WAVERLY, Ohio — Fan favorite Cole Duncan secured his fourth checkered flag of the season at his home track of Atomic Speedway last Saturday night.
The 30-lap TC/Chaney Memorial victory was worth a cool $10,000 to Duncan as he heated up the very cool night in Southern Ohio. Starting inside the second row and moving on point at lap four, Duncan never wavered from that point as he sailed to victory.
Jac Haudenschild chased all race long ended up second. Hunter Schuerenberg, Tyler Gunn and Buddy Kofoid rounded out the top five.
“We unloaded really good tonight,” said Duncan. “We worked really hard, this obviously is one of those we had scheduled on our calendar, we had it circled and worked hard all week in the shop. We looked forward to this all year, once we got going, so, it’s the biggest paying race at our home track and you want to make sure you run good for that.”
Young Jake Hesson brought the field to the start and fired away to maintain the top spot for the first three complete laps before Duncan sailed by and set pace. The race pace was slowed three times by yellow flags for minor cars stopped on the track.
But the last half of the event saw Duncan navigate traffic flawlessly, and never looked back. Haudenschild had what appeared to be opportunities on the three yellow restarts, but it was not to be. Schuerenberg came from deep within the 24-car starting field to grab a well-deserved third place as he muscled past both Kofoid and Gunn in the late laps. But, like Haudenschild, Schuerenberg had nothing for Duncan.
Kofoid set fast time with a lap of 12.538 in qualifying, 36 cars set pit side.
“I grew up here, I grew up watching my Dad here, it’s his favorite place” noted Duncan. “I have just always liked it, momentum based and high-banked. Kind of like a mini Eldora. We have worked really hard to get a car ready for Eldora once we found out we were invited there for that big race.
“We will probably drink some beer tonight and then get to work in the morning for Eldora coming up. It’s going to be tough there, but, we got a fresh motor from Gressman and everything is in line the way we want it. We only have one good of everything as good as those, so we will give it a shot and see what happens.”