Nye Breezes To Thunder Mountain Glory

CENTER LISLE, N.Y. — Nick Nye took his first win of the season on a breezy summer night at Thunder Mountain Speedway in the Modified division.

Larry Mekic took the early lead i the 35-lap Modified contest, which saw its first yellow on lap four when point leader Alan Barker’s car slowed and stopped in turn four.  On the restart, Nick Nye took the lead and began to pull out an advantage, but a caution for a multi-car incident on lap 19 slowed the field, which knocked Jeff Sheely out of the event.  Jimmy Zacharias and Shaun Walker were also involved, but continued.  Nye held on the remaining distance to take the win with Mekic in second.  Eric Leet held off a determined challenge from Ryan Jordan to take third and Kenny Hammond was fifth.

Matt Meade took the top spot in the 30-lap DIRTcar 358 Modified event from Lance Willix on lap three, but Billy Dunn was on a charged from his seventh starting spot, getting to second before halfway.  Dunn ran down Meade and took the top spot from him with 10 laps to go and pulled away for his second win of the year.  Meade, Willix, Glenn Forward, and Colton Wilson rounded out the top five.

Hunter Lapp led the entire 25-lap distance in the DIRTcar Crate Sportsman feature, but it was far from easy for him, as he had to hold off point leader Alan Fink over the last 10 laps of the event.  Lapp maintained his poise and held his line to take his first win of the season, with Fink literally on his back bumper as they crossed the line.  Cody Jackson was a distant third, with a stellar drive turned in by Brandon Carvey, who started 20th and made it to fourth at the finish, with Rich Talada in fifth.

The 600cc Modified feature was led by Aiden Miller for the first five laps, but Jake Weibel slipped under him on lap 5 to take the top spot.  While Devon Green and Justin LaDue battled, Brenton Miller came from the 12th starting spot and diced his way past all of them to get second on lap 9.  Miller and Weibel diced the rest of the way, with Miller making the winning move coming off turn two on the final lap. 

At the checkers, Miller became the division’s first repeat winner of the season, with Weibel a close second.  After post race inspection, Weibel was disqualified, which moved Devon Green to second, Justin LaDue to third, Jared Green to fourth, and T.J. Smith to fifth.

Don Russell was the leader at the start of the 20-lap Wheeler Excavating Street Stock feature, but it didn’t take long for Steven Deinhardt to move past him and motor away to a win.  Russell held off Jerry Lobdell Jr for second, with Tom Paige finishing fourth. 

The 15-lap Pop’s Automotive Factory Stock contest saw Jason Rhodes get some redemption.  After leading most of a feature earlier this season, only to have the car break coming to the white flag, Rhodes went the distance to take his first win of the year over multi-time winner Mike Morse. 

Eric Winsor was in the right place at the right time when race long leader Steve Schrader tangled with Jeremy Hamilton a few laps from the finish, and he held off Chris Clemons for his second Gary’s U-Pull-It Budget Sportsman win of the year. 

There were repeat winners in the Junior 600cc Modifieds and Junior Slingshots, as Logan LaDue took the Junior 600cc Modified checkers and Evan O’Hara was the winner of the Junior Slingshot main.