Wimmer Scores In FAST Season Opener at Atomic Speedway

WAVERLY -- A beautiful spring afternoon greeted race fans at Atomic Speedway for "Ladies Night" with 39 winged FAST On Dirt sprint cars packing the pit area. The temperatures would fall throughout the evening, but the excitement level was on the rise as the evening progressed with a star-studded field of drivers and cars.

Brandon Wimmer and Cole Duncan quick-timed their flights in ARP Fasteners time trials. Duncan was overall quickest with a lap of 11.626, despite being one of the final cars to hit the high-banked 3/8-mile track. Kory Crabtree, Zeth Sabo, Jordan Ryan and JJ Hickle scored heat race wins while Nate Reeser and Trey Jacobs scored B Main wins.

The 30-lap main event saw Cole Macedo and Hickle bring the 22 starters to Adam Brimmer's green flag. Macedo raced to a big early lead and the field was clean and green for 14 laps. While working lapped traffic, Macedo ran over the wheel of another car, flattening his own right rear tire. This left JJ Hickle as the new leader with Macedo relegated to the rear of the lead lap cars.

It was a great night for JJ Hickle, making his FAST series debut, however, this night belonged to fourth starting Brandon Wimmer in the John Shewbrooks A79. With some daring moves in traffic, Wimmer was able to wrestle the lead away and roll on to victory with Hickle, Chris Windom, Cap Henry and Jordan Ryan completing the top 5. The balance of the top 10 included Cole Duncan, Zeth Sabo, Skylar Gee, a hard charging Ricky Peterson and Kory Crabtree.

ARP Fasteners Qualifying

Flight A: 1. A79-Brandon Wimmer 11.659; 2. 50YR-Cole Macedo 11.700; 3. 33w-Cap Henry 11.719; 4. 5T-Travis Philo 11.780; 5. 24D-Danny Sams 11.912; 6. 29-DJ Foos 11.925; 7. 11c-Kory Crabtree 11.999; 8. 23-Zeth Sabo 12.061; 9. 83x-Nate Reeser 12.143; 4u-Josh Davis 12.213; 11. 15-Mitch Harble 12.261; 12. 5J-Jake Hesson 12.262; 13. 22b-Ryan Broughton 12.304; 14. 32L-Bryce Lucius 12.466; 15. 7N-Darin Naida 12.544; 16. 12-Kasey Jedrzejek 12.556; 17. 59-Bryan Nuckles 12.639; 18. 4x-Bradley Ashford 12.977; 19. 11J-James Moore 13.765; 20. 21J-Jaylynn Montgomery 14.143.

Flight B: 1. 22-Cole Duncan 11.626; 2. 4-Chris Windom 11.895; 3. 56R-Ryan Myers 11.914; 4. 99-Skylar Gee 11.915; 5. 25R-Jordan Ryan 11.981; 6. 97- J.J. Hickle 11.986; 7. 19-Sean Rayhall 11.993; 8. 23jr-Jack Sodeman Jr 12.088; 9. 71H-Max Stambaugh 12.108; 10. 5-Jeremy Weaver 12.125; 11. 78-Justin Clark 12.152; 12. 17-Reece Saldana 12.215; 13. 66-Danny Smith 12.256; 14. 22-Brandon Spithaler 12.259; 15. 2-Ricky Peterson 12.293; 16. 9-Trey Jacobs 12.306; 17. 15K-Creed Kemenah 12.323; 18. 55T-McKenna Haase 12.550; 19. 24-Lee Haskins 13.393.

NAPA of Fremont, OH - Heat 1: 1. 11c-Crabtree[1]; 2. 33w-Henry[3]; 3. A79-Wimmer[4]; 4. 24D-Sams[2]; 5. 15-Harble[6]; 6. 83x-Reeser[5]; 7. 7N-Naida[8]; 8. 22b-Broughton[7]; 9. 59-Nuckles[9]; 10. 11J-Moore[10]

Outsider's Merchandise & Apparel - Heat #2: 1. 23-Sabo[1]; 2. 50YR-Macedo[4]; 3. 5T-Philo[3]; 4. 4u-Davis[5]; 5. 12-Jedrzejek[8]; 6. 5J-Hesson[6]; 7. 32L-Lucius[7]; 8. 4x-Ashford[9] 9. 21J-Montgomery[10]; 10. 29-Foos[2]

Elizabeth Gardner Photography - Heat #3: 1. 25r-Ryan[2]; 2. 19-Rayhall[1]; 3. 22-Duncan[4]; 4. 66-Smith[7]; 5. 2-Peterson[8]; 6. 78-Clark[6]; 7. 56R-Myers[3]; 8. 71H-Stambaugh[5]; 9. 24-Haskins[10]; 10. 15k-Kemenah[9]

E A Home Supply - Heat #4: 1. 97-Hickle[2]; 2. 99-Gee[3]; 3. 4-Windom[4]; 4. 17-Saldana[6]; 5. 9-Jacobs[8]; 6. 5-Weaver[5]; 7. 22-Spithaler[7]; 8. 23jr-Sodeman Jr[1]; 9. 55T-Haase[9]

MSD Ignitions - B-Main #1: 1. 83x-Reeser[3]; 2. 15-Harble[1]; 3. 12-Jedrzejek[2]; 4. 22b-Broughton[7]; 5. 32L-Lucius[6]; 6. 59-Nuckles[9]; 7. 7N-Naida[5]; 8. 4x-Ashford[8]; 9. 11J-Moore[11]; 10. 5J-Hesson[4]; 11. 29-Foos[DNS]; 12. 21J-Montgomery[DNS]

MSD Ignitions - B-Main #2: 1. 9-Jacobs[2]; 2. 78-Clark[3]; 3. 2-Peterson[1]; 4. 56r-Myers[5]; 5. 71H-Stambaugh[7]; 6. 22-Spithaler[6]; 7. 55T-Haase[10]; 8. 24-Haskins[9]; 9. 5-Weaver[4]; 10. 23jr-Sodeman Jr[8]; 11. 15k-Kemenah[DNS]

Ti22Performan Inc. A-Main: 1. A79-Wimmer[4]; 2. 97-Hickle[2]; 3. 4-Windom[8]; 4. 33w-Henry[9]; 5. 25r-Ryan[3]; 6. 22-Duncan[5]; 7. 23-Sabo[7]; 8. 99-Gee[11]; 9. 2-Peterson[22]; 10. 11c-Crabtree[6]; 11. 50YR-Macedo[1]; 12. 19-Rayhall[10]; 13. 4u-Davis[14]; 14. 9-Jacobs[18]; 15. 17-Saldana[16]; 16. 78-Clark[20]; 17. 15-Harble[19]; 18. 83x-Reeser[17]; 19. 12-Jedrzejek[21]; 20. 24D-Sams[13]; 21 5T-Philo[12]; 22. 66-Smith[15]

"Superfan" Jason Imler's Hard Charger: 2 - Ricky Peterson +13

All Star Performanc Hard Luck: 50YR - Cole Macedo

Steel Block Late Model Series

It was also season opening night for the Steel Block Late Model Series with 22 racers signed in for the night's event. All 22 racers transferred to the main event that found Poca West Virginia’s Zach Milbee running what can best be described as a smart and patient race from his second row starting position as the front row starting Travis Carr and Joe Brewer ran an epic battle for lead only to have the patient Milbee strike when the opportunity arose made his way to move into the lead position. As the laps went on third row starting BJ Gregory also battled Carr for the runner up position.

Fast time: Cole Perine 13.6112

Heat Race Winners: Cole Perine, Zach Milbee, BJ Gregory

A Feature 1 (Results): 1-Milbee.Z 2-Gregory.B 3-Carr.T 4-DeLancey.C 5-Brewer.J 6-Simpson.P 7-Carter.J 8-McGinnis.M 9-Abels.K 10-Bradford.J 11-Lefevers.V 12-Cornell.L 13-Voyles.A 14-Jarrett.A(Jr) 15-Harris.D 16-Perine.C 17-Brennan.J 18-Melvin.M 19-Robertson.J 20-Harper.J 21-Robertson.S 22-Johnson.T(Jr)

With 31 C-M Racing Sport Mods on hand it made some very interesting racing as Young Gun Miles Cook Jr set the pace early with a quick time qualifying lap of 15.955. then as the heat race action heated it was very apparent that it was not only going to take speed but maybe even a bit of luck to make the feature event.

At the drop of the green in the feature event fast time and pole setter Miles Cook Jr made it very clear that he was going to be the man to beat on this night, lap after lap he hit his marks running consistent laps as the battle behind him raged on for the remainder of the podium positions. Early contender Kevin Wills was the hard luck award of the race as he dropped out while running in the top 3. While Cook tried to run away Kyle Payne, Blake Sheets, Jamey Adams, Gary Park and Joe Buskirk traded positions lap after lap, but at the finish it was Cook, Payne and Adams on the podium.

Fast Time: Miles Cook Jr, Kevin Wills, Kyle Payne and Jamey Adams

B-main: Austin Barker

Heat Race Winners: Miles Cook

A Feature (Results): 1-Cook.M(Jr) 2-Payne.K 3-Adams.J 4-Buskirk.J 5-Shepherd.E(Jr) 6-Sheets.B 7-Broughton.J 8-Harrington.J 9-Colley.B 10-Jones.A 11-Conrad.J 12-Akers.D 13-Barker.A 14-Houser.C 15-Crace.B 16-Park.G 17-Harris.T 18-Wills.K 19-Berry.M 20-Robbins.J

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Wimmer Scores In FAST Season Opener at Atomic Speedway