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Needles Dominates MERS/ARCA Gold Cup Action at Sandusky

When the stars and cars of the Main Event Racing Series and Royal Truck and Trailer ARCA Gold Cup Series clashed at the half-mile speedplant nestled in Sandusky, Ohio, the results looked much the same as last year's event with only the winning driver of the Brian Short owned #18 being different. With Short and Jeff Ganus going their separate ways for the 2016 season, veteran Steve Needles took over driving duties of the Direct Detail/Amsdell Industries car and immediately continued the winning tradition of the #18 team. Travis Eddy would win his second feature event of the season in the modified division while Jerry Karl would win his fourth feature of the season in the sportsman division and Dan Smith would win his first feature of the season in the Hobby Stock division.
The Digital Yalo modified feature event would begin with Chris Hamilton and Kenny Sharp leading the field to the green with Hamilton taking the lead on the start. Kenny Calhoun would take the Omar Dawson-owned car to the fourth position in turn four on lap two. Ryan Winningham would spin in turn three on lap three, slowing the field for the first time. Hamilton, Sharp, Mark Bott, Joey Wyckoff, and Travis Eddy would make up the top five for the restart.
Eddy would take fourth on the restart in turn four on lap four. Kenny Sharp would take the lead in turn four on lap five and Ryan Winningham would spin in turn four as soon as the lap was completed. Sharp would now lead Hamilton, Bott, Eddy, and Joey Morisette to the restart. Bott and Morisette would take second and third in turn three on the restart. Jason Wells would take fifth on lap fourteen in turn three. Mark Bott would loosen up Kenny Sharp for the lead in turn two on lap fifteen, allowing Bott and Eddy to pass Sharp for the top two positions. However, the move would be negated as Chris Hamilton would spin in the same turn and move Sharp back to the race lead.
Sharp, Bott, Morisette, Eddy, and Wells would make up the top five for the restart. Hamilton would spin again in turn three on lap eighteen, setting up a restart with Sharp leading Bott, Eddy, Morisette, and Joey Wyckoff. Eddy would pass Bott for the runnerup position in turn two on the restart and would take the lead from Sharp in turn four with five laps to go. Bott would get Sharp at the line for the checkered flag for second; however, Eddy would go on to win over Bott, Sharp, Morisette, Wyckoff, Steven Drew, Chris Hamilton, Jason Drew, and Ryan Winningham.
Jimmie Ward Jr. and RJ White would lead the field to the green flag in the Main Event Racing Series/ARCA Gold Cup Series one hundred lap feature event. However, Ward would get into White on the start in turn one and Dave Stehouwer would spin in turn two. White would take the lead in turn two on the complete restart. 2014 MERS champion Harold Fair Jr. would move to second around Ward in turn two on the second lap and would pass White in turn four on lap four for the race lead. Alex Rosenberry would take the fifth position in turn one on lap ten. The race would once again be slowed on lap eleven as Ward and Nick Grodi would spin in turn four.
Bud Perry and Alex Rosenberry would move to second and third on the restart while Scott Baker would take the fifth position on lap thirteen. Nick Grodi would spin John Flynn on lap fifteen in turn four, setting up yet another restart with Fair leading Perry, Rosenberry, Steve Needles, and Baker. Baker would drop out of the race with oil pressure issues on lap twenty, giving the fifth position to John Sandquist Jr. William Sahutske would spin in turn three on lap twenty-three.
Fair, Perry, Rosenberry, Needles, and Sandquist would lead the field back to the restart with Perry taking the lead on the front straightaway on lap twenty-four. Needles would follow Perry around Fair in turn three of the same lap and would take the lead by the completion of lap twenty-five. Jimmie Ward Jr, would spin on lap twenty-seven in turn three, setting up a restart with Needles leading Perry, Fair, Rosenberry, and Sandquist. John Flynn would spin Dave Stehouwer on the back straightaway on lap fourty-four and RJ White would pile in. Harold Fair Jr would pit under this caution while RJ White would retire from the race.
Needles, Perry, Rosenberry, Sandquist, and Grodi would make up the top five for the restart. Grodi would take the fourth position from Sandquist at the halfway point in the race. Harold Fair Jr. would spin in turn three on lap sixty-five and retire from the race with overheating problems. Needles, Perry, Rosenberry, Grodi and Sandquist would make up the top five for this final restart. Grodi would drop out of the race with twenty laps to go relinquishing the fourth position to Sandquist and the fifth position to Flynn. Needles would go on to win over Perry, Rosenberry, Sandquist, Flynn, and Ward. Grodi, Fair, Stehouwer, White, Dennis Strickland, Sahutske, and Baker did not finish.
Richard Clem and Trent Aslaksen would lead the field to the green flag for the Melinda! Melinda! Hobby Stock division. Brandon Halcomb would take the lead on lap two in turn two. Dan Smith would take the runnerup position on lap five in turn three. Smith would run down Halcomb and run side by side with him for the final fifteen laps of the race with Smith taking the lead on the front straightaway on lap seventeen only to relinquish it back to Halcomb on lap eighteen in turn four. However, Smith would take the lead back in turn four coming to the white flag and hold on for the final lap to claim the win over Halcomb, Kelly Lille, Aslaksen, and Jay Shields.
This Saturday, June 25th, the track's weekly divisions (the modifieds, sportsman, street stocks and hobby stocks) will all be back in action along with a chain race and kids' bike races. The pit area will open at three o'clock while practice will begin at four. Qualifications will begin at 5:30 to set the fields for the racing action set to commence at seven. For more information, visit www.sanduskyspeedway.com or like us on Facebook!
-Official Sandusky Speedway Press Release by Media Director, Jarrett Emmerich

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