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Michael Day Emerges as Winner in Wildly Unpredictable ‘Bandits Event at Monarch!
Wichita Falls, TX (10/11/20) by DarinShort.com. Vegas odds makers would go broke at Monarch Motor Speedway when the Sprint Car Bandits Series rolls into town. Every Sprint Car Bandits event over the years, thus far, has produced wildly unpredictable outcomes…and last night was no different.
An unseasonably warm yet pleasant fall day greeted fans and 27 Sprint Car Bandits teams to a beautifully prepared Monarch Motor Speedway located on the western side of Wichita Falls, TX.
It didn’t take long for the sign of what was to come, when in hot laps Mark Seiple would get crossed up going into corner three leaving Chance McCrary and Chris Tarrant with nowhere to go – and the result would leave McCrary with too much damage to compete in the evening’s event. Tarrant and Seiple would be able to continue on with the show.
In the www.AirPerformanceDFW.com first heat race would feature Casey Burkham advancing from a 5th place starting position, to win, on the hammer-down track surface. Chad Wilson would pass 6 cars to finish 3rd while Jason Howell would advance one spot to pick up the second-place honors.
Not to be outdone by all of the passing in the first heat race, OSR house car pilot Channin Tankersley would fire off in 7th place and blast his way through the field to take a commanding win in heat race two. Claud Estes III and Jerrad Warhurst would each advance one spot from their starting positions to fill out the rest of the podium positions.
In the www.FixYourGenerator.com heat race three, Lucas Boxwell would get into the corner three wall hard sending his car into a hard series of flips that ended in corner 4 and ending his night. Lucas would emerge from the car unscathed much to the relief of the Monarch crowd.
With the top two heat finishers each advancing to the $500 to win Cabinets by Tommy Dash for Cash, young Austin Saunders would square off with Channin Tankersley in the front row, with Jerrad Warhurst, Casey Burkham, Michael Day and Jason Howell rounding out the field. Tankersley would ride the high line to a commanding win in the six-lapper.
Special thanks to Cabinets by Tommy for adding $1,000 cash total into the night’s events. It is much appreciated by the series and all of the teams. If your business or residence is looking for quality cabinetry, email [email protected] for a great solution.
Due to the array of mechanical and crash woes going into the feature event, it was determined to start all 23 available remaining cars directly into the A-feature and skip the B-feature. Special thanks to Monarch Motor Speedway for adding to the feature event purse by agreeing to starting more cars in this event. (That was actually determined weeks ago, to give more teams a chance to make the feature event since many of the SCB teams have to travel a good distance to get to the track.)
Channin Tankersley would earn the Peaked Performer award provided by www.PeakedRoofing.com of Ft. Worth Texas by amassing the highest amount of finishing and passing points in the field…which lined him up on the pole of the 25-lapper to come.
As the green flag dropped, the thundering field would all complete the first lap with Channin Tankersley taking the lead on the wide, fast racing surface.
But then just as soon as everyone witnessing the event pushed the winning odds into Tankersley’s favor, 19-year-old Casey Burkham would blast by him on the high side entering corner three to take a 4-car lead in corner 4 on lap two.
The next few laps would go green while lead drivers would run precariously close to the wall all around the speedway. It was then that disaster would strike 2nd place running Tankersley when he would get into the corner 3 wall sending his car into the fence with a series of endo’s. Channin would quickly climb out of the car with the relieved Monarch fans giving him a huge round of applause for his efforts throughout the night.
On the restart, Burkham would resume his pace as leader with Chad Wilson running in second and Michael Day running in third.
The race would then go yellow three laps later when Collin Horner would get into the corner 3 wall just enough that it caused him to stop in corner 4.
On the next restart it quickly became evidenced that the track was starting to transition and Chad Wilson would run the middle line with Burkham still on the top side. The pair would race side-by-side until Wilson would wrestle the lead from Burkham. The lead trio of cars would then all transition to the middle groove until around lap 17 when a spinning car would bring out the yellow.
Wilson would charge off to the restart lead when all heck broke loose, when Burkham and Wilson would be sidelined from an array of issues of contact and flat tires.
Suddenly, that would leave Michael Day on the point – whom had been lurking in a solid 3rd place nearly the entire event. Jason Howell would take over 2nd place with Christian Kinnison and John Ricketts (up from 20th) would complete your top 4.
It was during this green flag run that Junior Jenkins night would end after getting into the frontstretch wall sending his #23 sprinter into a hard series of flips right in front of the horrified Monarch crowd. Moments later Junior would pop out of the car, as if he were just taking a Sunday drive, and the crowd erupted into applause to show their support of the popular Greenville, Texas veteran racer.
After the track was cleared, Day would resume the lead with Kinnison, Howell, Mundie and Ricketts rounding out the top 5. Day would extend his lead to 20 car lengths after six green flag laps when Hearne Texas veteran racer Larry Howery would get into the frontstretch wall sending his car into a tangle with the catch fence and bringing out the caution.
Since the race was now inside of three laps to go, the final restart would be lined up single file and the race would go green-white-checkers with Day taking his first win of the Sprint Car Bandits season, with a ‘Bandits career highest finish for Christian Kinnison finishing in 2nd, with Howell, Mundie and Ricketts rounding out the top 5.
The Sprint Car Bandits would also like to thank Tammy Pack Sturgeon of All Import Auto Parts for putting up $200 on Saturday night to the driver that was the last driver running driver to take the checkers in the feature race, and that award went to Joshua Harner - THANK YOU Tammy for jumping onboard with this promo on Saturday night!
We’d like to thank all of the teams, Monarch Motor Speedway, the race fans, track workers and our event sponsors for all coming together and enjoying a beautiful night for racing. The A-feature for the SCB was completed before 11:30pm with still very pleasant outdoor weather conditions.
Next up for the Sprint Car Bandits series will be the Series Finale at 82 Speedway in Petty Texas with the running of the 2nd Annual Paul Peters Memorial – paying a potential $3,000 to win thanks to more added bonus money from Cabinets by Tommy! Complete event details will be coming out in just a few days. That event will be a twilight event with a 5pm start time on Saturday, November 7th. All other division results, pictures and more will be posted tomorrow.
Series points will be updated this coming week as well, but Michael Day is leading going into the final event with Claud Estes III in second.
Here are the A-feature results of the ‘Falls Town Sprint Showdown’ at Monarch Motor Speedway on Saturday, October 10th:
67 – Michael Day (first ‘Bandits win of 2020)
82c – Christian Kinnison (highest career SCB finish)
44 – Jason Howell (highest career SCB finish)
4 – Austin Mundie (started 19th)
99b – John Ricketts (started 20th)
74e – Claud Estes III (started 21st)
6m – Blake Mallory
7 – Jerrad Warhurst
39h – Dustyn Welch
4b – Austin Burkham
41j – Josh Harner
69h – Larry Howery
20 – Chad Wilson
45b – Casey Burkham
23 – Junior Jenkins
82s – Austin Saunders
45x – Collin Horner
17 – Channin Tankersley
83 – Jett Hays
72x – Chris Tarrant
f41 – Landon Thompson
Non-Starters/Non-Qualifiers: Sterling Hoff, Chance McCrary, Lucas Boxwell & Austin Smith.
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