Max Stambaugh Earns All Star Podium During Eldora’s 4-Crown Nationals
Story By: TYLER ALTMEYER / RAY MARSHALL MOTORSPORTS – ELIDA, OH – A start that resulted in the highest finish of his 2017 Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions rookie campaign, “Mad Max” Stambaugh joined “America’s Series” at the World’s Greatest Dirt Track on Saturday evening, finishing third, officially, during the 36th running of the 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora (OH) Speedway.
The pilot of the familiar Ray Marshall Motorsports entry started fourth on the main event grid and moved ahead to battle for second with Bryan Nuckles for much of the 25-lap, $5,000-to-win main event before settling for the final podium position. Bettering most of the 43 entries, Stambaugh earned his main event starting spot by finishing second during his respective heat race.
Stambaugh’s top-five performance at The Big E also raised his top-ten count to ten on the season, still on pace for Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions Rookie of the Year honors.
“We really needed that. I can’t thank Ray Marshall enough for sticking behind us,” Stambaugh said, driver of the Buckeye Machine Fabricators, Inc./Fastenal of Kenton/DPI Ink Graphics/No. 33M. “Things haven’t been the best for us the last few weeks, but those bad spells happen. We are a young team with a limited amount of experience. Eldora Speedway is a track where my comfort level is higher than most. We were able to put together a solid evening and get on the podium. The schedule doesn’t have a lot left on it, but we get to come back to Eldora in a few weeks. We’ll put our notes to work and attempt to do one better when we return.”
Max Stambaugh’s 2017 Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions campaign will not continue until Saturday evening, October 7, when the Series revisits Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio. “Mad Max” and the Arctic Cat All Stars have made four prior appearances at Wayne County Speedway in 2017, most recently on September 3 when Stambaugh finished 17th during the Pete Jacobs Memorial. The former NRA Sprint Invaders championship runner-up will enter his October visit to Orrville fourth in the Arctic Cat All Star driver championship.
