3rd Annual Big B Speedway Fall Classic (2012)
November 11 2012:
Clay Kirchenbauer
Chad Wilson
Dustin Stroup
Mike Burkin
Paige Polyak
Tony Beaber
Jeremy Gregg
Duane Hancock
Abe Decker
Gene Steele
Clay Kirchenbauer flexes his muscle to claim 3rd annual "Fall Classic" presented by F.T. Enterprises at Big B Speedway.
Clay "The Music Man" has been fast at Big B this season and set the tone early that he would be one to watch as a contender to take the win in the highly prestigious event.
In the first of 2 20 lap heat races Kirchenbauer would start last. Pole sitter Jeremy Gregg would jump into the lead and looked in control before he fell into ther clutches of Big B first timer Dustin Stroup. Kirchenbauer would make his way to the lead only to have a major mistake take it away as he spun in turns 1 and 2 with less than half the laps remaining. But he would drive hard and battle back it what was one of the most exciting heat races ever at the speedway, grabbing the lead back from Stroup as they took the white flag and head to the win as the crowd stood with excitement! Another Big B first timer Abe Decker was 3rd, Jeremy Gregg was 4th, Chad wilson DNS
The second Heat race lined up another Big B first timer, Mike Burkin, on the pole and he would grab the lead as last years "Fall Classic" top two, Tony Beaber and Paige Polyak, would battle feirce trying to settle into second. Beaber would finally grab the spot and begin to chase down Burkin. Just passed halfway Beaber would nudge Burkin and head to the victory as he looked strong in persuit of his 2nd straight "Fall Classic" victory. Burkin was 2nd holding off Polyak, Geene Steele was 4th, Duane Hanncock DNS
The top 2 from the heats would redraw for their "A" spots and a last chance dash was ran to fill in the field and also give the 2 late arrivals a chance to shake down their machines. Steele would pick up the win over Polyak who over came a crash lapping traffic while leading. Wilson was 3rd, Gregg 4th, Decker was 5th who also had trouble while leading, and Hanncock rounded ou the feild.
The feature was now set. Burkin would start from the pole. Kirchenbauer would start 2nd with Stroup and Beaber in the second row. The action was intense from the start and the feature was Crazy from start to finish. Burkin jumped into the lead as Kirchenbauer would gett shuffled all the way to 8th being stuck in the outside line. Burkin's time out front would be short lived. On lap 4 his kart would suffer damage as it bounced off the racing surface and would need minor repairs and sent to the tail. Stroup would now lead over over Wilson, Polyak and Beaber. Once again disaster would strike the leader. Stroup would tangle with a lap car just a handful of laps later and this would now hand the lead to Wilson over Beaber who had worked past Polyak. On the restart Wilson looked strong, last years winner didnt seem to have enough for him. Another yellow would fly on lap 16. Leading this race turned out to be a tricky task. On the restart Wilson was being pressured by Beaber and in his effort to protect the low groove, Wilson would clip the infeild and hand the lead to Beaber over Polyak, Kirchenbauer had charged back to 3rd. Kirchenbauer would swipe 2nd from Polyak on lap 19 and began chasing down Beaber. Kirchenbauer would use his bumper to wrestle the lead away from Beaber on lap 26. The remainder of the feild would experience intense action filled with wheel banging and slide jobs with drivers being shuffled to the back only to work their way back to the front and some shuffled back again. The action never stopped as Kirchenbauer was in charge of the top spot for the last 24 laps and survived many cautions to claim the trophy. Chad Wilson recovered nicely to drive all the way back up to 2nd, Dustin Stroup was 3rd after his early incident. The 4th, 5th and 6th place finishers of Burkin, Polyak and Beaber all had to go to the rear of the feild twice. Jeremy Gregg was 7th, Duane Hanncock 8th, Abe Decker 9th and Gene Steele rounded out the feild in 10th.