Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – ACCORD, NY – The Accord Speedway has some new faces in their weekly Modified lineup this year. Tyler Johnston, Travis Green, Hunter Lapp and Cody Higbie have all posted impressive finishes.
And that happened again on Friday night when Johnston scored his first career Modified win at the Ulster County bullring.
“This is very special. I didn’t know when it was going to come, We’ve been up and down this year, ” said Johnston in Victory Lane.”
Johnston started on the pole and led all 35 laps, but it was far from an easy win as Travis Green really put on the heat the last part of the race.
“Starting on the pole was very nerve wracking. I thought that if I could just get my laps in and just hit my marks that we could come out on top tonight.”
Starting up front was certainly an advantage for Johnston as there were numerous cautions for accidents behind him. But the young driver was able to handle all the restarts flawlessly.
As the race got into it’s final stages, Travis Green closed in and had some really good looks at possibly moving to the front. But after one final caution with 2 to go, Johnston got an excellent restart and was able to get that coveted win by a margin of .384 seconds.
“Oh yeah, I knew that Travis was there. I looked up at the scoreboard and saw it was Travis, Randy Green and Danny Tyler and they are all good,” Johnston said. “I was running the bottom, but towards the end, I was slipping up and just didn’t have the drive.”
With the win, Johnson is right in contention for the Modified point crown.
“Yeah, that would be nice. our two DNF’s with some motor issues definitely hurt us on that. But we’re going to keep digging and hopefully, get back up there.”
The Green brothers, Travis and Randy ran nose-to-tail for a good portion of the race and they finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Danny Tyler finished 4th and Hunter Lapp was 5th.
Rounding out the top 10 were Jimmy Wells 6th, Scott Ferrier 7th, Joe Judge 8th, Corey Lowitt 9th and Rich Eurich 10th.
Greg McCloskey hasn’t raced much the past few years. But the former Sportsman champion is back at it this year and he grabbed a huge victory on Friday night as he was the winner in the 35 lap $3,000 to win Phil Goetschius Memorial race.
For the first part of the race, it looked like Jackie Brown Jr. was going to go back-to-back as he led the first 13 laps and was looking quite comfortable out front. But Brown slowed in the 4th turn and McCloskey was there to take the lead.
“After I got to the lead, it was ride around and protect. This is my first time back in six years,” McCloskey said. “I raced two weeks ago. I don’t even fit too well in my fire suit.”
In the end, McCloskey was in front of Whitey Slavin by .40 seconds to get the win. A pair of 38’s had a great race for 3rd as the laps wound down and Kevin Stevens was able to finally claim the spot over Jared LaBagh.
Steve Williams finished 5th with Kyle Rohner 6th, Ryan Behrent 7th, Jeff Higham 8th, Mike Doty 9th and Brayden Traver 10th.
And winning the big race run in memory of Phil Goetschius was on McCloskey as he finished up his post race interview.
“I’m glad to be back. Phil was a great kid and very much missed. Si I couldn’t have picked a better night to do this.”
In Pure Stock action, Jayden Sleight took the lead from Ray Tarantino at the halfway mark and pulled away to take the win. Tarantino finished 2nd with Walt Henry 3rd, Tanner Drongoski 4th and Bill Deak Jr. 5th.
Tim DeGrote scored his first win of the season in the 4 Cylinders as he bested Brandon Conklin who finished 2nd. Cadin Bodin was 3rd, George Barringer 4th and Jeff DeGroat 5th.
Matt Sabo was the All Star Slingshot winner and Cody Williamson grabbed the win in the Junior Slingshot race.
The Accord Speedway Vintage Modifieds will join the other weekly division for Accord Speedway’s next event on Friday, July 26th.