Creeden Conquers Dirty Jersey 3 at New Egypt; Brings Home Over $10,000

Creeden Conquers Dirty Jersey 3 at New Egypt; Brings Home Over $10,000

By: Pete MacDonald

91 total cars entered the night’s program. 46 Modifieds, 21 URC 360 Sprint Cars, and 24 Crate Sportsman.

Relatively unknown second generation Empire State driver Danny Creeden called this win the biggest of his career with the field of cars that were in the pits on Thursday.

Two drivers did double duty in both the 360 and Modifieds, they were Neal Williams and Stewart Friesen.  Both being full time modified chauffeurs said they would to do more sprint car racing if their schedules would allow. Williams also currently campaigns a NEWS Wingless Sprint Car at New Egypt Speedway.

The fifth Modified heat was about as stacked as you can get with names like Anthony Perrego, Duane Howard, Rick Laubach, Stewart Friesen, Brett Hearn, Billy Pauch and Danny Johnson in the field. The win totals amongst those drivers are just mind blowing.

David VanHorn suffered mechanical problems in the B-Main while running in a qualified spot, he would take a Short Track Super Series provisional and after unloading his weekly New Egypt Small-Block would drive from 25th to seventh at the end of 40 Laps.

Ryan Godown and Danny Bouc who brought his NES legal Spec, Small-Block both had to run B-Mains and came through the field in a hurry. Godown would come home second. Bouc who raced in the Top-5 for most of the feature said his car got tight as the race went on and the car burned off fuel, ended up sixth overall.

Billy Pauch and Sammy Martz got into a bit of a scuffle after the third B-Main. It looked like Pauch squeezed Martz a bit if any during the race, I don’t think it was intentional. Martz did blast Pauch not once but twice heading down the backstretch after the race was over.

Was nice to see Ebby Ridge back after what was by far one of the worst wrecks ever seen at NES less than a month ago.

A murphy switch failed on the water pump to fill the water trucks prior to hot laps. A call was made to the nearby quarry that NES owner Fred Vahlsing owns and water was supplied that way, hence a late start was caused.

Brandon Grosso won his third Crate Modified feature in 8 days on Thursday night besting Ryan Simmons and Matt Carman in a curfew shortened feature. It tied Simmons’ best career finish, his first win is coming very soon.

Neal Williams ran as high as fourth before fading late in the URC Feature. It was Williams’ first winged sprint car start in almost a year.

Brett Hearn made his first and maybe only start in the Atlas Paving 66 at NES. Hearn would be a DNQ for the feature after missing the transfer by one spot in the first B-Main.

2014 Bowman Gray Speedway Track Champion Danny Bohn returned to his dirt roots on Thursday campaigning a car usually driven by his younger brother Andrew who would play crew chief throughout the night. Bohn also was a DNQ.

It was nice to see cars from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Massachusetts come to race at the Central Jersey Speed plant. It was one of the best and most diverse fields seen in the Garden State this season.

Wade Hendrickson blew up in his Craig Pondish owned #6 in the First Heat.

The 50/50 winner took home $1,971

New Egypt returns to competition this Saturday with Crate Modifieds, Sportsman, 4-Cylinders, and Vintage Cars starting at 7PM.