Sharon Speedway
Wright rules Sharon, gets first Fastrak win
By Mike Leone
Fastrak Racing SeriesHARTFORD, Ohio (Sept. 15) — Chad Wright of Springboro, Pa., raced to his first-ever victory on the Sweeney Chevrolet-Buick-GMC Fastrak Northeast tour Saturday night with a dominating performance in the Crate Late Model portion of Sharon Speedway’s Apple Festival Nationals.
Wright passed John Over of Uniontown, Pa., early in the race and ran unchallenged for the remainder of the caution-free 25-lapper on his way to a $1,200 payday. Over settled for second with points leader Max Blair of Centerville, Pa., third. Bryce Davis of Canisteo, N.Y., and Andrew Wylie of Saltsburg, Pa., rounded out the race’s top five finishers.
"It feels pretty good; I've been waiting for this for a long time," said Wright, the 18-year-old third-year Late Model racer. "I knew they were behind me. I just tried keeping a line and passed lapped traffic. It's awesome I got it done!”
Over drew the pole position and raced into the lead ahead of Bud Watson and Wright. Max Blair started fourth, but slipped high and faded to sixth. On lap two, Wright passed Watson for second, while Blair regained fourth past Wylie and Davis.
Wright quickly caught Over and the two leaders raced side-by-side for the lead on lap three with Wright making the pass in turn four while Blair passed Watson for third.
Wright began to pull away by lap six and caught lapped traffic on lap 12. He successfully navigated the slower cars to build more than a straightaway lead.
Behind Wright, the battle continued to rage for second as Over was trying to hold off Blair, Davis, and Wylie. Blair was applied heavy pressure to Over for second by lap 19 as the rest of the top five began closing in on Wright while he began to struggle with traffic.
In the next laps, Wright was able to clear traffic and quickly opened his lead back up. Wright had no scares over the final five laps as he crossed the finish line first by a margin of 4.593 seconds to become the 10th different winner of the season on the series.
Over, who is in his first full year on the tour, recorded his career best finish with the runner-up effort.
"It was a good run tonight," Over said. "We went back to some stuff we were doing earlier in the year. We've been struggling for the last several months. The last two times here have not been good so tonight is a great finish for us!"
Apple Festival Nationals: (1) Chad Wright, (2) John Over, (3) Max Blair, (4) Bryce Davis, (5) Andrew Wylie, (6) Matt Latta, (7) Josh Double, (8) Shane Weaver, (9) Bud Watson, (10) Mike Pegher Jr., (11) Will Thomas III, (12) Ryan Montgomery, (13) Bobby Rohrer, (14) Brian Booher, (15) Butch Lambert, (16) Ben Black, (17) Justin Tatlow, (18) Paul Grigsby (19) Wendell Pinckney, (20) Jamie Brown, (21) Randy Wyant, (22) Kevin Decker (23) Brad Blackshear, (24) Brad Kling. Heat race winners: Pegher, Weaver, Latta.
