October 1, 2005
BATESBURG, SC - Points from Friday night's time trials and heat races locked in the top six drivers into the Saturday night A-Main event for the O'Reilly United Sprint Car Series Carolina Thunder Championship Race at I-20 Speedway. Five other drivers also raced their way into the Koolbeans Trophy Dash Finals on Saturday night.
Johnny Bridges of Cherryville, NC, Terry Gray of Bartlett, TN, Danny Martin Jr. of Sarasota, FL, Brice Wrenn of Lexington, SC, Josh Weller of Mertztown, PA, and Matt Tiffany of Daytona Beach, FL were the top six drivers in points earned during time trials and heat races.
Bridges opened the Friday night competition by setting a new all-time I-20 Speedway track record with a lap around the ½-mile clay oval in 14. 018 seconds for an average speed of 128.406 miles per hour in the C&B Mushrooms/Stainless Fabricators J&J/Bridges Ford-powered sprinter during C&B Mushrooms Qualifications.
That earned Bridges 50 points, and he added another 48 points with a third-place finish in the Engler Machine and Tool first ten-lap heat race. Gray was the second fastest qualifier for 49 points, and finished third in the ButlerBuilt second ten-lap heat race for a total of 97 points in the C&B Mushrooms/Goodson Farms Maxim/Wesmar.
Martin also earned 97 points in the Martin Structures, Inc./Food Grade Transport Schnee/ZRE with the third fastest qualifying time and a second-place finish in the first heat race. The tie-breaker between Gray and Martin was their respective qualifying times, in which Gray had the edge by one-one-thousand of a second.
Wrenn was the fifth fastest qualifier and won the first heat to tally 96 points in the Stainless Fabricators Maxim/Gaerte. Weller was the fourth fastest qualifier, and finished fourth in the second heat race to collect 94 points in the Wave Tech Associates J&J/Ott. Tiffany was the sixth fastest qualifier, and finished second in the second heat to also post 94 points.
The top six drivers, as well as the top two finishers in Saturday night's B-Main, will learn their starting spots and the winner of the K&N Filters Pole Award for Saturday night's A-Main after a draw for an inversion of 0, 4, 6, or 8. Drivers that finished seventh on back in the Friday night points will line-up for a 12-lap B-Main on Saturday night by points.
Bruce Cline of Apex, NC will line up the 31-W Insulation Stealth/Engler on the pole position for the B-Main, with Chad Allum of Kannapolis, NC on the outside front row in the ButlerBuilt Prowler/Chrisco.
The current O'Reilly USCS National and Carolina Thunder Tour point leader Kenny Adams of Malabar, FL will start sixth in the B-Main. Adams missed qualifications, but came from the last starting spot in the second heat, to take the win in the ten lapper driving the Milk Movers, Inc./Goodson Farms Shaw/Ott.
Mike Senecal of Palmetto, FL drove the Rodeway Inn Maxim/Humphrey to the win in the six-lap Koolbeans Trophy Dash Qualifying Race. The top five drivers in the Koolbeans Trophy Dash points are locked into the top five starting spots for Saturday night's Koolbeans Trophy Dash Finals that will award the winner $1,000 in cash and merchandize.
Allum leads the Koolbeans Trophy Dash points followed by Bridges, R.J. Johnson of Decatur, TN in the Tinsley Engineering/Georgia Performance Graphics J&J/ZRE, Wrenn, and Stephen Darvalics of Venice, FL in the CineMoves Shaw/Gaerte.
Senecal will be joined in the second five starting spots for the Koolbeans Trophy Dash Finals by Weller, Ashley Parlett of Concord, NC in the Schaeffer & Strohminger Dealers J&J/Ott, Jamie Neaves of Daytona Beach, FL in the Neaves Racing Shaw/Ott, and Josh Harris of Denton, NC in the Sticker Shocks Lightning/Harris.
OFFICIAL RESULTS OF ROUND 42 PRELIMINARY EVENTS AT I-20 SPEEDWAY IN BATESBURG, SC ON 9/30/05:
