Bowser And Holden Beat The Weather At Tri-City

FRANKLIN, Pa. – Carl Bowser and Jimmy Holden picked up feature wins before thunderstorms claimed the remainder of the racing card Sunday at Tri-City Raceway Park.

 

Under threatening skies, the 25-lap Shawgo real Estate 410 Sprint Car feature started with Carl Bowser and Jack Sodeman, Jr. leading the field to the green flag. Bowser took the lead at the start, before the first and only caution period of the race came on lap one for Vivian Jones.

 

Back to racing, Bowser regained the top spot while fourth-starting A.J. Flick moved into second on lap two. Bowser built up a comfortable lead as the green flag laps continued. However, just past halfway, with race traffic looming, Flick began to close in.

 

In the closing laps, Flick made several challenges, even pulling alongside the leader on a couple of occasions. But Bowser turned back each challenge to score the feature win. It was his first win in almost two years, and his fourth career win at the track.

 

Flick settled for a close second. Logan McCandless turned in his best finish of the season in third, making his first podium at Tri-City. Leyton Wagner matched his season’s best finish at the track, a fourth, and point leader Jack Sodeman, Jr. completed the top five.

 

Sodeman saw his point lead shrink to fifteen over Flick with just four races remaining on the docket for that class.

 

The Donovan & Bauer Auto Group 358 Modifieds were the first feature to hit the track, and the fans probably needed a scorecard to keep track of the driver changes.

 

Hayden Holden was driving his father’s No. 28H, and he started from the pole, alongside of Lonny Riggs in his familiar orange No. 58. Holden took the lead at the start of the twenty lapper. Kyle Fink moved into second, ahead of Riggs, but Fink was aboard Tom Holden’s No. 60H.

 

The youngest member of the Holden family was impressive in his first start at the track, building a comfortable margin before getting out of shape on lap five.

 

That bunched the leaders as green flag racing continued, with a host of competitors behind.

 

Jimmy Holden moved into second two laps later. Jimmy was driving a new number 7S owned by former racer Mike Stine. That move left Jimmy in the awkward position of running second to his own car now being driven by his son.

 

On lap 11, Jimmy passed his son, Hayden, for the lead. Fink moved up to second on lap 13, with ninth starting Kevin Hoffman grabbing third one lap later. Greg Martin took over fourth on lap sixteen.

 

It looked as though Jimmy Holden would lead the rest of the way to notch another win. However, Austin Eyler struck the wall when the checkered flag was in Jimmy Holden’s view. The resulting caution sent the race into overtime.

 

Under track rules, the final two laps must be run under the green. So, with 19 laps complete, Jimmy Holden led the way, with Martin being the benefactor on the restart. He took second as the white flag waived on lap twenty. But, again, the caution was displayed to the leader instead of the checkered flag due to a spin by Makayla Guidace in turn four.

 

The now 22 lap race restarted, with Jimmy Holden prevailing. This time, he was able to race to his second win of the season and fourth at the track.

 

Ironically, it was the second time this year that a driver scored feature wins in two different cars. Holden’s victories came in the familiar No. 28H and the Stine No. 7S. Jeremiah Shingledecker had multiple wins in his own No. 37MD and one in the Hoffman No. 00.

 

The Empire State driver, Martin, was second once again. His previous start at Tri-City this season yielded the same result.

 

Hoffman settled for third, and left the track as the new points leader by nine over Jimmy Holden. Holden did not benefit point-wise from his victory, as those points went to the 7S. Instead, Hayden’s points for finishing fifth on the night were credited to Jimmy’s number 28H. Fourth place was Riggs.