BOYD, Texas (May 28) – The IMCA Modified William Gould sold five years ago put him back in the winner’s circle again Friday night at Boyd Raceway.
Gould raced from the 10th starting spot to the lead midway through the All Star Shootout fueled by Fast Shafts headliner, then held off a pair of hard chargers in Jacob Pirkle and Jon White to the $1,000 checkers.
“I like a fast track with more than one line and I like a short track,” Gould said. “This track was everything I like. I had a lot of fast guys in front of me and fast guys behind me at the start, but I could race anywhere and went where they weren’t.”
Polesitter Robby Minten and then Cody Leonard led through the 12th circuit. Gould was up to third by lap six and drove to the front before the first caution of the night on lap 14.
White had started 14th and crossed the stripe just half a car length behind Gould when lap 17 was scored; the 15th starting Pirkle took over second two laps later and kept Gould in his sights to the end of the 25-lapper.
“We were pretty good early,” summarized new Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot qualifier Gould. “And once we got to the front it was a matter of being careful and going fast enough to stay there.”
He’s now won five times and ran second another night out in nine starts, driving the Gould Chassis he’d sold to Dino Rendon at Texoma Auto Care in 2016.
Pirkle, White, 17th starting Garrett Gregory and Fred Wojtek rounded out the top five. Chad Melton was a plus 10 spots to sixth and Leonard raced his way back to seventh after a lap 16 flat.
Defending track champion Blake Clark was the IMCA Sunoco Stock Car winner and Alex Hickham topped the caution-free Smiley’s Racing Products Southern SportMod feature in his first visit of the season to Boyd.
Less than a week after his 18th birthday, Clark celebrated again with a start to finish run in front of the Stock Car field. He pulled away from everybody as the first 10 laps stayed green and, following four second-half restarts, just held off Craig Moss at the end
“I was amazed. I couldn’t believe it,” said Clark, who battled shifter issues the last two times around the track and would be up until 5:30 a.m. the next morning helping pull the transmission. “Boyd is one of my favorite tracks. A lot of fast cars and a lot of the big boys were there.”
The $750 win makes Clark eligible for B & B Chassis All-Star qualifying. Cary White, Jeramey Bradley and Dustin Mooney ran third through fifth.
Hickham had the fastest car from the start of the Southern SportMod feature and ran through traffic the last nine laps. He was never challenged in the fast-paced 20-lapper.
“We definitely had some speed. We drove as hard as we could, stayed extra cautious in lapped traffic and hoped for the best,” the Southern Oklahoma Speedway regular said following the $750 feature win. “Toward the end of the race, the car was performing very well. It handled as good on top as it did on the bottom.”
Wyatt Wilkerson ran second from lap six to the checkers. Robert Elliott, G.W. Egbert IV and Tommy Dove completed the top five.
Harold Clifton was the Mach-1 Sport Compact winner.
