RPW Exclusive: Carrying On Family Tradition, Cody Higbie Wins First-Career Modified Main At Accord

Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – ACCORD, NY – It was a night for first time winners at Accord Speedway and a familiar family name returned to Modified Victory Lane.

In a dominating drive, Cody Higbie raced to his first career Modified feature win, leading start to finish and never threatened for the lead.

“We’ve been working really hard to get the car going,” said Cody in Victory Lane. “I just can’t thank everyone enough who supports me.”

Early on, the race was a series of cautions that saw Cody easily pull away on every restart.

Once a solid green flag segment happened, Higbie showed his dominance as he pulled out to a straightaway lead over Hunter Lapp.

“It was a really smooth night, I had a really good car and I was pretty maneuverable in lapped traffic there.”
Indeed, Cody moved through the lapped traffic with ease, extending his lead over Lapp.

With one lap to go, caution waved, wiping out Higbie’s large lead. Most drivers in that situation would have been upset, but Cody took it in stride and welcomed the caution.

“I was thankful for that last caution because I was pretty winded.”

Lapp, another up and coming driver in Accord’s Modified division finished 2nd. Chris Stevens had a solid race, moving from fifth in the latter stages of the race to finish 3rd. Craig Mitchell finished 4th with Tyler Johnston 5th.

Completing the top 10 were Travis Green 6th, Ken Ferrier 7th, Randy Green 8th, Joe Judge 9th and Josh Allen, in his first Accord start of the season, 10th.

The best feature racing for the lead on Friday occurred in the Sportsman division. Mike Travis and Eddie Owens had a great race at the front. They ran many laps side-by-side with Owens in the low groove and Travis up high. They swapped the lead several times before Travis was finally able to clear Owens, but Eddie kept it close.

At the finish, it was Travis with the win, his first career Sportsman win, with a margin of only .88 over Owens. Nick Plumstead followed up last week’s win with another good run, finishing 3rd. Steve Williams was 4th and Whitey Slavin 5th.

Jackie Brown Jr. was 6th, Kyle Rohner 7th, Connor Prokop 8th, Jeff Higham 9th and Kevin Stevens 10th.

Shawn Williams picked up his first career Pure Stock win. Williams was never seriously challenged for the lead in the 20 lap race, although Ray Tarantino kept it fairly close to finish 2nd. Gary Ronk was 3rd, Walt Henry 4th and John Rood 5th.

The Accord Vintage Modifieds had their first event of the season, the J.T. Krol Memorial. Harry Baldwin picked up the win in his sharp looking #21B Gremlin. Adam Douglas finished 2nd with Jim Fugel 3rd, Mike Brown 4th and Jackie Brown 5th.

Walter Henry IV picked up the win in the All Star Slingshots over his dad, Walt Henry and Rob Charmello.
Brayden Marks was the Junior Slingshot winner.

Racing resumes next Friday, June 7th with the Modifieds, Sportsman, Pure Stocks, All Star and Junior Slingshots along with the 4 Cylinders. The night’s sponsor is Mid Hudson Concrete Products.