge, 13. Justin Clodfelter, 14. Dustin Shoulders, 15. Greg Riser, 16. Kevin Kemp, 17. Lloyd Walls, 18. Dennis Jackson, 19. John Grenier, 20. Daylan Chambers

B-Main winner: Kevin Kemp

Heat winners: Chad Nolte, Ron Wallen Sr., Lloyd Walls

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