Brad Sites Takes NY Penn IMCA Modified Series Victory Friday At Afton Motorsports Park

Story By: TODD BURGESS / IMCA – AFTON, NY – Stop number four on the NY Penn IMCA Modified series rolled into Afton Motorsports Park on a unseasonably cool but clear Friday evening in beautiful upstate New York.

Qualifying got underway through group time trials and saw Aaron Benjamin (Group A) and Keith Jack Lamphere (Group B) set fast times in their respective groups. Lamphere transferred that fast time into a win in his heat race. Points leader Brad Sites had his worst draw of the season with a ninth place starting spot at feature time. With Sites mired deep in the field and 3rd place points runner Shawn Bruce unable to attend the show, the potential was looking for a points shuffle by night’s end.

The 25 lap main event had Joe Novak and Rodney Morgan lead the field to green. Novak jumped out to the early lead, but it was short lived as he pushed wide out of turn four on lap three and Rodney Morgan was right there to grab the top spot. Just as the pass was made, caution flew which resulted in second place points runner Keith Jack Lamphere starting at the rear of the field on the ensuing green as point leader Sites had already moved up to sixth. As the engines roared once again, Aaron Benjamin began to pressure Morgan for the top spot as Sites and Lamphere continued to persistently pluck their way forward.

By lap eleven, Benjamin had claimed the top spot and Brad Sites had worked his way squarely to Benjamin’s back bumper as caution waved once again. Lamphere was following suit, now running fourth on the ensuing restart. That restart proved to be a breath taker, as Benjamin bobbled a bit off turn two and by the time the field exited turn four they were four-wide for the race lead, with Benjamin, Sites, Morgan and Lamphere all looking to take the helm headed into turn one. Sites took advantage of the preferred line and gained command as he barreled off turn two with Benjamin and Lamphere closely in tow.

By lap sixteen, Sites was still at the front by three car lengths when Lamphere made the pass for the runner-up spot, setting up for a duel between the two top point runners in the closing laps. While Sites and Lamphere continued to pull away from the field, Logan Terry had been quietly moving his way up the pack and had caught up to the rear deck lid of Benjamin by lap twenty, looking to snag the third spot away from him. Just as it looked like Sites would ride his big lead off into the night sky, caution flew again at lap twenty one, which drew the field back together for the restart.

As the green dropped for the final time, Sites kept his machine locked to the bottom lane for the final five laps, taking the checkers over Lamphere and Terry at the stripe. This victory made Sites the first repeat winner in the series, claiming back-to-back trophies at The Hill Speedway as well as the one at Afton Motorsports Park.

Lamphere’s second place showing limited Sites to increasing his point lead by only one point.

The NY Penn IMCA Modified tour now heads off for the Penn Can Speedway on Sunday, August 15th to see if Lamphere can chip into Sites’ lead as the tour heads into its second half of the season.

FEATURE: Brad Sites (2), Keith Jack Lamphere, Logan Terry, Rodney Morgan, Aaron Benjamin, Eddie Sites, Bill Nichols, Joe Novak, Tyler Stoddard, Lance Conley, Matt Benjamin (DNF), Oliver Gage (DNS)

MIDOSA USA HEAT WINNERS: B. Sites, Lamphere