ATTICA, Ohio — Skylar Gee was fast as soon as he unloaded on Friday at Attica Raceway Park. The Alberta, Canada driver set fast time in qualifying, charged from fourth to second in his heat, and took the lead in the 410 sprint feature on lap eight and drove to his second career win in the 35th Eric Phillips Classic.
It wasn’t easy for Gee as Paige Polyak used heavy lapped traffic to close in the last 10 laps, even pulling along side of the leader with just four laps to go. Once Gee cleared the traffic, he pulled away for the win on the opening night for the Kistler Racing Products/All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads 410 Attica Fremont Championship Series presented by the Baumann Auto Group.
“I had to work for that one,” said Gee. “I saw Paige’s nose a couple of times. It didn’t matter what I did…if I got close to one lapped car then the other would get away and I’d get close to him. I got rolling pretty good there towards the end but I got tight and I couldn’t figure out why but I see the right rear tire is pretty flat.
“I used to struggle here but the past couple of years I’ve been getting better and better. We’ve been pretty good this year but haven’t had anything to show for it until now. I have to thank Logan, Dirt Sharks, Pack Rat, FK Rod Ends, Sander Wheels, and Jim Travis builds a hell of an engine.”
UMP Late Models
Ryan Missler needed long runs in the Dirt Nerds Podcast powered by propane UMP Late Model feature. Just as the five-time track champion got close to Justin Chance to battle for the lead a caution would fly. The final yellow fell with seven laps remaining and Missler was able to catch and then pass Chance on lap 22.
Missler drove to his 19th career late model win at Attica.
“I didn’t want to see any of those cautions,” Missler said. “It seemed like I needed a few laps to get rolling and get my tires warm. Running the top you can get your tires cooking pretty quick. I felt better around the bottom. The car is always good the longer the race goes if I got it right. I have to thank Attica for getting the race in today. They could have easily cancelled this with the radar and the forecast. My crew, Dave, Evan, Amber, my kids and all my sponsors.”
305 Sprint Feature
Last week Kasey Jedrzejek clipped an infield tire while battling for the lead of the Fremont Fence 305 Sprint feature and ended up in the pits. This week the Lagrange, Ohio driver waited until the last lap to pass race-long leader Paul Weaver to claim his second career win at Attica.
It was the opening week of the NAPA of Bryan 305 AFCS presented by Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales.
“I had a sponsor that told me at the start of the year every win they would give me a good chunk of change so I saw the lady today and I was telling her about last week and I thought I was going to get it until the misfortune down there and she said the same thing and I told her we were going to get it tonight and we did,” Jedrzejek said.
“Going out there on the start I really didn’t think I had that great of a car but as the run went on I got better and better and then we got into lapped traffic and I was able to catch up to Paul.
“I have to thank my dad and Denny…after last week I spun out because I couldn’t see because there was water blowing all over me. So we had to rebuild the top of the motor this week. They worked hard in the shop while I was studying for a final.”
410 Sprint Car Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. 99-Skylar Gee[2] ; 2. 19P-Paige Polyak[4] ; 3. 33W-Cap Henry[1] ; 4. 35-Stuart Brubaker[6] ; 5. 5-Byron Reed[9] ; 6. 4*-Tyler Street[12] ; 7. 3J-Trey Jacobs[3] ; 8. 2-Ricky Peterson[17] ; 9. 8M-TJ Michael[11] ; 10. W20-Greg Wilson[10] ; 11. 15C-Chris Andrews[8] ; 12. 32-Bryce Lucius[13] ; 13. 5T-Travis Philo[5] ; 14. 9Z-Duane Zablocki[22] ; 15. 00-Jake Hesson[15] ; 16. 75-Jerry Dahms[21] ; 17. 12-Kyle Capodice[19] ; 18. 41-Thomas Schinderle[16] ; 19. 17-Reece Saldana[18] ; 20. 68G-Tyler Gunn[7] ; 21. 21K-Larry Kingseed Jr[14] ; 22. 15K-Creed Kemenah[20]