The Bolt Action Truck Series held its second race of the Summer 2019 season–this time at the 3/4-mile D-shaped short track in Richmond, Virginia.
Zack Nichols grabbed the pole as night fell, with Chuck Sweeting to his outside in the 26 truck. But while Virginia is for lovers, it seemed that Richmond was for cautions, and the black sky above was juxtaposed with the evening’s most common color below: yellow.
The first round of trouble for the evening began when the 24 of Derek Caster spun on the exit of turn 4, bringing out the first caution. The field restarted on lap 8, this time with Matt Kemp (9) out front, as he was able to gain the lead quickly.
The second caution came not long after (lap 9), with the 13 of Connor Webb getting lose on corner entry and collecting the 17 of Oliver Cordell in the process.
The caution flag continued to fly in incidents such as on lap 18, with Patrick Gaspar’s 86 truck going around, lap 28, with the 99 of Eli Greene and the 13 of Connor Webb self-spinning separately.
The 94 of Galen Gidman had gained the lead from Matt Kemp and restarted from the point on lap 35, and then on lap 38, the 29 of Harrison Chandler got loose and overcorrected into the 34 of Nic Ramsay. The 89 of Sean A Hamilton also spun onto the apron of the racetrack as a result.
The caution flags continued the fly, such as on lap 46, when the 25 of Morgen Baird got loose, slid down the racetrack, and unfortunately collected the 85 of Steven Pearson in the process, blowing Pearson’s engine.
Lap 52 saw Thomas Keene (2) as the leader and a wild skirmish on the backstretch between the 73 of Chris Davis, the 18 of Zack Nichols, and the 29 of Harrison Chandler. The 18 and the 29 were completely sideways, but were both fortunately able to straighten it out.
On lap 56, the 28 of John Furnas had his sights set on Keene for the lead. However, on lap 57, the 17 of Oliver Cordell spun and clipped the 10 of Zeeshan Deura, but Deura did not make any further contact. Thomas Keene led at the lap 62 restart and maintained the lead to lead the halfway lap for the extra bonus point. Then, the 89 of Sean A Hamilton spun on lap 65, but did not bring out the caution. But then the 73 of Chris Davis spun on lap 68.
Galen Gidman then led the field to the lap 73 restart, but then the 6 of Chris Worrell got out of shape in turn 2 and spun across the nose of Zack Nichols, clipping the 2 of Thomas Keene. The field then restarted again on lap 81 with the 28 of John Furnas leading. The 2 of Keene drive in too hard and got into the 73, causing another yellow. Furnas then led the field to the green at the lap 87 restart.
On lap 88, Deura spun, and then Keene spun, and then Cordell spun into Keene while Keene was spinning. Furnas was still leading at the lap 94 restart, with Nichols in second place. Nicholas, however, got loose on lap 97 and rubbed the wall, dropping back to ninth place. That same lap, Hamilton spun, causing another caution.
At lap 100, the top five in the running order was: John Furnas (28), Matt Kemp (9), Logan McGlothlin (5), Chris Worrell (6), and Galen Gidman (94).
The field restarted on lap 104 with the 28 still leading. The yellow flag flew again on lap 106, with the 5 of McGlothlin moving up into the path 10 of Deura while trying to save the truck, in a netcode situation. Furnas continued to lead at the subsequent lap 112 restart. Then, the very next lap, the 99 of Greene got loose underneath the 94 of Gidman while the two were racing for second place, backing into the outside wall, but with minimal damage to Gidman’s truck.
While the field paced under caution at lap 118, five minutes remained on the race session clock, but the race was again restarted at lap 119, with Furnas leading. However, the caution flag flew again.
As the green-white-checkered ensued, time ran out in the session, but John Furnas was able to eek out the win. The 9 of Matt Kemp spun from third place, allowing Thomas Keene to slip by for a top-3.
The race ended up having 15 cautions for 74 laps. Nevertheless, congratulations to John Furnas for winning, and for leading the most laps!
Winner: John Furnas (50 laps led)
P2: Zack Nichols (4 laps led)
P3: Thomas Keene (24 laps led)
P4: Chris Worrell
P5: Eli Greene