"The season's been up and down for us so far," crew chief Titus Ivan said. "We think the speed is there, we have confidence in our driver, it's just other people's mistakes that we get caught up in."
Aidan Shepherd, who's led three practice sessions this year, also turned the second fastest lap. Dwayne Callaway is the only part-time driver to crack the top-10, tied for 6th. Here are the fastest times at Twin Ring practice #1: 1) Jake Baskinger (R) - 33.880 (125 laps) 2) Aidan Shepherd (R) - 33.882 (130) 3) TheOtherJR (R) - 33.884 (134) 4) Nick Smith - 33.887 (131) 5) Ryan Maiden (R) - 33.923 (131) T6) Eli Bright - 33.927 (135) T6) Dwayne Callaway (i) - 33.927 (118) T8) Noah Pontzer (R) - 33.934 (128) T8) Zachary Fitzwater Sr. (R) - 33.934 (130) 10) Brad Stover (R) - 33.935 (126)
League officials expressed concerns with Motor City's pit lane being unsuitable for their cars to run at.
Despite being shorter than Motor City, Red River's layout is extremely similar to the Michigan track and should allow for drivers to be acquainted with the style.
After late race contact on pit road at Green Valley Super Speed Ring, the final 10 laps were battled out by Reece Butcher and Gerrard Oran. Butcher showed off a race car that seemed to be the fastest on the track, but lap traffic allowed Oran to lead a couple laps along the way. When the white flag flew, the #90 car was pulling away and victory seemed well within his grasp.
Then, a moment. Ryan Maiden, maintaining competitive pace as a lapped car, was on the outside as Butcher took the final turn. Butcher ran up the race track, made contact with the #99, and put himself in the wall. Both cars careened toward the finish line, and that unexpected window made Oran accelerate without hesitation. Even sideways, Butcher still grabbed the victory in the closest finish in a points-paying race to date: 0.026 seconds. (Stuart Gratton beat Colin Lindsay by 0.003 in the All-Star Race just a week prior) "It's really strange how those things just sort of work out," #90 crew chief Mathew Blackburn said. "Everyone was having those problems on the final turn, loose, tight, whatever. If we have that a lap earlier, heck, a few feet earlier from where [Butcher] crashed, I'm not at the mic right now." This is Butcher's second career victory, breaking a 27-race winless streak that dates back to Delaware Speedway in 2016. For Oran, the rookie driver still found positives in the performance despite coming up short of the first win. "At first, I was heartbroken losing out by so little, but after thinking about it, I say it was a great day for the team," Oran said. "I'd take finishing 2nd for the rest of the season instead of a win, no matter how painful that would be." The duo battled it out in the final 11 laps of clean, green action in a race that saw four accidents in total. Gratton, the points leader coming into the race, took the wildest ride of everyone after colliding with the inside wall after contact with David Davidson, flipping multiple times and landing next to pit stalls. Gratton would be okay but finished 42nd, losing the points lead to Butcher and dropping to 2nd. Davidson would later also cross the pit road wall in a multi-car accident started by Checkmate Motorsports teammates Stephen Willey and Jonathan Raines. "That's the first time I've been on my roof, and it was a new, but terrifying experience," Davidson said. This race also put four NFRN Amateur Cup Series drivers into their NFRN Elite Cup Series debut. Ryan Kendall started on the pole and grabbed a top-20 finish along with Sparky the Sun Devil, Jay Jefferson finished without his hood in 24th, and Craig Martin crashed out in the final accident. Despite his good finish, Kendall was not pleased with season 1 champion Rampage for contact in an early accident that damaged his race car. "[He] needs to learn where the brakes are if you're gonna plow into someone going 3 times slower than you are," Kendall said. "Not a very champion-caliber move in my book."
Tyler Markel, leader in first practice, put up another top-10 in practice to show he may have some much needed speed going into this race.
Here's the top speeds for this session: 1) Stuart Gratton (R) - 28.109 (92 laps) 2) Dalejrfan8883 (R) - 28.181 (100) 3) Mitchell Marc (R) - 28.196 (97) 4) Caleb Campbell (R) - 28.199 (92) 5) Dominic Carranza (R) - 28.218 (92) 6) Ryan Maiden (R) - 28.238 (93) 7) Tyler Markel - 28.280 (94) 8) Jett Kraus (R) - 28.286 (91) 9) Jonny Gardner - 28.305 (100) 10) Jake Baskinger (R) - 28.314 (97)
"We know that we have to dig harder to get into competitive position," crew chief Dax Street said. "There's been a lot of tough breaks for us on these bigger tracks."
The rest of the top 10 was filled with several rookies and a couple veterans in Nick Smith and Rampage. Last week's winner William Brock was 13th in the first session. Here are the top times from first practice at GVSSR: 1) Tyler Markel - 27.953 (146 laps) 2) Jonathan Raines (R) - 28.006 (135) 3) Jake Baskinger (R) - 28.038 (150) 4) Nick Smith - 28.039 (142) 5) Zachary Fitzwater Sr. (R) - 28.073 (132) 6) Adam Mundinger (R) - 28.097 (145) 7) Noah Pontzer (R) - 28.137 (134) 8) Gerrard Oran (R) - 28.138 (137) 9) Eric Monaco (R) - 28.144 (144) 10) Rampage - 28.147 (142) |
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