by Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWtacher
When the pit gate line is backed up to State Route 4, you know you are in for a whale of an evening at Attica Raceway Park. That was the case Friday night as over 105 sprint cars entered the pits between the AFCS 410’s, NRA Sprint Invader 360’s, and AFCS 305’s for the Salute to Gene Frankart Open Wheel Shootout.
It was Kyle Capodice and Travis Philo who led the field to the first green flag of the AFCS 410 season, with Philo taking the early advantage. The drivers would have to go through the start procedure once more, though, as Thomas Schinderle went for a spin on the start. This erased Philo’s excellent start. On take two, Philo still held the lead, but Capodice got a better start. Philo led the first lap over Capodice, Craig Mintz, Stuart Brubaker, and Jordan Ryan.
Philo and his 5T machine gapped Capodice by about a second by lap four, and Mintz inched his way closer to Capodice. Mintz made his move for second on the next circuit. On lap six, Philo found himself in lapped traffic, as Mintz still had his hands full with Capodice. Capodice snuck by Mintz down low, and reclaimed the second spot. Mintz didn’t go down without a fight, though, and was all over Capodice on lap 10, as they went side-by-side through traffic. This allowed Jordan Ryan to enter his name into the fray.
Mintz got by Capodice once again on lap 13, and Ryan followed suit, claiming the third spot, and Philo built his lead to over a second. At the halfway point, Philo still led Mintz and Ryan, but this is when Cole Macedo started to get pretty sporty in fourth. A few more laps clicked by for the leaders as they maneuvered their way through traffic. Mintz and Ryan were sneaking up on Philo at the lap 20 mark. On lap 22, Ryan took a shot at Mintz for the second spot as they caught up to the leader Philo. All the while, Macedo had the best seat in the house.
The race changed on lap 24, as Mintz took a peak at the lead in turns one and two, both Mintz and leader Philo ended up spinning, and Mintz ended up going upside down briefly. This handed the lead to Jordan Ryan, former 305 champion at Attica, but he was still in search of his first 410 triumph at the ⅓ mile oval. Ryan led Macedo, Zane DeVault, Kyle Capodice, and Skylar Gee to the restart.
Ryan got an excellent restart over Macedo, but it came back as Paige Polyak came to a stop in turn one. Another restart saw Ryan slip away from Macedo, who needed a couple laps to build momentum on the top as Ryan rolled the bottom. It looked like Macedo was about to make a move for the lead with three to go, but the red flag flew for Skylar Gee, who took a ride off of turn one.
Macedo had a good restart, but trouble struck for third-running Zane DeVault on the front stretch, necessitating another caution. That penultimate restart saw more of the same. Ryan was able to gap Macedo a little, but Macedo would wind up the car on the top and rope Ryan in. Ryan was close to taking the white flag, but a spinning DJ Foos brought out one final caution.
Fuel was starting to come into play. On the final restart, Zach Hampton, who was now third, slide Macedo for second in turns one and two, but Macedo held his ground and maintained the second positon. The white flag flew for Ryan, who seemed to have a car that wasn’t at full-strength. Macedo was able to get a fantastic run on Ryan down the backstretch, and Macedo powered around the top of Ryan coming to the checkers to steal the win away.
For Macedo, it was his third career visit to Attica’s horse track, and he did it in about the most exciting way possible.
“It was awesome,” the race winner said. “I definitely had to work hard for that one and I definitely feel like that was one of my most-earned wins out of my career. I thought with all of the cautions that we would run the laps down enough, where I wouldn’t be able to get enough of a run because it took me a few laps to get the momentum built up and gain on him [Jordan Ryan].”
“The first 10 or 15 laps of the race I was biding my time and searching around the track to see where I was best. Finally, I couldn’t see them [the leaders] anymore, and they were getting away. I knew I had to get going or else I wouldn’t be able to catch them. I finally just laid it out there, and started hammering as hard as I could,” Macedo continued.
“Winning in this sport, I’ve learned, makes everyone happy, and it keeps you racing. To get a win knocked out early in the year, we can all have good spirits going into the next couple of months with the Outlaws and All Stars. I feel like we have some confidence built up, and hopefully we can get rolling with those guys too in the next couple of months,” Macedo concluded.
For every exciting last-corner win, there’s an equally as big heartbreak for second place. That was the case for Jordan Ryan and MAR Motorsports, who were a corner away from a coveted Attica win.
“I feel like that’s the best car I’ve ever had at Attica,” Ryan said. We stayed with Mintz, and got by DJ [Foos] and Cole and got to third. I saw Philo and Mintz slide up, and I got underneath Mintz and he raced me back pretty good. I don’t know what happened between Mintz and Philo, but I narrowly missed it and thought, ‘This is my shot and I’m going to take advantage of it.’”
“I feel like I saved fuel really hard, and leaned it out. I tried to time up every restart perfect. I knew we were coming to the white flag and I saw DJ spin, and I knew I wasn’t going to make it [on fuel]. I tried to enter three, and it spit and sputtered really hard. I got into the gas and it launched, and I was just trying everything I could to take up as much of the racetrack as possible, but Cole just got around me,” Ryan continued.
“God, it stinks. We try so hard here, and I’ve won a lot of 305 races here. One of these days we’ll get one,” an emotional Jordan Ryan said.