The Pink Lady runs again with Davey Hamilton
The NSRA returns to Meridian Speedway
By Brian Calkins – Idaho Racing News
Meridian, Idaho - The last race weekend of the regular season at Meridian Speedway is also the last race in the Northwest Sprintcar Racing Association championship. Drivers representing the NSRA and Meridian Speedway regulars will be competing in the two day event this Friday and Saturday. Meridian Speedway championships will also be decided this weekend. Kenny Hamilton and Brandon Johnson are going into the last two races of the season separated by 19 points. Hamilton has a slight edge in consistency but Johnson has the motivation to topple the leader and be the Meridian Speedway champion for the second year.
Another exciting part of the events this coming weekend is Davey Hamilton will be returning to his home track for the two day event and will be driving the famous “Pink Lady” sprint car being taken out of retirement especially for this event. The “Pink Lady” has been made famous by Kenny Hamilton (Davey Hamilton’s father) and the car has been on display at the Idaho Historical Racing Society’s open house in the past few years as a working part of racing history. The “Pink Lady” will run against the latest and most up to date race cars on both nights with Davey Hamilton behind the wheel on Friday and possibly on Saturday also.
The NSRA will be deciding its championship this weekend also. Matt Hein leads last years champ, Andy Alberding, by 41 points but two races is enough to upset the outcome. Local driver and young gun, Sierra Jackson, is in third place in the NSRA points and another local driver, Cory Lockwood, is in seventh place. There will be 25 cars or more in the Winged Sprints races this weekend with a 40 lap main event on Friday and a 50 lap race on Saturday. This is the last race of the season for Meridian Speedway and the NSRA.
Other classes that will be completing their championships at Meridian Speedway this weekend are the Grand American Modifieds, Super Stocks, Street Stocks, Legends, Mini Stocks, Hornets and the Bandoleros. The rain out last weekend ended the championships for the Late Models, Late Model Lites, and the Non Winged Sprints more abruptly than optimum with the points ending with the previous races.
The Grand American Modifieds points leader, Jeff Wurtz, has a good lead going in to the last race of the season but his cousin, Dennis Wurtz II, will be trying to make up the 52 point deficit. Some of the other positions will be changing this weekend but Jeff Wurtz will probably take home the championship. In the Mini Stocks it will come down to Jason Sanders and Ray Bollinger with the other drivers battling for lesser positions. In the Hornets Tyler Burlingame has a lead, but not a runaway lead, over Kyle Burrill with 31 points separating them.
In the Legends Camron Madsen is ahead of Jamie Ransom by 29 points which should be enough to hold on to but an upset could happen. In the Bandoleros Chase Gilbertson needs to make up a seven point deficit to catch Alyson Clark and at the same time hold off Alyson’s brother, Andrew, who is only 10 points out of the top spot. While in the Street Stocks Darrell Lankford could take the weekend off and sit in the stands and still hold on to the lead he will probably dig deeper the chasm that separates him from the second place Shawn Hansen.
Last week due to the rain out a three way race to the finish in the Non Winged Sprints did not happen and it looks like Johnny Giesler was the unofficial winner, ahead of Rob Grice by 22 points. The Super Stocks are in a similar points battle with Dennis Brodigan only 17 points ahead of Charlie Hamm Jr. and 31 ahead of Dan Lowther. A three way dash to the finish is in the works.
But the big story is; who will be the Wing Sprints champion after the races this weekend. Will it be the current points leader, Kenny Hamilton, past champion for several years and track promoter or will it be last year’s champ, Brandon Johnson? Going in to this last weekend there will be two race nights with points tallied for qualifying, heat race finish, and main event finish. So Kenny Hamilton’s 19 point lead still leaves Brandon Johnson a chance to make up the difference. Both have been running strong all year and both are fierce competitors that are fun to watch.
The gates open at 4 on both nights with the qualifying and trophy dashes at 5 and 6. For special admission passes for the two day event contact the speedway office at (208) 888-2813 or for more information log on to www.meridianspeedway.com.
Photo
The “Pink Lady” at the Idaho Historical Racing Society’s open house at Print Craft in Caldwell, Idaho. Two other local historical sprint cars and Brandon Johnson’s green number 14 can be seen in the background.
Photo by Brian Calkins
