Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – Danny Creeden took the lead on a late race restart and pulled away over the final laps to win Saturday’s Big Block feature at OCFS.
The victory was Creeden’s 4th career OCFS Big Block win and his first since 8/9/2014.
Roger Henion Jr. was the story for much of the feature, as he took the lead at the start and paced the field the first 27 laps as he was looking for his first ever Big Block win.
With Henion Jr, Craig Mitchell and Tyler Boniface running 1-2-3 the first half of the race, there wasn’t much change in position in the top 10. Over the course of the 2nd half, things heated up.
Brett Hearn picked up spots and as the laps wore down, he was in a position to take the lead from Henion Jr. Just as Hearn was making his bid for the lead, he slowed on the track, bringing out the only caution of the race.
Creeden had moved into 3rd by the time Hearn had his misfortune, and he lined up outside of Henion Jr. for the restart.
He was able to get an excellent run on the outside on the restart and at the finish, had a 1.6 margin of victory. Boniface made a late race pass to finish 2nd with Henion Jr. finishing 3rd. Anthony Perrego and Mitchell completed the top 5. Chris Shultz was 6th, Tanner VanDoren 7th, Matt Sheppard 8th, Billy VanInwegen 9th and Mike Kolka 10th.
Jordan Thomas took the lead early and held off a late race charge by Danny Varin to win the United Racing Club 25 lap main event. The winning margin of victory for Thomas over Varin was .65 of a second.
Davie Franek made up spots late in the race to finish 3rd. Billy VanInwegen was 4th and Adam Carberry 5th. Completing the top 10 were Tyler Walton 6th, Josh Weller 7th, Alex Bright 8th, Troy Betts 9th and Mike Thompson 10th.
Troy Arnold got the lead from his outside pole starting spot and he never wavered over the course of the 20 lap race as he posted his first career Sportsman win.
Pole sitter Matt Sydoryk ran 2nd to Arnold the first half of the race. At halfway, Jared LaBagh had taken 2nd. Although LaBagh kept it close, he was never able to make a bid for the lead as Arnold’s #73 was just that good.
At the finish, it was Arnold by a little of a second over LaBagh. Tyler Peet advanced well through the field to finish 3rd. Dominic Roselli Jr. was 4th with points leader Brian Krummel 5th. Rounding out the top 10 were Tyler Johnston 6th, Kevin Stevens 7th, Cody Higbie 8th, Kasey Hufcut 9th and Sydoryk 10th.
It was a great job by the OCFS Kids Club as on Saturday, 100 bikes were raffled off to the young race fans.
There is no racing scheduled at OCFS while the annual Orange County Fair is in town. Racing resumes on August 5th with the Sportsman, Rookie Sportsman and Street Stocks in competition. It will be a big night for the Street Stocks as it will be the 8th edition of the Marky Traverse memorial race, a season highlight race for the division.