Derek Thorn cruised to the checkered flag, on Saturday night, at Redwood Acres Raceway in the second half of the NSCS mid-season double header. CJ Bawden recorded his best finish of the season, coming home second, and Friday night winner Mike Doss finished third. Darrell Midgley's crew rebuilt his front end after a hard crash on Friday night and he set fast time and finished fourth while Eric Graham took his second top-five of the weekend claiming fifth.
Midgley was the fast timer again, clocking in at 15.604 besting Thorn's 15.628. Junior Roddy knocked over 2/10ths off his Friday time, posting a 15.639 and CJ Bawden filled the dash field with his 15.741. Midgley opted out of the dash and Luke Hall (15.748) took his place. Roddy won the dash ahead of Thorn, Hall and Bawden.
In a race that featured only one quick caution flag, Hall jumped to the early lead in front of Graham, Roddy, Bawden and Thorn. Roddy got by Graham on lap 4 and set out after Hall who was setting a torrid pace. By lap 9, the very quick Roddy had closed the gap on Hall and Thorn had moved by Graham for third. The top two put some distance on Thorn until they got into lapped traffic on lap 21 allowing him to close the gap. By lap 40, Hall's brake rotors were glowing cherry red and Roddy was right on his bumper. After numerous bumps, Hall finally spun and the only yellow flag of the race flew on lap 50. Both drivers went to the back of the pack and Hall showed his displeasure with Roddy during the caution period.
The restart showed Thorn as the new leader ahead of Bawden, Doss, Midgley, Graham and Jim Stillman Jr. Over the final 25 laps Thorn checked out on the field and led, at times by almost a full straightaway on the 3/8 mile oval. By lap 65 Doss had caught Bawden and pressured him hard over the final 10 laps, to no avail, and Bawden was able to hang onto second. Roddy and Hall worked their way back to 8th and 9th respectively.
"That was a lot of fun!" said the happy winner. " I've really got to hand it to those guys (Hall and Roddy). They were faster than I was and I couldn't catch them. But the fastest cars don't always win. I was in the right place at the right time and I'm real happy to get a win!"
"Our car was great!" said Roddy. "We were set up for long runs and it worked for us tonight. I can't believe Luke spun! I just barely touched him! Well, we had fun and the car's in one piece."
Hall's crew chief Preston O'Dell was philosophical. " Every race something happens. I hate getting spun out of the lead, but we've struggled with the car lately and we really had it working good tonight so we're happy about that."
Fast Time - Midgley 15.604
Dash - Roddy, Thorn, Hall, Bawden
Main - Thorn, Bawden, Doss, Midgley, Graham, Stillman Jr, Howard Ford, Roddy, Hall, Dave Miller, Brad Wasmund, Kyle Cattanach, Randy Hvall, Joe McDonald, Berndt Akerstrom, Andrew Snider, Gary Glenn, Hank Hilton, Steven Gannon
