Ricky Thornton Jr Takes Night 1 at Batesville
- jryanroberts
- Aug 17, 2024
- 2 min read
Photo Credit - Jason Brickey
Ricky Thornton Jr took full advantage of a penalty to original pole sitter Tim McCreadie to lead every lap of the 30 lap $5,000 to win preliminary feature. After an emotional day Dale McDowell took 2nd with Tim McCreadie rounding out the podium.
54 Late Models are at the 3/8 mile Batesville Motor Speedway. The Rocket1 Tim McCreadie set overall fast time in qualifying. He would also win his heat race. Other heat race winners were RTJ , O'Neal , McDowell , Marlar , and Scott Crigler. B Mains went to Jonathan Davenport and B.J. Robinson.
Before the field took the green they did a missing man formation for Scott Bloomquist who we lost early Friday morning from an airplane crash on the family farm. How fitting was it that Dale McDowell , who drives a Team Zero Chassis and close friend , had the outside front row starting spot.
On the initial start Lucas Oil officials ruled that pole sitter McCreadie jumped the start. Per Lucas Oil rules they penalized TMac one row back and they flipped flop the new front row giving McDowell the pole and Thornton outside front row.
On the restart Thornton used the outside to his advantage and took the lead that he would not relinquish leading flag to flag. He had a close call in slower traffic when the car he was lapping moved down and RTJ bumped the inside wall with his LF. Luckily for Thornton it didn't hurt him too much as you could see the damage to his nose.
The format for the weekend is based off of points from the preliminary night locking in the top 16 based on qualifying , heat race finish , and feature results.
The Topless 100 tonight pays $50,000 to the winner and can only be seen on FloRacing if you can't be at the track.
Friday Preliminary Feature Finish
RICKY THORNTON JR
McDowell
McCreadie
Marlar
O'Neal
Crigler
Moran
Dotson
Alberson
Stevens
Ferguson
Landers
Scott
Owens
Davenport
Robinson
Blair
Moyer
Breazeale
Wilson
Culp
Briggs
Troutman
Robinson
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