The CMC races featured standing starts, and earlier in the week, it created a big problem during a qualifying race when one of the cars stalled on the track and couldn’t refire as the ferociously fast AIX cars were bearing down on it. Everyone managed to avoid colliding with the stalled car, but everyone in the timing and scoring tower held their breath as the green flag dropped on Saturday.
Everyone got off without incident, and the race was on.
Texas region’s Aaron McSpadden qualified on pole and he used it to great advantage, jumping out to an early lead he would stretch to as much as 12 seconds over the second-place car.
“The car was set up really well,” McSpadden said after his win. “We had a few mechanical problems, but we were able to fix them and prevail, so it all worked out for the best. I took the Ford School on Tuesday and that was my first time ever on this track. I didn’t have any problems the whole time. It was a good clean race.”
Second place changed hands a couple of times during the race between racers Kent Owens and Derek Wright, two competitors who are used to racing each other in the Great Lakes and Midwest regions. Eventually, Wright was able to put Owens behind him. Wright, who started from second, had his share of issues during the week leading up to the Championship race on Saturday.
He was disqualified for being .2 horsepower over in qualifying. That put him dead last for the next qualifying race. He worked up to fourth in that race, then second in the next qualifying race and he scored a second-place finish in the National Championship race.
“Kent (Owens) passed me going into Turn 1 and then two laps later I passed him in the same place,” Wright said. “Then I got a little gap on him and he was racing Spencer Caudle in the 53. Then Spencer got by Kent and caught me and we had a real good battle for the last three or four laps. It was great.”
Although Caudle, who broke a timing set in his engine on Friday and missed qualifying and practice, finished third, the official race results show he was disqualified, thereby handing the third-place spot to Kent Owens.
