By Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher
A packed pit area and grandstands for the Don and Hans Gross Memorial at Wayne County Speedway saw 11 410s added, as there were no other local shows going on this weekend. What was going to be a “test session” night for Jacobs, pilot of the McClure Racing #9 machine, turned into a perfect night.
Jacobs went quicktime in hotlaps/qualifying, which with the heat race invert, would have him start fourth in the first heat. No problem. Jacobs went fourth-to-first in the heat race, and would start on pole of the 25 lap feature.
Heat two winner Chris Myers would start alongside Jacobs, with Henry Malcuit and Creed Kemenah in row two. Jacobs grabbed the lead on the start over Myers and Kemenah, and would set off on a torrid pace. Jacobs had a one second lead on lap three, but Myers would start eating away at the lead as Jacobs got into some traffic on lap five. After disposing of the traffic, Jacobs built his lead up to 1.498 seconds.
The laps were clicking away as they reached the halfway point. Jacobs was back into lapped traffic, though and Myers was closing in. The caution flew for Jazlyn Boyles at the halfway point, as she spun in turns one and two, right in front of Jacobs and Myers. They were able to avoid, but fourth running Jamie Myers, who was going a lap down, got collected. This would put Jacobs back into clean air, but a slew of cautions would follow.
On the restart, Myers, Malcuit, and Kemenah went three-wide for second. Kemenah held second briefly, but Malcuit claimed the second spot, relegating Myers to fourth. The caution then flew for Troy Kingan facing the wrong way in turn two. The next restart was a little more tame with ten laps to go, but they would have to try again as Joe Adorjan was now facing the wrong way in turns one and two.
On this restart, Malcuit took his shot at Jacobs, and threw a slider going into turn one. Jacobs saw the slider, and countered. Jacobs ducked back under Malcuit off the exit of two, and rocketed by. Jacobs then set sail, gapping Malcuit by 2.672 seconds in five laps, then, with five laps left, the yellow came out again, giving Malcuit one more shot.
Jacobs didn’t let Malcuit have another shot. Jacobs had an excellent restart and would lead the last five laps comfortably, winning by 2.346 seconds over Malcuit. Kemenah, Myers, and Dylan Kingan rounded out the top five.
For Jacobs, it was his second win of the season, going along with a win at Fremont earlier this summer. With the Pete Jacobs Memorial coming up on Labor Day Weekend, and a visit from the World of Outlaws in mid-September, there’s no shortage of big shows coming up at Wayne County, so the extra laps for Jacobs could be very beneficial in a few weeks.
A full interview with Trey Jacobs can be found here.