(Oxford ME) Their last race wasn’t what you expected.
A 20-lap feature with no cautions?
For the Mad Bombers, that is unusual. I haven’t seen all their thirteen features this season but I’m believing that cautions are the rule not the exception.
On August 12th it was clear sailing. Those up front, stayed up front.
The unpredictability of the Mad Bombers returned AFTER that race ended when the apparent winner wasn’t registered to drive that car and was disqualified. Derek McKee (formerly in second) accepted the “gift.”
Switched from Friday night because of the rain, the Mad Bombers were part of the opening acts on Oxford 250 Sunday.
Before the large crowd, the Mad Bombers reverted to form and provided some exciting action. The outcome was in doubt and the interactions were numerous.
Kyle Richards came away with his first win.
The best Kyle had done previously, in this his first year in the Mad Bombers division, was 4th in May and 2nd in July.
“I had a great car today,” explained Kyle afterwards.
“We usually put one tire on a week, but we had four on this time,” he added. “The grip we had today was awesome.”
Kyle knew that he had something special in the heat he won. “We were flying on the outside,” he said.
Kyle needed more than those new tires to get the lead in the 20-lap feature.
Kyle got the help he hoped for on the first turn when a spinout by Cam Richards, in the first row, reshuffled the front of the pack.
Kyle took the high side past the trouble and started in the front row on the restart next to Jon Vargas.
Kyle took the lead but had a battle on his hands for a while with Justin Galloux who had also won his heat.
Also in the mix was points-leader Corey Morgan.
“We came out of that first caution in seventh and worked our way further up,” recalled Corey afterwards.
As Kyle started to extend his lead over Justin and Corey, another caution came out with five laps left.
That restart gave Justin and Corey another clean shot at overtaking the leader. (I thought at the time, that since Kyle and Justin had never won before, and Corey had won four times, I had to like his chances in a five-lap race.)
But Kyle had the pole and the tires and never gave in. Corey, however, had enough time to get second.
“I never thought I had the time to catch the 43 (Justin Gailloux) but the restart gave me the chance,” said Corey.
There have been seven different winners in the thirteen features in the Mad Bomber division. I think that the division has plenty of good drivers although many of them are young. The drivers tend to be aggressive, and the distance (20 laps) is short. Things happen.
In the second heat, Michael Deardon had the lead and looked safe to win it. Suddenly, his car slowed up, nearly causing an accident, and several cars went past before he regained his speed. He ended up third, but that brief speed loss cost him.
In the first heat, Callahan Cox took a spin. Dan Caswell tried to avoid him by turning right but instead went hard into the driver’s-side rear.
Sometimes you see an accident out on the track. Not this time. This was one that you heard…and I was at the top of the pit-side grandstand! Fortunately, Callahan got out of his car and walked on his own to the ambulance where he was checked over. Hopefully, he’s okay.
McClelland Miscellanea 