Christopher Bell started sixth and shot to the lead like from a cannon on his way to win the NRA Sprint Invaders portion of the Johnny Appleseed Classic by Miller Lite Sunday night at Eldora Speedway.
Bell, who won last year’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora, made all the right moves through traffic to defeat Rico Abreu. Both are full-time in the Truck Series.
“I love this place,” said Bell, who hails from Norman, Oklahoma. “This is my favorite track. It’s always good to beat Rico. We were teammates for a long time and now we get to race each other a lot everywhere we go. We’ve both made this pavement transition together.”
Abreu, from St. Helena, California, was second, while Randy Hannagan, Butch Schroeder and Kyle Sauder rounded out the top-five.
Matt Miller, from Waterville, Ohio, came out of “retirement” and won the Sunoco American Late Model A-Feature. It was the fifth time in the last six years he has won on Memorial Day weekend at Eldora.
“The track conditions are the way we like it,” said Miller, who started 11th. “I haven’t raced in a while – I raced last week – but we had a little rust on the driver. I had a horrendous restart in a heat race there. The car was phenomenal and we put the right tires on. It was a matter of being smart and not putting ourselves in a bad positon. I love racing here and I love racing in front of the fans here.”
The strong performance by the 2005 Dirt Late Model Dream winner and Rick DeLong team puts them amongst the favorites for the 22nd running of the $100,000-to-win Dirt Late Model Dream Weekend in just 10 days time.
Richmond, Indiana’s Duane Chamberlain led early, but he suffered mechanical issues while leading with 13 laps to go.
Veteran Jeff Babcock, from Wayne, Ohio, finished second after starting 10th. Joe Godsey was third, while Scott James and Rusty Schlenk rounded out the top-five.
Joey Kramer started second and led all 20 laps of Sunday UMP Modified division race.
“I wasn’t sure how much of a lead I had,” Kramer said. “I’m glad the one caution came out because of the lapped traffic. I didn’t know where to go. The car was pretty good. It was nice to get a win tonight.”
Kramer scored his 150th career feature win at Eldora in 2012, his 200th last Thursday at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Mile in Indianapolis but considers victory lane at Eldora to be the ultimate honor for a dirt track racer.
Jeff Koz, from Lima, Ohio, was second, with Michigan’s Brian Ruhlman, Brandon Ramsey and Brian Post placing in the top-five.
Barney Craig, from Cridersville, Ohio, managed to hold off successive slide jobs by Chris Douglas, form Lima, Ohio, to win the Eldora stock car race. Paul Pardo was third with Jordan Conover coming home fourth. Pole sitter Rob Trent finished fifth.
“I love this place,” Craig said. “We had a good race car. Thank the fans for coming out. My mother always liked this place.”
The next event on the schedule is the 22nd annual Dirt Late Model Dream by Ferris Mowers on June 9-10-11 kicking off with #NationalEarlDay on Thursday, June 9th. Tickets can be purchased by calling (937) 338-3815 or going to www.EldoraSpeedway.com. They are also available at the box office during normal business hours.
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