Jessey Mueller Dominates Saturday At Airborne Park
Story By: ROBBY KNOWLES / AIRBORNE PARK SPEEDWAY – PLATTSBURGH, NY – Jessey Mueller scored his first career Egglefield Ford 358-Modified dirt track victory at Airborne Park Speedway on Saturday.
Mueller quickly worked to the top of the racetrack and made the pass for the win on the outside on lap-12. A late race restart pinned Steve Bernier along the inside of Mueller, but the Olmsteadville native held strong and pulled away to a comfortable victory.
Bernier held on for second, while Chris Raabe rallied from an early spin to pick up the third spot. Todd Stone and Dany Gagné rounded out the top five.
“I’m glad we started coming back up to Airborne,” Mueller said. “I really think we are getting our program where we want it to be.”
Devin Willis was well on his way to his first career Poirier’s True Value Sportsman Modified feature victory, however, Willis ran out of fuel while leading on lap-21. Bucko Branham would inherit the lead.
Branham elected to restart from the outside of the track while Jason McClatchie would go from the inside. Branham aced the restart and got out in front, but McClatchie wouldn’t go away. He ran along the back of Branham, but wasn’t strong enough to get around.
McClatchie would hold on for second, while Nick Heywood completed the podium. Apparent fourth place finisher, Codie Aubin, was six pounds too light and didn’t pass post-race technical inspection. Justin Severance was placed fourth and Patrick Picotin finished fifth.
“I feel like we had a second place car tonight,”Branham said. “It’s definitely good to get the monkey off our back after a couple of tough weeks.”
Tylor Terry collected his fifth win of the season in the Ernie’s Discount Tools Super Stock division. Brent Jarvis and Jim McKiernan completed the podium. The Super Stock finish remains unofficial pending post-race technical inspection.
Josh LaPorte collected his third win of the season in the Mini-Mod division, while Shawn Walker scored his fifth win of the year in the Strictly Stock division.
In addition to the racing action, Airborne inducted its first annual Hall of Fame class. Maurice Broderick, Jackie Peterson, Charlie Trombley, Dick Nephew and Bob Bruno were the five inductees for 2018. The Airborne Park Speedway Hall of Fame is located at the Champlain Valley Transportation Museum in Plattsburgh.
Friends and family of all five inductees were on hand for the ceremony. Included were the classic racecars of Nephew, Bruno and Trombley prepared by Jody Manor, Gary Harris, Gary Nephew and John Rock.
Airborne resumes its racing action next weekend for Make-a-Wish and kids’ night. Post time will be at 7 p.m. For more information and to stay up to date, visit airborneparkspeedway.com.
358-MODIFIED FEATURE (30 LAPS): JESSEY MUELLER, Steve Bernier, Chris Raabe, Todd Stone, Dany Gagné, Matt Woodruff, George Foley, Travis Bruno, Greg Atkins, Roger Labreche, Corbin Millar, Patrick Dupree
SPORTSMAN FEATURE (25 LAPS): BUCKO BRANHAM, Jason McClatchie, Nick Heywood, Justin Severance, Patrick Picotin, Chris Frennier, Lonnie Rivers, Dylan Rabtoy, Jamy Begor, Mike Phinney, Jeremy Roy, Jason Bruno, Brad Winters, Andy Heywood, Cory McCoy, Billy Cook, Jamie LaFountain, Rico Hernandez, Jack Speshock, Devin Willis, Mike Palmer, Chris Cayea, Mike Fisher, Codie Aubin-DQ
