Salem, IN (August 6, 2018) – Indianapolis, Indiana’s James Kirby III didn’t have the fastest car most of Sunday’s Bi-Centennial 200 Lawrence Towing CRA Street Stocks Powered by JEGS Five Crown Series event on the famous High Banks of Winchester Speedway, he patently saved his car until it counted, taking the lead on lap 176 and cruised to the win, his second ever series victory, the first since July of 2016.
“The car didn’t really come in until the last 50 laps,” Kirby remarked in victory lane. “It was a great feeling to race my dad for the win here. I love racing at Winchester Speedway, and now I’m a Five Crown 200 lap feature winner!”
Josh Poore grabbed the early lead from his pole starting position after Allstar Performance Fast Qualifier Danny Adams drew a nine for the events inverted start. The events first caution fell on lap 38 when Baer Field Motorsports Park event winner Jake Hinton had an engine let go, he spun in his own oil and hit the turn one wall hard. Hinton was okay, but he was done for the day.
On the next restart, after an extensive cleanup of the oil on the track, Jimmy Kirby, James’s father, grabbed the lead from Poore on lap 53. Poore’s day came to an end on lap 84 with the events second caution when he made hard contact with the turn four wall, destroying the right side of his car, Poore was okay, but his day was also done.
Jimmy Kirby kept the lead on the next restart until the checkers flew for the lap 100 halfway break. At the break teams were allowed to change up to two tires and relined up by how many tires they took. Of the lead lap cars, J.J Schafer didn’t take any and Calvin Parham only took one, putting them on the front row for the second half restart.
Parham got the lead bringing Jimmy Kirby with him into second on lap 101. James Kirby restarted seventh on the second half restart, after patiently making laps and staying out of trouble the first 100. The events third caution fell on lap 105 for debris on the track.
Parham kept the lead on the next restart while James Kirby started working patiently working his way to the front. Parham and Jimmy Kirby battled for several laps with Parham keeping the lead. James Kirby started heading to the front about lap 150. He first passed his father for second, and then set his sights on leader Parham. As the two hit lap traffic, James Kirby was able to use it to his advantage passing Parham for the lead on lap 176. Kirby quickly built a good lead over the fading Parham.
The events fourth and last caution fell on lap 193 when Parham got into the front stretch wall, setting up a five lap shoot out for the win between James Kirby, father Jimmy and third place Jacob McElfresh, the Five Crown point’s leader coming into Sunday’s race.
James Kirby quickly pulled away to keep the lead at the drop of the green flag, McElfresh was able to get around Jimmy Kirby for second, but didn’t have anything for James Kirby as he cruised to the win by just over a second. Kirby collected the $3,500 first place payoff and picked up the Racers Parts Wholesale Sweet Move of the Race Award for his pass of Parham to grab the lead. With the win James Kirby has now locked himself into the Chase for the Championship, Brett Hudson is the other driver locked in with his win earlier in the season.
McElfresh finished in second and picked up the AR Bodies Cool Move of the Race Award. Jimmy Kirby would finish in third place, those three were the only cars on the lead lap.
Iowa native Mike Todd finished in fourth place three laps down. Schafer finished in fifth place six laps down. Jason Atkinson was sixth, Brian Hopkins seventh, Parham eighth, Bobby Schisler ninth and Nathan Greene tenth.
With the promotion of the Bi-Centennial celebration of Winchester and Randolph County with the event, Winchester Speedway officials paid out almost $5,000 in additional bonus money for the Sunday’s Bi-Centennial 200.
The next Lawrence Towing CRA Street Stocks event will at Anderson Speedway on Saturday, August 18th. For more information on all the CRA series go to www.cra-racing.com.
