17 year old Blake Bentley wins FASTRAK Rolling Thunder event!

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Blake Bentley enters the “Elite Club” of FASTRAK Feature Winners

Young Blake Bentley has now entered the hallowed ground and a club of Elite Drivers in the FASTRAK Dirt Late Model Series as he is the ONLY driver to have two OMG SE FASTRAK feature wins in 2010. 17 year old Bentley was the victor at Rolling Thunder Speedway Friday night in Ararat VA putting him in the lead of the “Virginia State Championship”. Night two and the Grand Finale of the Championship takes place tonight at Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat VA. Bentley leads the Championship by a mere 1 point over the 4U2 of Albert Cosnihan.

Although Cosnihan took the fast time of the evening, young Bentley buried it down into turn one on the outside of Cosnihan taking the lead from the beginning of the 40 lap feature. Bentley as fans stated, just never made a mistake. Bentley won the event but not without a fight as Cosnihan tried time after time to get under him, but just could not make the pass. Much to the pleasure of Bentley this put him in the very ELITE club of FASTRAK teams having more than one victory in any season since the inception of the series in 2004. Very few drivers are in that club and to this writers knowledge no one has won more than two events in a single season. Proof of just how tough this series is.

“I just drove as hard as I could” stated Bentley. “I really didn’t think about very few drivers ever winning more than one event in a season, but it’s pretty cool considering who the other drivers are”.

Bentley is quickly become one of the more exciting and accomplished rookies in the FASTRAK late model series. FASTRAK seems to have a real knack of cultivating some very talented young drivers making their way into other forms of racing. That field includes drivers like Austin Dillon, Chris Ferguson, Ty Dillon, Ryan Gifford, Zach Mitchell and others that have moved on to NASCAR and Super late models. As most of them will tell you, if you can win in FASTRAK, you can win anywhere as is proof with young Austin Dillon’s success in the NASCAR truck series. Plus that of Chris Ferguson who currently campaigns a super late model.

“This is a tough series said Bentley. “That’s why we race with FASTRAK. The drivers in this series are great to race with. They race you hard, but they race you clean. I look forward going into tonight’s event at Wythe and trying to take home that “Virginia State Championship” trophy.

“What a great show tonight” stated track owners Gary and Alesha Nester. “Very few cautions and the race completely over at 10:32. The fireworks were great and the fans loved the show. We have to commend our staff and the FASTRAK Officials for keeping things moving. We can’t wait until they get back in 2011. One thing we did want to tell everyone was that we understand people being a little afraid to come run the “BULL RING” as they didn’t want to get their cars torn up. They should know not one car was taken off tonight “on the hook” during the feature. That proves Rolling Thunder is a track you can race at”.

There is no doubt young Bentley will be a force to be reckoned with in the future. This is one of the many drivers in FASTRAK that with the right backing and support of a major corporation he could make his way into series like NASCAR and succeed in doing so. “I’m very proud of all of our teams” said Stan Lester Founder of the Series. “I know some of these young drivers will be moving on, but that’s what they are supposed to do. I take a lot of pride in following their careers afterwards”.

Tonight don’t miss the action at Wythe Raceway as the “Virginia State Championship” GRAND FINALE takes place.

Points going into tonight’s event. 35) Blake Bentley, 34) Albert Cosnihan, 33) Winky McGee, 32) Kevin Gwyn, 31) David Smith, 30) Dan Brewer, 29) Steve Cook, 28) Chris Steele, 27) Neil Welch, 26) Bill Tesch, 25) Kevin Wilson, 24) Brad Smith, 23) Jimmy Watson, 22) Chase McCormick, 21) Seth Key, 20) Royce Bray, 19) Daniel Wilson.

Finishing Results Rolling Thunder:

1)Blake Bentley, 2) Albert Cosnihan, 3) Winky McGee, 4) Kevin Gwyn, 5) David Smith, 6) Dan Brewer, 7) Steve Cook, 8) Chris Steele, 9) Neil Welch, 10) Bill Tesch, 11) Kevin Wilson, 12) Brad Smith, 13) Jimmy Wilson, 14) Chase McCormick, 15) Seth Key, 16) Royce Bray, Daniel Wilson.

David Smith takes the points lead over Royce Bray in the Old Mans Garage SE Touring series by 1 point going into tonight’s Wythe Raceway event. Smith and Bray in fighting for the points battle both went to Mercer Speedway in PA over the 4th of July weekend as it was a National event. Smith was running second in that event and Bray in 7th but under a re-start Smiths car was turned upside down coming off turn four and with only five laps to go. That gave Bray a little confort level going into last weekend’s $10,000 to win West Virginia Motor Speedway event. Bray again qualified badly but was quickly moving through the field only to experience an ignition problem late in the race. Smith finished second and put him within striking distance of Brays mere 7 point lead. Bray again qualified badly and finished 16th and Smith 5th. That put Inman SC driver David Smith in first place in the Old Mans Garage SE Touring Series points but only by one single point. That puts a different perspective on tonight’s events as two things are at stake. The Virginia State Championship and who comes out of Wythe Raceway leading tonights OMG Touring points.

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