By Cody Heacox
Finally after 16 weeks of racing we can officially put the 69th season of racing at Bowman Gray in the books. As we crowned four champions, but of course we couldn’t have a championship night without there being some sort of controversy. While going into the night Burt Myers held a 79 point lead over Tim Brown in Modifieds, Derek Stoltz held a 27 point lead over John Holleman for Sportsman, Jac Creed and Jeremy Warren would be tied for the point lead for Street, and Chase Hunt would lead AJ Sanders by 14 points for Stadium.
As Sportsman would get the night going as John Holleman would start on the pole with Jeff Garrison second. While Holleman would lead the early part of the race, Dylan Ward would take the lead with Zack Clifton moving to second. Lap 21the caution would come out after John Holleman would spin after contact with Zack Clifton. Ward would dominate the remainder of the race and hold off your 2017 Sportsman Champion Derek Stoltz followed by Zack Clifton, Taylor Branch fourth and Robbie Brewer fifth.
Derek Stoltz wins his 2nd Sportsman Title, John Holleman second, Tommy Neal third, Michael Adams fourth, Dylan Ward fifth.
Next up would be Modifieds with Tim Brown and Brandon Ward starting on the front row. James Civali and Brandon Ward would pretty much dominate this race. After numerous cautions in the early part of the race things would finally settle down and the laps would tick down until contact between Civali and Measmer that would bring out the caution. Ward would go on to win back to back season finales, with Jon Boy Brown finishing second, Bobby Measmer Jr third, Burt Myers fourth, and James Civali fifth.
For the 8th time in his career Burt Myers would win the Modified championship, James Civali second, Tim Brown third, Jason Myers fourth, and Randy Butner fifth.
Now time for some Street Stock action as it was a four-way battle between Jeremy Warren, Jac Creed, Brian Wall and rookie Amber Lynn, while it didn’t take long until the caution flag was waved as there was a big stack up that would cause heavy damage to several of the cars. As caution would come out yet again after Bryan Sykes would get into the back of Brian Wall and send him spinning. While Amber Lynn would also be taken out of contention after being getting caught up in a wreck, and Brian Wall would get into Steven Berrier. Meanwhile Spencer Martin would go on to win the race, Jac Creed second, Blake Shupe third, Gerald Robinson Jr fourth, Kevin Gilbert fifth.
Jac Creed would go on to pick up his first Street Stock championship, Jeremy Warren second, Brian Wall third, Blake Shupe fourth, Amber Lynn fifth.
Stadium Stock would be the final event of the night/season, as Chase Hunt would come up just one lap short of winning the championship when he would have a flat tire as he would try to play it safe but unfortunately he would fall back several spots as Wesley Thompson would not only win the race but go on to win the championship with AJ Sanders second, Chase Hunt third, Chris Allison fourth, Grayson Keaton would round out the top five.
I hope everyone enjoyed the 2017 season, see you all next year!
