RICHMOND, Ky. (Aug. 19) — Another Paul "Butterball" Wooldridge Memorial down at Richmond (Ky.) Raceway, another victory for Ricky Weiss.
Like last year, the Headingley, Manitoba, wheelman captured Saturday’s top prize of $20,059-to-win in the event that honored Wooldridge, the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer of Frankfort, Ky., and longtime supporter of Richmond Raceway.
This victory was far more easygoing for Weiss, who controlled all 59 laps from start to finish, a polar opposite plot line from a year ago when the Canadian skirted around a faltering Josh Rice with two laps to go.
Navigating slower traffic midway through the running posed as the only resistance Weiss faced all evening, especially when his four-second lead dwindled to less than a second by lap 26. Even then, Weiss wasn’t worried.
“When we got to lapped cars there, I could tell I slowed down a bit, you know, with the dirty air. I could see signals. They weren’t gaining,” Weiss said. “I got by a couple of them and knew they were between us."
Two cautions slowed the 59-lap main event: the first for Blake Creech on lap 33 and the last for Forrest Trent on lap 45. Weiss set an unmatched pace the opening 33 laps, opening up a 1.5-second lead by lap five over the pole-starting Greg Johnson. He ran that to a multi-second advantage two laps later, and then to three seconds by lap 10.
Once the would-be final caution period ran its course, Weiss just wanted to click off clean, productive laps to finish the job.
“When the caution came out, I didn’t know. I could feel it the last 10 laps starting to grip up in turns three and four, and there’s that hole in one I could kind of float that,” Weiss said. “On the bottom of two, we were real good. I did see (Tyler) Carpenter come up to third. I didn’t know if he would try to rip the lip. I just didn’t want to screw up there. Just proud of my guys. They work real hard on this thing. I couldn’t do it without them.
“Everybody back at home, this one’s for my grandma, and my mom and dad, my grandpa, everybody,” Weiss added. “I know they wish they were down here, but they’re watching this. I’m sure they have tears in their eyes. I’m actually flying home tomorrow, so I can’t wait to see them. Pretty awesome we could win this race back-to-back. Hats off to the guy working on this track. I know they work real hard here. It’s just getting better every time we come.
Though apparent runner-up Kyle Hardy, crossed the checkers 1.689 seconds behind Weiss, the Stephens City, Va., driver failed postrace technical inspection. Hardy later wrote in a Facebook post that he didn’t meet the series deck height requirement.
“Dang, had a good weekend over here in Kentucky,” Hardy wrote. “Ended up second and was really good in the feature, but evidently the deck was too high after the race.”
That meant Tyler Carpenter of Parkersburg, W.Va., inherited second. Carpenter started eighth and made his way into the top three by lap 16. A softer tire choice supposedly hindered Carpenter on the race’s initial 33-lap green-flag run. He did engage in the most thrilling battle of the night for the runner-up spot with Hardy. In the end, Carpenter had nothing for Weiss.
“I definitely went with the wrong tire choice,” Carpenter said. “I was probably one of the softest cars there on tires and it kicked my ass there on long runs. I needed about three laps and then a yellow. Three laps and a yellow. You live and learn, and that’s what this race is all about. Not everybody claims to be the smartest son of a (expletive). But hey, we got third, but I guess we got second.”
James Rice of Verona, Ky., inherited a third-place finish on Saturday, his first podium since July 9 in the $10,000-to-win 4B4EVER 40 at Brushcreek Motorsports Complex in Peebles, Ohio.
"We’ve really been struggling this year,” Rice said. “It feels good to get a good run here. I hate it for Kyle and his guys. They’ve been good all weekend. He’s a great guy. As I said, it is what it is. We’ll take it and move on. I have to thank all my guys for sticking with me. We’ve been running terrible and it feels good to get them a good run. They work hard on this thing. So, glad to put it up front for them for once.”
