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Hewitt Scores First Career BOSS win at Waynesfield
The Mo Vaughn Transport / BOSS sprint car series roared into Waynesfield Raceway Park last night. Under beautiful skies, a great field of 43 non wing sprint cars signed in for action for the Dick Spencer Memorial. The fans were treated to a great main event battle that found Dallas Hewitt of nearby Troy, Ohio scoring his first career tour victory driving the Chip Pearson owned #69R.
The night began with six heat race events that were won by Kyle Simon, Hewitt, Shawn Westerfeld, Mike Miller, Kody Swanson and Dustin Smith. Swanson put on a dazzling display of driving in his heat race coming from the 7th spot to score the win and establish himself as the man to beat for the evening. The heat races were followed up by a pair of B-Main events that found Chuck Wilson and Garrett Abrams both picking up wins. The second B-Main was the scene of one of the nastiest crashes of the year on the tour when Logan Hupp clipped wheels with another car, then dug in sideways and barrel rolled the #2M Ray Marshall owned Buckeye Machine sprint car six times and into the pit runoff chute. Thankfully Hupp got out of the car under his own power, but was transported and checked out at a nearby hospital with only minor injuries.
The 22 car main event field roared to the green flag with Kirk Jeffries and Dallas Hewitt on the front row. Jeffries in the Make-It-Fit Foundation #59J grabbed the early lead but by lap #2, Hewitt was up the challenge and the pair crossed the line completing lap 2 side by side. Running high on the cushion, Hewitt sailed on to a comfortable lead early as 4th starting Kody Swanson began to move forward. Swanson was past Jeffries for the runner-up spot on lap 7 and began to close on Hewitt.
The race's first caution flew on lap 10 when a pair of cars spun in turn 2. On the ensuing restart, Swanson was able to make the move to take over the lead and appeared headed for victory. At the halfway mark the running order was Swanson over Hewitt, Mike Miller, Kyle Simon, Lee Underwood Steve Irwin, Kirk Jeffries, Dustin Smith and Cooper Clouse. The race's second caution flew on lap 15 when Jeffries, Smith and Clouse all got collected in a turn one mishap that found Smith as the only one able to continue.
The first attempted restart of lap 15 found Aaron "Mid Air" Middaugh reinforcing his nickname. The Polk, Ohio driver got upside down in turn 1 and was through for the evening.
Over the final 10 circuits, it appeared Kody Swanson was on his way to back to back victories in the Kent Wolters #21K, but the right front shock broke loose from the car. With the car now a handful to drive, Swanson soldiered on with Dallas Hewitt roaring back to the top side. The duo put on quite a show exchanging the lead several times and running side by side on the ragged edge of control.
With a newfound vigor, Hewitt began to motor away and right into the history books scoring his first ever Mo Vaughn Transport BOSS win and his first Dick Spencer Memorial. Former track champion Kyle Simon was able to slip past Swanson late who held on for third. Rounding out the top 5 were a pair of hard charging BOSS regulars Shawn Westerfeld (who started 9th) and Mike Miller (who started 12th). Rounding out the top 10 were Steve Irwin, Garret Abrams, Scott Hampton, Lee Underwood and Toby Alfrey.
Mike Miller retains his points lead with Westerfeld now jumping up to take the second spot. However, a lot of racing is left with many drivers still in the hunt. The series now takes a weekend off to prepare for the make-up doubleheader weekend at Legendary Hilltop in Marietta, Ohio and Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, West Virginia.
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