Rockford Speedway Opening Day-WXRX 200 Lap Enduro

Today was the opening day for the Rockford Speedway with the running of the WXRX 200 Lap
Enduro. This is the first of three Enduro's which make up the Iron Man Challenge. The event led off with the "Beauty Contest", with eight cars vying for the $50 prize.

And the winner was...The Clown Car!

The race invocation was given by recently retired Jimmy "A" (Ambruoso Sr.) Jimmy worked for Rockford Speedway for 59 years! It was good to see him back at the track!

This was followed by the National Anthem, sung by Courtney Gors. Courtney did a beautiful job.

Then it was the racers turn to take center stage. The field consisted of 72 four cylinder cars racing for two hundred laps. There are no caution laps, only red light stoppages for specific incidences. The race is started on the oval and at the half way break the track is converted to the Monza course with a kink in the back stretch. When the race started Ryan Lagestee, driving the 34 car, went to the lead, followed closely by South Elgin's Billy Rud in the 01 car. It stayed that way for about the first two-thirds of the race, until Billy took the lead. At Lap 95, the halfway break was taken with Billy leading.
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At the restart on the Monza course, it was Billy in the lead followed by Ryan. Shortly thereafter, it was Ryan reassuming the lead. At this point, Billy got in trouble. He had a dust-up with another car coming out of turn two breaking the right front spindle. That ended his day and a good run. It was then, Jay Orr's turn to take a run at Ryan. He passed Ryan for the lead, however Ryan passed him back to take the lead, again.

From this point Ryan cruised home to the victory taking the checkered flag!

In his victory interview, Ryan dedicated the win to his friend, Matt Arvia, who had passed away. The number 34 was Matt's number and had the blessing of the family!

Second place was #18 Jay Orr and third place #3, Jason Kurth

To see all the images from the event, please click here.

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