A wreck on the first lap of the first race Saturday night took out the pole winner. Three laps later, a thunderstorm hit, washing out Saturday night’s racing program at Dublin Motor Speedway.
Pure Stock pole winner Stephen Erskine won the dash to the first turn against Ryan Gilbert, but couldn’t keep his car on the bottom coming out of the second turn and slid up the track. That allowed Gilbert, a nine-time race winner at Dublin this season, to cut low and take the lead going into the third turn on the 4/10ths-mile dirt oval.
Erskine’s car went high coming out of the fourth turn and bobbled a bit before slamming into the wall along the front stretch. The car bounced off the wall and collided with Greg Whitley’s car near the flagstand. The wreck sent debris flying, including a piece that sailed just over the heads of some spectators watching from the pits. The cars of Erskine and Whitley were towed to the pits while the cars of Robbie Williams and Tony Williams also had minor damage.
There were no injuries reported.
The race resumed after about a 10 minute delay. Rain began to fall as Gilbert was completing the second lap. By lap 4, it was downpour and the track’s dirt quickly turned to mud.
The inclement weather washed out a $2,000-to-win Late Model feature that had drawn 15 cars, and special Sprint car and Four-Cylinder races along with the regularly scheduled Open Wheel Modified, Super Street and U-Car divisions.
Qualifying was held in all divisions. Daulton Wilson won the pole in Late Model, Andy Boahn in Open Wheel Modified, Dustin Perritt in Super Street, Damon Bryant in Four-Cylinder and Chris Reeve in U-Car. The Sprint cars got in a pair of six-lap heat races.
Racing is scheduled to return to Dublin on Saturday, Aug. 27.
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