Rockford Speedway-National Short Track Championships Friday

It was a good night for racing,  a little cool, however the racing was hot! The main events were led off by the Great Northern Sportsman Series. The 50 lap feature was led to the green by #2 Dave Trute. The race was slowed by six caution flags with one resulting in a red flag. The red flag was for the clean-up of a back stretch melee involving at least five cars. Fortunately, there were no injuries in any of the crashes. In the end it was Minnesota's Michael Gilomen #15 coming home the victor.

Next up were the American Short Trackers.  The feature was a 40 lap race that was led to the green by the eventual winner, Kelly Evink. The race had some good battles throughout the field and there were only two cautions for minor spins. Kelly had a good season finishing second in the Series standings at the Rockford Speedway.

After the Short trackers, it was the Hornet Bandit Challenge. These are the smaller 4-cylinder cars and there were 25 in the race. With 25 cars on the track, you can imagine there was some good racing throughout the pack. Dave Schmidt let them to the green and "Chargin" Charlie Frisch took the victory.

Next was the Roadrunners. This was a 40 lap event, with Dennis Smith Jr. starting from the front and leading most of the race.  At lap 25 there was debris caution when a car lost part of its exhaust system in turn 3. On the restart, the back stretch, again proved problematic when five cars got together and brought out the second caution of the event. After the restart, Dennis took command of the race and took the Checkered Flag.
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Last but not least was the Women's Championship. There were only seven cars entered in this 25 lap event. The race ran very quickly with Heather Stark taking the Checkered Flag

Congratulations to all our night's winners. Here are some images from the day's action.

To see all the images from the day/night action, please click here.

To see all our images, please click here.

Next up will be the second night of the National Short Track Championships headlined by the Illini Midgets, the Mid-American Stock Car Series and the Big 8 Late Models. The Vintage Racers of Illinois will also be making an appearance in a 20 lap race. It should be another great night of racing. The racing is set to start at 5:05 pm. Come out and enjoy some great short track racing and dress warm!