VINTAGE AND NEW RULE AT MERIDIAN

MERIDIAN, Idaho — The open-wheelers thrilled again Saturday night at ASA-sanctioned Meridian Speedway.

Hometown driver Wyatt King, a recent graduate of Meridian High School, walked away from the field and then resumed his dominance after a late caution flag to win the 45-lap Non-winged Sprint feature.

As with the first time the Intermountain Vintage Sprintcars circuit swung through town, the Model T sprintcar owned by speedway co-operator Don Newman was unbeatable. This time, it was Newman at the wheel for the 15-lap main event victory.

Earlier in the night, Newman also won an eight-lap heat race in a Wing T (the Model T replica was the only car in the field with a stabilizing wing). Dan Lyons drove the Wing T sprint to victory the first time the vintage racers visited Meridian's quarter-mile oval this year.

Kelly Newman gave it all he got to try to catch Don Newman at the line Saturday, smoking his left rear tire in pursuit out of the final turn.

In other main events, Eddie Abels of Meridian, Idaho, won the 50-lap Mini Stocks feature; 13-year-old Chase Gilbertson led wire-to-wire in the Domino's Pizza Bandoleros; Chris Carlson of Boise, Idaho, was able to negotiate large tires to win a Thunder Dog slalom race; and Tony Johns of Boise won the Hornets wrong-way race.

The 45-lap Non-winged Sprint main got off to an inauspicious start when a three-car pileup in Turn 3 on the first lap actually affected four drivers. Kole Bushman was knocked out of the race with damage to his front-end suspension when he collided with Jimmy Hamilton in a mishap that also collected fellow Boisean Phillip Zubizareta. Middleton, Idaho’s Sierra Jackson kissed the Turn 3 wall when she turned to avoid the wreck. All but Bushman returned to action.

Boise’s Doyle Hartman emerged the early leader only to be passed in emphatic fashion by King on Lap 10. King had driven his way up through the field aggressively over the first 10 laps.

King then drove off to a lead that was as big as 10 seconds, his speed thwarting the efforts of Middleton’s Erik Miller, who languished in second place. Miller put together one of his best nights of the season with a heat win and a third-place showing in the feature after Meridian’s Johnny Giesler made a late pass.

The field was bunched up after Kelly Perkins of Nampa brought out yellow seven laps from the checkered by spinning on the backstretch. But King walked away at the drop of the green flag to solidify another feature victory in 2009.

Another young gun, 14-year-old Meridian driver Alyson Clark, picked up a top-five finish in the Non-winged main.

The Mini Stocks ran a clean race with no caution flags over the longest race of the year for the four-cylinder class. Abels turned the night’s fastest qualifying lap into Mini Stocks gold with a victory, but he got a little help in the process.

Caldwell, Idaho’s Jason Sanders and Abels went high and low on Lap 28 to simultaneously pass early leader Barry Taylor. Sanders took the lead, and Abels settled into second place for the next nine laps.

On the 37th lap, Sanders lost control briefly in a turn. He was able to gather the car back in, but not before Abels rushed past into the lead. Sanders never recovered from the bobble, and Abels prevailed.

Donovan Parker finished fifth, exactly where he started. He was the only person starting in top five to finish the race there.

In the Bandoleros -- a class reserved for drivers in their teens who are just getting into the sport -- Gilbertson did the best thing you could do to market a race car that's up for sale -- he grabbed the checkered flag in the 15-lap main event. He held off the challenge of Sheridan, Mont.'s Mike Hilliker, another 13-year-old, for the win.

Both Gilbertson and Hilliker were involved in a three-car wreck in the first lap with Brok Kidd. The race was restarted with the original lineup, leaving Gilbertson and Hilliker on the front row. Hilliker was making his Meridian Speedway debut in search for a second track to run on a regular basis to get more experience behind the wheel.

In the strangest race of the night, Chris Carlson criss-crossed the track and stayed out of trouble to win a 20-lap main that feature three large heavy-equipment tires that the racers had to negotiate in slalom style. The trick was to keep the pattern of slalom consistent. If a racer passed a tire on the left side on lap and then passed that tire on the right the next, he was docked a lap.

Not to be out-done, the Hornets hit the track and raced in the opposite direction on the quarter-mile for 22 of their 25 laps. Instead of turning left as every oval racer knows, the field turned right and crossed the start finish line from south to north rather than the tradition north to south at Meridian.

The field was turned around the right way after Ray Bolinger was knocked out momentarily after hitting the wall in Turn 3-4 (which usually is Turn 1-2). A red flag allowed emergency crews to transport Bolinger to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise for observation. He returned to the track before the night of racing had ended.

Johns cruised through the final four laps to take the checkered despite battling a car that was threatening to overheat.

Memories of wild wheel-to-wheel racing were sparked during the Intermountain Vintage Sprintcars A heat as Kelly Newman worked his way to the front and then battled Steve Lorance for six laps. Newman took the lead on the seventh lap by a nose, but Lorance fought back to win the trophy on the eighth and final lap.

In the B heat, Newman passed John Kiser on the first lap and led the rest of the way for a win in the eight-lap primer. Newman was driving his Model T sprintcar -- a winged T, actually -- which Dan Lyons drove to victory in the series' first visit to Meridian earlier this year.

Next Saturday is the Pepsi Late Model 100 with support races provided by ASA Modifieds, Street Stocks, Legends and Hornets. Next week's races are the last for two weeks at the speedway, which will take Aug. 1 off before the Intermountain Vintage Sprintcars return for Idaho Distributing Night on Aug. 8.

Visit Meridian Speedway online at www.meridianspeedway.com or call (208) 888-2813 for track information.