Farnham Flies In Tri-City Sprint

FRANKLIN, Pa. — Matt Farnham topped the headlining winged sprint car feature on Fan Appreciation Night Sunday at Tri-City Raceway Park.

For the 20-lap feature, Brandon Spithaler and Jeremy Weaver received front row spots in the redraw for the top eight starting positions. Usually, front row starting spots are highly coveted and considered extremely lucky, but on this night they were not lucky at all. 

On the initial start, Weaver was involved in an incident in turn two that forced a complete restart, sending him to the tail of the field. This moved original third starting Brandon Matus to the outside of the front row for the next attempted start.  The race went green, but Spithaler fell off the pace on the backstretch, as seventh starting Matt Farnham slipped through to take the lead as lap one was scored. 

Spithaler’s slowing machine drew the caution, and he was pushed to the pits under the yellow. Matus, who had inherited the front row spot, also stopped during the caution and exited the race, as the top three starters on the grid never made it to lap two. Farnham continued to lead when the race restarted, with fifth-starting Tyler Esh taking up the chase. 

Farnham was strong in the lead, pulling to a comfortable margin as the green flag laps clicked by.  Farnham raced home the winner for the second time this season, and his third career win at the track. Esh was second, 4.195 seconds behind at the checkered flag. 

A.J. Flick finished third with Bob Felmlee fourth, as they battle for the lead in the point standings. Floridian Connor Morrell was fifth in his first ever visit, with Weaver recovering to finish sixth. 

Other winners were Erick Rudolph in the 21st Century Energy Group Modifieds, John Mollick in the 4 Your Car Connection RUSH Sprints, and Hunter Exley in the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply Pro Stocks.