From Fan Zone to Top-5 For Showtime in Allentown
From Fan Zone to Top-5 For Showtime in Allentown
Story & Photos By: Pete MacDonald/RacersGuide.com
To say that Saturday was a rough day at the races for Jimmy Blewett that would be considered an understatement.
While battling for the lead during his heat race with Matt Janisch the two made contact resulting in Blewett spinning in his red, white and blue No. 76 and restarting last on the field. Blewett scraped and clawed his way back through the heat race field only to miss making the 40-Lap feature by a single position relegating him to the B-Main.
Fast forward to the B-Main where Blewett battled intensely with with Zane Zeiner throughout the first handful of laps until disaster struck for the Howell, NJ resident making hard contact with the turn three concrete barrier ending his night temporarily.
While under yellow the decision was made that since Blewett would be the points provisional the call was to go and retrieve his backup Lafler car that had been on display for the fans in the FanZone throughout the weekend. One of the few times I had ever heard of a show car being turned into a racecar was back in 1983 when Cale Yarborough flipped in time trials at Daytona, went to Hardees to pick up a show car and raced it the following week, not an hour later.
While the mad thrash to prep the backup car for racing conditions was underway, members from other teams including Friday night winner Ryan Flores was seen helping get the machine ready to come from the 25th and last starting position.
Come feature time the only way for Blewett to go was forward picking up cars one at a time as he pushed and fought his way through the field cracking the Top-10 on lap 25 and entering the Top-5 just a few laps later when Erick Rudolph and Jonathan Reid made contact entering Turn-1 collecting Blewett, Chad Jones., Ryan Tidman and Matt Roselli.
Back to the rear it was again.
With yellow flag fever going on and the attrition rate so high, Blewett was shuffled back to fourth again on a late restart when contact was made with Earl Paules and Anthony Sesely resulting in Sesely getting into the back of Blewett spinning Showtime in front of the field again while cars piled in.
It seemed as if these guys never wanted this race to end, as caution after caution after caution kept coming out making the race seemed as it was going on forever.
Finally, on the final restart Blewett had made his way up to third (the highest he had been all day) and it still wouldn’t be without contact on the final lap after Blewett and Jonathan Reid made contact entering Turn-3 heading to the checkered, Blewett would prevail and end up third at the stripe.
“That was the best the car handled all weekend, its unfortunate how everything turned out tonight, but that’s racing”, said Blewett, who earned the “Scrapper of the Race” worth an extra $115 for passing the most cars. “It’s our newer car and it ran really good. We had to change a good amount on it setup wise, but we did the best we could with the amount of time given”, Blewett explained.
Say what you want about Jimmy Blewett, he’s a racer and will fight until he can’t continue anymore.
I can be reached at racersguide@gmail.com or found on Twitter @PMacDonald51. Thanks for reading!
