It was a fantastic night of racing on Friday night at Big Diamond Speedway on Red White and Blue Autos night with Kevin Beach holding off a determined Brett Kressley for his second Quandel Concrete modified win of the season. The United Racing Club made their only appearance of 2024 on Friday night with Tyler Ross coming home the victor in a wild race that saw a lot of attrition. Mike Reichert was the winner of the Red White and Blue Autos Roadrunner feature with Devon Friese winning the East Coast Legends main event.
Ron Haring and Kevin Beach would lead the Quandel Concrete Modifieds to starter Warren Alston’s green flag with Haring vaulting out to the early lead with Beach following behind. Haring would continue to set the pace with Beach, Jack Butler, Brandon Edgar and Ryan Watt the top five after five laps were completed. Haring had a nice lead over the field while Beach and Butler battled hard for the runner up spot. Haring’s lead started to disappear as Beach and the rest of the field were making strides to the front. Halfway on lap 13 saw the leaders start to encounter the tail end of the field with Haring still in front.
Some of the most intense racing ever witnessed at Big Diamond took place right after the crossed flags with Haring, Beach Butler, Edgar and Louden Reimert all nose to tail for the top spot. Beach was able to work under Haring going into turn one to take the lead away on lap 14. As the completed lap 15, cars were two, three and sometimes four abreast as they raced behind Beach with points leader Brett Kressley slicing through the traffic. At one point on lap 15, the top ten cars were all within striking distance of the leader with Duane Howard, Logan Watt and Mike Gular joining the party. It was clean and hard racing with the crowd on their feet as the intense racing continued. A yellow for early leader Ron Haring allowed the drivers and the fans to catch their breath on lap 16. With nine laps remaining, it was Beach leading Butler, Reimert, Kressley, Edgar, Ryan Watt, Gular, Howard and Logan Watt.
When the race resumed, Beach continued to show the way with Kressley vaulting from fourth to second running the “Kressley” line up top. While Kressley looked to catch the leader Beach, Butler, Reimert and Ryan Watt were throwing sliders at each other for second. Kressley turned up the heat on Beach with three laps to go but Beach hit his marks perfectly and held off the points leader to win his second Big Diamond Quandel Concrete modified feature of the year. Kressley finished second to increase his points lead with Jack Butler, Louden Reimert and Ryan Watt.
“I saw the No. 19 on the scoreboard, and I said oh boy, I can’t leave off now,” said the victorious Beach in Red White and Blue Autos victory lane. “We hit the lapped traffic, and I could tell the No. 85 (Ron Haring Jr) wasn’t quite sure to go high or low so I went low and then he decided to come with me, and we bumped a little bit, it wasn’t nothing major. They (lapped cars) held their line and that’s all you can ask. This one feels really good and it’s like the last one, the car was tight in the heat and we weren’t sure what to do but whatever we did worked amazingly.”
The Capital Renegades United Racing Club feature saw multiple attempts to get the race going with pole sitter Cody Fletcher being put back a row for jumping. JT Ferry led the early laps from his outside front row starting spot with Seth Schnoke. Tyler Ross was making his presence felt early and was putting pressure on Schnoke for second when the yellow was out on lap 4. Ferry was back in front on the restart with Ross now in the runner-up spot. Ferry continued to lead over Ross when the red flag was displayed for URC points leader Josh Weller who went over in turn one. Weller exited the car under his own power and was okay. After the No. 63 was cleared from the track, it was Ross working the outside on the restart and taking the lead away from Ferry. Lap 12 saw the yellow out once more for debris on the front stretch. Ross was in charge on the restart with Ferrey and Thomas battling it out for second with Thomas winning the battle. Schnoke slowed on the frontstretch after the side panels on his nose wing both came off bringing out the caution once again.
Ross once again led the way on another restart over Thomas as Ferry and Brett Wanner battled hard for the third spot with Ferry ending up going around into the fourth turn wall. Due to the amount of yellows and laps ran, the URC officials called for an open red so the cars could be refueled. When the race resumed there were eight laps remaining with Ross out front over Thomas and Wanner. The final yellow of the race was out for Reese Nowatarski who slowed coming past the starters’ stand ending what had already been a tough night for Nowatarski. Tyler Ross remained in front for the final four laps to take his second win of the year. Jordan Thomas, Brett Wanner, Kyle Smith and Brandon McGough rounded out the top five.
In the Red White and Blue Autos Roadrunner 20-lap main event, it was Mike Reichert rocketing to the lead from his second starting spot to lead the way at the drop of the green flag. Yellow on lap seven negated the big lead that Reichert had built up but Reichert still was able to remain in front. A lap nine restart saw points leader Andrew Fayash III now on the outside of Reichert on the restart. Fayash III had nothing for Reichert who continued to motor on at the front of the field. The remaining laps saw Reichert stay up front and now Fayash III had to battle Alex Schoffstall for second. Fayash III made a couple attempts to overtake Reichert but to no avail on this night as Reichert held on for the win over Andrew Fayash III, Alex Schoffstall, TJ Fitzpatrick and Chuck Fayash.
The East Coast Legends cars were on hand Friday night with Devin Friese taking the lead from Colton Friese with one lap to go to win the 20-lap main event. Top five were Devin Friese, Colton Friese, Ryan Wall, Dalton Friese and Justin Wagaman.