JACKSONVILLE, NC – Brady Price picked up his first career win in the first act of a Bomber double feature, but his second victory stole the show in an instant classic in the Spears Manufacturing 400 at New River All American Speedway on Saturday night.
After a caution set up a 13 lap shootout, with Price in the lead, he and Richard Smith staged a classic duel for the win. The two raced side-by-side for the majority of the closing laps, swapping the lead five different times amongst them while swapping some paint as well. As the two drivers continued rubbing in the final laps, Price was ultimately able to take the lead in the dash back to the checkered flag – completing the sweep of the double feature for the Bomber division.
“This car was on the rails,” Price said in victory lane. “I was doing everything I could to try to keep him off me. That was some great racing. I know we made contact on the backstretch trying to get by him. I’m glad we could keep it straight and keep going because that was a fun race man. Congratulations to Smitty, he deserved that second place man. The first two wins.”
Smith said after the race he wanted the win but he had as much fun as Price and took his runner-up finish in stride.
“He kept a good clean race,” Smith said. “We got together a couple of times a little bit. I bounced off the wall and cut a tire down. Drove the wheels off it pretty much literally. Brought it home in second. Not quite what I was looking for. For a car that didn’t have a motor in it 48 hours ago, it is what it is.”
Price would also compete in both Legend Car features, scoring a runner-up finish in the first of two races and a sixth in the second.
The first act in the Legends double feature was status-quo with Aiden McConnaughey scoring the win over Price. However, the second race would see a first-time winner as Max Opalski, who spends much of his time racing sports cars on road courses, would charge to victory over Levi Canupp and McConnaughey – his first win on an oval.
“That’s my first ever win,” Opalski explained. “I did one race last year. This is my second time ever racing Legends actually. Levi was super quick in the beginning. I’m not sure what happened but, one lap, he was on my bumper, and one lap, he wasn’t. I can imagine there was good racing behind me but it was pretty clear up front and I’m really happy to keep it clean and come home with a win today.”
Two different drivers would score their first New River All American Speedway victories in Bandolero competition.
Following postrace inspection in the first Bandolero feature, Rylan Speight was declared the winner just one week removed from similarly sweeping at Carteret County Speedway.
“It felt great to win,” Speight remarked. “At first, when we first got in the Bandolero, we were always at the back and we finally started running up front with everyone else. It’s pretty exciting to win back-to-back races like that.”
Speight was denied the sweep by Jay Hemmenway. Hemmenway led much of the race but had to hold off a hard charging Speight coming to the line.
“I thought [Speight] was going to get me there,” Hemmenway said after the race. “Came out with a win.”
With every division on the docket for double features in Saturday’s Spears Manufacturing 400, Curtis Lanier took advantage of the opportunity to add to his win count by running in four different divisions – Mini Stock, Street Stock, Rumbler and Champ Kart.
Lanier saved his best for last in the eighth of his eight starts. Driving the car previously driven by Gary Rochelle, Jr., Lanier raced his way to victory lane in the Street Stock division for the first time in a one-on-one showdown with Kyle Lynch – who had won earlier in the evening in the first Street Stock race.
“It means the world to me, the opportunity to drive this car,” Lanier stated. “Gary and Glenn and everybody that works on it, I’ll tell you what, it’s been a long day. Eight races, I’m just thankful that all my family could be here, all the fans that showed up today. I just want to thank everybody who lets me live my dream. I came out today intending to win right many. I’ve had to work on my cars all day, they’ve been not perfect like they usually are but we put in the work and saved our best for last.”
Championship frontrunners Paul Williamson and Rusty Daniels split the Late Model twin bill. Daniels qualified on the pole, but Williamson made a pass for the lead on the sixth lap of the race and was eventually able to drive away from Daniels. In the second race, Daniels was able to drive past Williamson midway through to take the lead.
In other divisions: Brandon Clements swept twin features in the Moore’s Old Tyme Barbeque Chargers, Travis Miller swept in Mini Stock, Dustin Phillips swept Champ Kart twins, Michael Ludwig and Cornell Williams each picked up victories in the Rumbler division, and Kristin Drum won in the Powder Puff derby.
New River All American Speedway will be back in action on Saturday, June 15.
New River All-American Speedway is Jacksonville’s Action Attraction featuring racing and other events. For more information about New River All-American Speedway, check out the speedway’s website, like/follow “New River Speedway” on Facebook and/or follow @newriverswy on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Results for 6/1/2024 at New River All American Speedway – Jacksonville, NC
Late Model – Race 1 | 40 Laps | 00:11:30.023
1.) #29 – Paul Williamson; 2.) #16 – Rusty Daniels; 3.) #61 – Michael O’Brien; 4.) #21 – Gerald Benton
Late Model – Race 2 | 40 Laps | 00:11:35.507
1.) #16 – Rusty Daniels; 2.) #61 – Michael O’Brien; 3.) #29 – Paul Williamson; 4.) #21 – Gerald Benton
Bomber – Race 1 | 30 Laps | 00:10:30.929
1.) #32 – Brady Price; 2.) #83 – Robert Drum; 3.) #41 – Kevin Wrenn; 4.) #91M – TJ Medeiros; 5.) #34N – Matthew Newman; 6.) #79 – Dominic Baez; 7.) #34 – Michael Withrow; 8.) #07 – Jonathan Thompson; 9.) #(BF) 33 – Nathan Hall
Bomber – Race 2 | 30 Laps | 00:10:50.482
1.) #32 – Brady Price; 2.) #77 – Richard Smith; 3.) #83 – Robert Drum; 4.) #41 – Kevin Wrenn; 5.) #91M – TJ Medeiros; 6.) #34 – Michael Withrow; 7.) #07 – Jonathan Thompson; 8.) #34N – Matthew Newman; 9.) #79 – Dominic Baez
INEX Legend National Qualifier | 25 Laps | 00:13:05.028
1.) #71 – Aiden McConnaughey; 2.) #32 – Brady Price; 3.) #77 – Thomas Martucci Jr; 4.) #28 – Oliver Missner; 5.) #6 – Austin Eckert; 6.) #19 – Max Opalski; 7.) #7 – Levi Canup; 8.) #14 – Mike Ridenour; 9.) #99 – Carsyn Gillikin; 10.) #9 – Brody Rhodes
Legend Car | 25 Laps | 00:07:49.100
1.) #19 – Max OPalski; 2.) #7 – Levi Canup; 3.) #71 – Aiden McConnaughey; 4.) #9 – Brody Rhodes; 5.) #99 – Carsyn Gillikin; 6.) #32 – Brady Price; 7.) #77 – Thomas Martucci Jr; 8.) #28 – Oliver Missner; 9.) #6 – Austin Eckert; 10.) #14 – Mike Ridenour
INEX Bandolero National Qualifier | 15 Laps | 00:05:33.178
1.) #45 – Rylan Speight; 2.) #12 – Jay Hemenway; 3.) #84 – Delaney Gray; 4.) #1 – KrisAnna Sandy; 5.) #15 – Benleigh Sandy; 6.) #3 – Landon Burbage (DQ)
Bandolero | 15 Laps | 00:05:20.757
1.) #12 – Jay Hemenway; 2.) #45 – Rylan Speight; 3.) #3 – Landon Burbage; 4.) #84 – Delaney Gray; 5.) #1 – KrisAnna Sandy; 6.) #15 – Benleigh Sandy
Champ Kart – Race 1 | 15 Laps | 00:05:28.266
1.) #75 – Dustin Phillips; 2.) #92 – Curtis Lanier; 3.) #13 – Miles Rochelle; 4.) #18 – Keith Webb
Champ Kart – Race 2 | 15 Laps | 00:03:33.750
1.) #75 – Dustin Phillips; 2.) #13 – Miles Rochelle; 3.) #92 – Curtis Lanier
Mini Stock – Race 1 | 20 Laps | 00:06:28.171
1.) #99 – Travis Miller; 2.) #2 – Curtis Lanier; 3.) #9 – Trace Raynor; 4.) #4 – Chad Cunningham
Mini Stock – Race 2 | 20 Laps | 00:06:25.632
1.) #99 – Travis Miller; 2.) #9 – Trace Raynor; 3.) #2 – Curtis Lanier; 4.) #4 – Chad Cunningham
Moore’s Barbeque Charger – Race 1 | 00:08:46.799
1.) #51 – Brandon Clements; 2.) #28 – Tyler Horne; 3.) #21B – Michael O’Brien; 4.) #71 – Gator Williams; 5.) #11 – Timothy Brown; 6.) #14 – Davis Renfrow; 7.) #5 – Lynn Waller; 8.) #21 – David Barnes
Moore’s Barbeque Charger – Race 2 | 30 Laps | 00:08:43.268
1.) #51 – Brandon Clements; 2.) #28 – Tyler Horne; 3.) #71 – Gator Williams; 4.) #11 – Timothy Brown; 5.) #21 – David Barnes; 6.) #5 – Lynn Waller; 7.) #21B – Michael O’Brien; 8.) #14 – Davis Renfrow
Rumbler – Race 1 | 25 Laps | 00:08:19.416
1.) #13 – Michael Ludwig; 2.) #2 – Curtis Lanier; 3.) #03 – Cornell Williams; 4.) #21 – Dustin Jolly; 5.) #5 – Haley Brown; 6.) #17 – Brian Gooden; 7.) #11 – Abby Jolly
Rumbler – Race 2 | 25 Laps | 00:08:25.015
1.) #03 – Cornell Williams; 2.) #5 – Haley Brown; 3.) #13 – Michael Ludwig; 4.) #2 – Curtis Lanier; 5.) #21 – Dustin Jolly; 6.) #17 – Brian Gooden; 7.) #11 – Abby Jolly (DNS)
Street Stock – Race 1 | 10 Laps | 00:03:02.553
1.) #16 – Kyle Lynch; 2.) #22 – Curtis Lanier
Street Stock – Race 2 | 10 Laps | 00:03:04.248
1.) #22 – Curtis Lanier; 2.) #16 – Kyle Lynch
Powder Puff | 10 Laps | 00:03:59.244
1.) #83 – Kristin Drum; 2.) #79 – Hollee Hanshaw
