Richards Takes Johnny Appleseed Classic at Eldora
ROSSBURG, OH – Sunday’s Sunoco sponsored American Late Model Series (ALMS) race at Eldora Speedway may have been the 39th annual Johnny Appleseed Classic, but it also served as the final tune-up for the impending Dirt Late Model Dream and the quality of entrants certainly served testament to that as Josh Richards bested a stellar 56 car field to take the victory.Matt Miller jumped into the early lead of the 25-lap ALMS nightcap and looked to have everything under control as he opened a nice lead over the balance of the field. That gap tightened up on lap 4 as Audie McWilliams coasted to a stop to bring out the caution flag.
On the restart, Miller found Richards, Rocky Hodges and Jeep VanWormer glued to his bumper.
An extended green flag period intensified the action amongst that group, but as they approached lapped traffic on lap 15, the heat got stronger. That fell into the hands of Miller, who pulled up and under Miller out of turn 2 to take the lead. From thereon in, the battle was not for the lead, but for the balance of the available positions.
Hodges began to apply heat on Miller, as did Terry Casey, who got by VanWormer for fourth. Rapidly coming on the scene was Darrell Lanigan, who was advancing from his 17th starting position to move into sixth, with Scott James right behind him.
The group thrilled the huge crowd in what looked to be a wild finish. It all came to a quick halt two laps from the finish, when a yellow flag appeared for debris in turn three and then on the restart, a wild melee down the back stretch eliminated the night’s quick qualifier Doug Drown, to bring out the red flag.
On the restart, several cars set their sights on leader Richards in a last ditch effort to over take him, the resulting rush found cars getting loose, with Drown spinning wildly down the back chute and getting clipped by several cars. He was uninjured but the car was out for the night.
As the field realigned themselves, Lanigan and Casey were each moved back two positions for jumping on earlier restarts.
The final two laps found Richards invincible, with Miller holding off Lanigan, VanWormer and James to complete the top five. That rundown was corrected to move Lanigan back to fifth, as on the final restart he again advanced before the designated starting point was penalized an additional two spots, moving VanWormer to third, James fourth and Lanigan fifth.
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