7/22/2015
United Racing Club
Michael Lands Back in Victory Lane at Bridgeport’s Three for All Event
Curt Michael earned his 4th win of the season on Tuesday night July 21st at the Bridgeport Speedway’s Three for all event. A field of 28 Sprint Cars entered the pit area for the midweek event.
The three heat races were won by Brad Franks, Mike Haggenbottom and Ryan Stillwaggon who was making his first 360 start of the year. The B Main was won by Kevin Darling who was also making his first start of the year with the United Racing Club. The #9 invert pill was drawn for the feature event.
On the initial start of the 25 lap feature the red flag was displayed for a flipping 88b of Andy Best in turn 1. Best was not hurt in the single car incident. On the 2nd try pole sitter Art Liedl shot his Downs Ford #2 to the lead followed closely by Mark Bitner aboard the Bitner Automotive sponsored #F5. Bitner took a look at Liedl in turns 3 and 4 but could not complete the pass. Michael who started in the 3rd position looked like he was shot out of a cannon going from 3rd to 1st in the matter of a lap passing both Bitner and Liedl.
A lap 13 caution for Art Liedl who was running in the 2nd position at the time bunched up the field. Curt Michael was followed by Bitner, Davie Franek, Mike Haggenbottom from 8th and Randy West rounding out the top 5. On the restart Michael resumed control of the lead once again, while the 89 Quality Auto Body of Robbie Stillwaggon was shuffled back a few spots but only needed 5 laps to take 3rd from Davie Franek and 2 more to take 2nd place from Mark Bitner. With Stillwaggon on the move, Josh Weller was starting to make some noise charging from his 10th place starting position. Weller took over 4th from Franek on lap 20 and 3rd from Bitner in the closing moments of the 25 lap race.
The United Racing Club will be off this weekend but will be back in action with a 2 race weekend next weekend. The action all starts on Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway for the 358/360 Sprint Car Nationals. Last time the United Racing Club was there Steve Buckwalter, Mark Smith, and Curt Michael battled with 2 laps to go in what was a finish that will be talked about for years.
Saturday will be a special day at Selinsgrove as the speedway hosts their annual Kramer Cup event. The Selinsgrove Market Street Kick off parade at 4pm kicks off the day’s action before heading to the speedway for the nights events beginning at 7:30pm.
Feature Finish: 1 – Curt Michael, 2 – Robbie Stillwaggon, 3 – Josh Weller, 4 – Mark Bitner, 5 – Davie Franek, 6 – Mike Haggenbottom, 7 – Troy Betts, 8 – Randy West, 9 – Brad Franks, 10 – Ryan Stillwaggon, 11 – Jason Clauss, 12 – Larry Kelleher, 13 – Jason Barney, 14 – Kevin Darling, 15 – Tim Tanner, 16 – Dave Brown, 17 – Eddie Wagner, 18 – Rick Stief, 19 – Art Liedl, 20 – Andy Best
DNQ: David Swanson, Jonathan Swanson, Shane Smith, John Haggenbottom, Zack Burd, Jason Cherry, Will Eggimann, Keith Anderson
Article Credit: Tim Moran
