Everett’s Ritchey recovers for 305 Sprints win | Local
It has been a long road of recovery after an offseason knee injury for Everett’s Drew Ritchey.
But he has overcome that surgery and got an impressive victory at the Bedford Speedway in the 305 Sprints feature on Sunday night.
The other winners on the night both took the lead in the second half of the features to race to the win, and they were Tony Jackson in the Wingless Super Sportsman and Matt Parks in the Late Model Sportsman.
Ritchey started third in the 305 Sprint feature, and he made a move to the inside on the first lap to take second from Reed Thompson. One lap later, Ritchey did the same thing to get past polesitter Jay Fry. From there, he opened up a lead of nearly a full straightaway a couple of laps later in the 20-lap feature.
Jake Waters was battling with Fry for that second position, but on the sixth lap, he finally got past Fry to take over second.
Waters, who won one of the heat races, cut down the lead significantly before a caution came out on the 18th lap.
Waters came out of the restart strong, but Ritchey pulled away for the victory followed by Waters, Garret Bart, Austin Reed, and Brad Mellott.
Stevie Kenawell was the other heat winner.
In the heat races for the Wingless Super Sportsman, Jackson was an easy winner in his heat, and the strong car helped him move up quickly in the feature.
Jackson started in the eighth position with Steve Wilbur on the pole and Trent Yoder on the outside.
Yoder took the lead on the first lap, while Jackson shot up to fourth by the fifth lap. Jackson caught Bob Gutshall to take third on the eighth lap behind Yoder and Wilbur.
The only caution of the feature came on the 11th lap, and Jackson got past Wilbur on the 13th lap.
Two laps later, Jackson went high on turns 3 and 4 and outraced Yoder on the front stretch to take the lead and was not challenged again as he took the checkered flag.
He was followed by Yoder, Wilbur, Gutshall, and Michael Smith. Yoder won the other heat race.
The Late Model Sportsman had more cautions than the other two features combined, and they all came in the second half of the race.
Shawn Shoemaker, who was one of the heat race winners, was on the pole, and Parks made a move from third to second on the opening lap to get past Brian Lowery.
Devin Weyandt also got past Mowery on the following lap to take over third.
Parks slowly reeled in Shoemaker and got past him on the 11th lap, while on the next lap, Clinton Hersh took over third from Weyandt.
On the 13th lap, they needed two restarts as Doug Legum spun out in the first turn, while a Lucas Adams mishap brought out the second caution.
There was one more caution down the stretch, but Parks was strong to win the feature followed by Shoemaker, Hersh, Weyandt, and Trent Brenneman.
Weyandt, was the other heat race winner.
Racing will continue on Friday night with $5 fan night and fireworks. There will be features in the Modifieds, Semi Lates, Pure Stocks, and 4 Cylinders as well as pre-race car show and autograph session.
After that, the next two races will be Bedford Fair races. On Sunday, July 24, there will be features in the Late Model Sportsman, Modified, Pure Stock, and 4 Cylinders, while on Friday, July 29, the features will be the Late Models, Semi Lates, and 4 Cylinders.
There will be no racing on July 22 or August 5.
Feature Results Wingless Super Sportsman 20 Laps
1st Tony Jackson, 2nd Trent Yoder, 3rd Steve Wilbur, 4th Bob Gutshall, 5th Michael Smith, 6th Matt Cisney, 7th Steve Kimwell, 8th Tom Savage, 9th Gary Johnston, 10th Daniel Harrell, 11.Jonathan Clay, 12.Jack Liddick, 13.Craig Perigo. DNA — Brad Shenk, Kevin Gutshall.
Heat Winners
Trent Yoder, 2.Tony Jackson.
——— Late Model Sportsman 20 laps
1. Matt Parks, 2. Shawn Shoemaker, 3; Clinton Hersh, 4th Devin Weyandt, 5th Trent Brenneman, 6th Brian Lowery, 7th Brad Feight, 8th John Seifert, 9th Robbie Black, 10th Lucas Adams, 11th Eddie Cornett. 12. Doug Legum.
Heat Winners
Devin Weyandt, 2. Shawn Shoemaker.
——— 305 sprints 20 laps
1st Drew Ritchey, 2nd Jake Waters, 3rd Garret Bard, 4; Austin Reed, 5. Brad Mellott, 6; Jay Fry, 7th Dylan Shatzer, 8th Scott Lutz, 9th Reed Thompson, 10th Stevie Kenawell, 11th Ryan Lynn, 12th Matt Kline, 13th Logan Jones, 14th Alyssa Rowe, 15th Jarrett Cavelet, 16th Josh Spicer, 17th Eric Mathiot, 18th Jim Kennedy, 19th Rob Aurand.
Heat Winners
1. Stevie Kenawell, 2. Jake Waters.