THORNBURG, Va. – Dominion Raceway played host to three twin races for three divisions on Saturday evening, with four drivers earning their first victories of the season at the Virginia track.
The action started with the first of two features in the modified division where they ran a 48-lap feature instead of the typical 35-lap event in honor of Shawn Balluzo, who lost his life in a crash last weekend at Langley Speedway.
Jimmy Humblet, who was still looking for his first win of the year, started on the pole and he and his son, Chris Humblet, pulled away from the field early on. With 25 laps to go following a caution, Jimmy Humblet developed an electrical issue which relegated him to an eighth-place finish, giving the lead to Chris Humblet.
Chris Humblet looked like the car to beat for most of the second half until he developed an engine issue, which ruined his chances for another win and relegated him to a seventh-place finish.
Mike Rudy inherited the lead and never looked back picking up his first win of the season.
“We had a good night. We did not start off to well in qualifying. We were a little of in stagger, so we didn’t qualify so good,” Rudy said. “In the race we got up there and we were battling, and I think we probably had a third place car, but they always say mechanical things happen and we just haven’t had bad luck and you got to be there to win it.”
In the second feature, which went 35 laps, Jimmy Humblet found himself back on the pole thanks to the eight-car invert and this time he was not to be denied. He led every lap, surviving two restarts to get his first victory of the season.
“We were running well in the first race. We had an electrical issue. Our battery cut off, grounded out and cut all the power to the car. Not sure why,” Jimmy Humblet said. “Chris fell out due to a motor problem, lost a rocker arm, and that took him out. So the purple people eaters didn’t have a good first race.
“Second race we came over here and fixed the car and got everything back right, so we had a decent finish for the night.”
The Virginia Racer Late Model division battled in twin 35-lap features as well. In the four races prior to Saturday there had been four different winners. That streak would come to an end in the first feature, with Zack Lightfoot becoming the first repeat winner of the year.
Davey Callihan, the current points leader despite being winless, started on the pole in the first feature. It was obvious Callihan was fighting a handling issue as his car looked like it was on ice skates. It did not take long for Nick Leitz to take over the lead from Callihan, who got shuffled back to fourth.
With 12 laps to go, Callihan spun coming out of four, bringing out the first caution. Lightfoot took the lead from Leitz with 22 laps to go and never relinquished it to put his car in victory lane as the first repeat winner this season. Logan Clark came home second, Chris Donnelly was third and Callihan was able to fight back to finish fourth.
The second feature saw last weeks winner, Landon Pemberlton, start on the pole following the eight-car invert. This race was clean and green until there were four laps left.
Pemberlton had led the start until the caution and unfortunately for him, he was part of the reason the yellow flag was shown. Clark had driven his way through the field, picking off car after car, coming from the seventh starting position to get to the back bumper of Pemberlton.
With four laps to go, Clark ran down Pemberlton and went to make the pass going into turn three and the two cars got together, with both sliding up the track towards the outside wall, dashing the chances of either driver becoming the second repeat winner on the year.
The clean up required a red flag and when racing resumed, Lightfoot was sitting in position to get his second win on the night. When the green flag waved, Lightfoot and Leitz were running side-by-side for the first lap.
When they went down the backstretch to complete lap 32 Callihan, who was in third on the restart, saw an opening and took it, dropping to the bottom of the track to go three-wide. Lightfoot backed out so as not to be the meat in the sandwich, allowing Callihan to drive off with the lead with two laps to go.
Callihan held off Lightfoot and Leitz to win his first feature of the year.
“We haven’t really had a dominant car yet but we have had a really consistent season and that’s starting to show in the points and to get that first win was a big deal for us,” Callihan said.
In other action, Johnny Shonk and Dean Johnson split a pair of mini cup races. The UCAR division was also in action, with Ethan Ayers winning the 25-lap event.