HULL MAKES IT TWO OUT OF THREE AT BEAR RIDGE
By: John DaDalt
Bradford, Vermont (July 25, 2020)………For the second time in three races, defending series champion Will Hull turned in a strong performance to win the USAC-DMA midget feature at Bear Ridge Speedway.
Hull started outside row three in the feature and it didn’t take long for him to get to the front. Within two laps of the start he was in second place and began pressing Justin Phillips for the lead. The move came on the fourth lap with Hull getting by Phillips in turn three. Once in front Hull’s lead was never threatened as he pulled away to a comfortable win. Hull was pleased with his car’s performance.
“The car was real good. I lost the brakes with six laps to go and had to back up my entry (into the turn) a lot. But until then it felt like I could do whatever I wanted with the car”.
While Hull was cruising along on his own the race behind him for second was heating up. Brandon Piastka drove around his Miller Racing teammate Phillips on lap 10 but was not able to put any distance between the two as they would spend the remainder of the race fighting it out for position.
Jeff Champagne, Seth Carlson and Joe Krawiec were working their way through the field after starting in the fifth and sixth rows. Carlson got to the front first and was soon working on passing Phillips and Piastka but had difficulty keeping the momentum up on the slick track. Former series champion Krawiec steadily worked his way up into the top five and began challenging Carlson for fourth.
The race for second changed on lap 22. The caution flag flew for a mix up between Phillips, Champagne and Krawiec. Phillips kept going and restarted in third with Champagne and Krawiec going to the tail of the field. A disappointing end for Krawiec.
“It was a super slick track and it took some aggressive moves in the early race to make my way from 9th to 4th. I gave the outside a try on the restart but couldn’t find any grip, so I was biding my time on the bottom”. “(The contact) effectively ended our night. A big thank you to Ray Miller Racing for this amazing opportunity”.
On the re-start, Carlson used the high side to pass both Phillips and Piastka to take over second. Carlson was unable to chase down Hull and finished just under one second behind. “The track was much slicker this week than last week, but we have made some major strides in our program on a slick track” stated Carlson. “Congrats to Will on his win. There was some close racing all the way through the pack, it was a good time” he added to sum up the evening.
Phillips ended up in fourth place but enjoyed racing his teammate Piastka. “I had a blast racing with Brandon. I gave it all I had to pressure him into a mistake, but he held the bottom every lap and kept me behind. Wish we could have landed a podium but overall, it was a good run for the both of us and Miller Racing”. Fifth place went to Floyd Billington.
Seymour Performance Products heat race winners were Will Hull and Brandon Piastka. Melvin Pierson was nursing two broken ribs from his flip last week. Pierson ran very well in his heat but did not start the feature. Scott Holcomb returned to the series in the Skip Matczak #2 which he brought home in sixth place. The USAC-DMA midgets will be off next week but will return to action at Bear Ridge Speedway on Saturday August 8.
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USAC DIRT MIDGET ASSOCIATION RACE RESULTS: July 25, 2020 – Bear Ridge Speedway – Bradford, Vermont
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. 3-Will Hull, 2. 33-Melvin Pierson, 3. 16-Justin Phillips, 4. 50-Owen Carbee, 5. 77-Jeff Champagne, 6. 92-P.J. Bleau, 7. 5-Tim West, 8. 91-Wayne Koehler. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. 7-Brandon Piastka, 2. 4-Seth Carlson, 3. 17-Justin Sheridan, 4. 44-Floyd Billington, 5. 1B-Joe Krawiec, 6. 2-Scott Holcomb, 7. 42-Manny Dias, 8. A1-Jeff Horn. NT
FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Will Hull, 2. Seth Carlson, 3. Brandon Piastka, 4. Justin Phillips, 5. Floyd Billington, 6. Scott Holcomb, 7. Patrick Bleau Jr., 8. Jeff Horn, 9. Justin Sheridan, 10. Joe Krawiec, 11. Manny Dias, 12. Wayne Koehler, 13. Jeff Champagne, 14. Owen Carbee, 15. Tim West.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Justin Phillips, Laps 5-25 Will Hull.
USAC DIRT MIDGET ASSOCIATION POINTS: 1-Seth Carlson-220, 2-Brandon Piastka-199, 3-Will Hull-194, 4-Justin Phillips-183, 5-Manny Dias-179, 6-Justin Sheridan-178, 7-Wayne Koehler-149, 8-Tim West-140, 9-Owen Carbee-130, 10-Floyd Billington-129.
NEXT USAC DMA MIDGET RACE: August 8 – Bear Ridge Speedway - Bradford, Vermont