Josh Hedges was in the thick of things most of the way, including the early laps where he was pushing forward from a fifth place start. But lap 6 saw him oust Mike Lopes from second and then wrest the lead from tenacious Lenny Guy. Hedges then went two-thirds of the thirty-lap feature at the front, holding off Barry Shaw who took every trick out of his bag but still couldn’t get past.
A wild wreck, seven laps into the race, saw six competitors eliminated as Mike Cavallaro found himself against the wall, sliding with his driver’s side against the racing surface. Cavallaro quickly climbed out of his upended machine and walked to a ride in the ambulance for a checkup while Mike Duarte, Ed Perry, Cole Jackson, Doug Rioux and Rob Rainville were all collected and ended their evening. Festivities had begun with Perry sideways down the front onto Cavallaro’s grille. Mike tried to avoid by dodging toward the wall, but a host of cars piled through sending him to climb the wall and take a long slide down into turn one with his driver’s side sliding down the tarmac. Red flags flew and safety vehicles converged on the site as Cavallaro climbed free. While he took his ambulance ride, the truck took a hammock ride to the pits between two wreckers. The vehicle body had been brand-new at season’s beginning three weeks earlier and this evening he had been showing a complete body-wrap graphic for the first time.
It was a long cleanup, but finally, Guy and Hedges lined up for the restart. Behind them were Mike Lopes and Barry Shaw, both showing great speed in the early season. John Robidoux and David Lougee made up row three, followed by Darryl Church and David Simpson.
Guy pushed his nose ahead, coming out of the starting box but they were door-to-door in turn two. Hedges got his nose out in turn three and Guy roared into the lead in turn four. But caution flew for debris on the track.
They relined for another restart and they ran two laps side-by-side until Hedges nosed ahead. He edged up for three laps, came loose in turn four and Guy made the distance up. But by lap 13, Hedges was again nosing ahead. On lap 13. He had a ¾ truck lead on the outside. He grabbed the front for himself in turn one of lap 14 as Shaw moved away from Lopes and up alongside Guy. Lougee set to work on Lopes, looking for fourth. Lopes nosed ahead on Lougee and Robidoux began looking underneath for position. Chase Belcher, caught at the back of the pack, looked under Robidoux for a three wide, but Robidoux slammed the door.
By now, Hedges had an eight-car lead over the field. Belcher succeeded at going around Lougee. The corner of Lougee’s hood lost its pin and began to fly up in front of the drivers field of vision and the starter black-flagged him from the field. He had just succeeded at getting past Lopes, who regained his old position.
Shaw’s pursuit of Hedges had narrowed the lead down to seven cars by lap 23. Guy and Belcher followed them, in dispute over third place. Belcher used a cross-under move to get past and join the podium finish with six laps remaining. Hedges now was five cars up on Shaw, who had a ten-car edge on Belcher and the field was running single file behind them. Robidoux continued to dispute fifth place with Lopes and finally went underneath and grabbed the spot.
At the finish, it was Hedges, Shaw, Belcher, Guy and Robidoux for the top five, while Lopes, Church and Simpson completed the list of cars still running, as Lougee had curtailed his efforts with seven laps remaining.