MORRIS, Ill. — Wes Griffith Jr. captured the Lee Schuler Memorial 61-lap late model stock car special at Grundy County Speedway Sunday night, which highlighted the track’s annual Night of Features.
Griffith, from Crown Point, Ind., wheeled his A.J. Foyt throwback Copenhagen Camry No. 33 to his second feature win of the season at the one-third-mile, paved oval. Leading pretty much the entire race after starting on the outside of the front row of the 15-car field, Griffith held off a quickly-closing Ricky Baker by a mere .189 seconds at starter Greg Kuntz’s checkered flag.
Chasing the leading duo at the finish were Anthony Danta, last year’s race winner Stan Zolodz IV, fast qualifier D.J. Weltmeyer and this year’s late model track champion Eddie Hoffman.
“It’s all him (my crew chief John Signore). I just held the wheel,” said Griffith after the race. “John had told me (on the radio) that we had a pretty good gap over second place. So, I knew if I just took my time coming up on the lapped car and didn’t push the issue, we’d give up a little of the gap but I knew I could get around him. I just took my time.
“As the race went on, the car got tight going into (turn) one, but I think everyone had that problem – some more than others. We had a good car on Friday, but we cut down a right rear tire and I pulled in. The car was a little erratic. At the shop, John found a rear trailing bracket rotating around the axle tube and he fixed it.”
On his way to track championship honors, Blake Brown won the 40-lap Mid American sportsman main event. Brown posted his eighth feature win of the season ahead of Kevin Murphy, Marqus Hoover, Vince Kuelbs, Timmy Stewart and Sean Matthuis.
Another track championship was pretty much wrapped up as Scott Gardner raced to victory in the 35-lap street stock division headliner. Gardner finished ahead of Pat Ligue, nailing down his sixth win of the season. Gardner’s son, Scotty came home third, followed by Sal Lozano and Kyle Shear.
Chris Sontag was the winner of the 30-lap pure stocks (four-cylinder) feature race. Johnathan Stevens and Dan Schmeissing were chasing Sontag at the finish.
Already a veteran of eight years of racing, 13-year-old Landon Hocking grabbed top honors in the Super Cup Series 20-lap feature. Jacob Senerchia and JoJo Fadke finished second and third.
The finish:
Wes Griffith Jr., Ricky Baker, Anthony Danta, Stan Zolodz IV, D.J. Weltmeyer, Eddie Hoffman, Keith Tolf, Dave Gentile Jr., Dennis Lyp, Larry Middleton Jr. Clay Curts, Paul Shafer Jr., Dean Patterson, Nathan Kelly, Matt Chester.