MOTOR SPORTS : Drummen Cruises to 2nd Straight Victory

The battle lines were drawn early in the Street Stock division at Saugus Speedway on Tuesday night.

Intense competition in the preliminary races set the stage for the oval and figure-eight races.

While several drivers were battling it out in the third through fifth positions, Northridge driver Jeff Drummen cruised wire to wire in the 25-lap oval feature for his second consecutive victory.

Drummen started in the first row and extended his lead to almost a full straightaway by the eighth lap.

Meanwhile Kirk Miller, T.K Karvasek and Mike Price were engaged in a fierce battle for the middle positions.

Gerrit Cromsigt made a late run at Drummen as he crept up on Drummen’s bumper on Lap 19.

But the same traffic that allowed Cromsigt to catch Drummen hurt Cromsigt’s chances of passing the leader.

“A lot of the traffic was still racing hard for positioning,” Cromsigt said. “That made it hard to catch Drummen once he got clear.”

Drummen passed Julianne Seeley and used her as a shield to gain some distance and pull away for the victory.

“I know that when I passed Julianne I used her to block Cromsigt, but I didn’t want to look in the mirror to see what happened,” Drummen said. “I just drove straight ahead.”

Meanwhile in the figure-eight feature, patience paid off for Reseda’s Karvasek.

Karvasek took advantage of Cromsigt and Price’s duel on Lap 9.

Cromsigt took the lead from Price when he bumped him high into Turn 1 and cut to the inside.

Price returned the favor a few laps later, forcing Cromsigt to spin out in a cloud of smoke.

An opportunistic Karvasek then took the lead en route to his fourth feature victory of the season.

“I knew that if I waited I could to duck into the inside,” Karvasek said. “My crew chief, T.J. Weed, did a great job getting the car set.”

Price finished second in the figure-eight main only to have race officials disqualify him down to a undisclosed position.

It was the second time this season that Price has been penalized for rough driving.

“Cromsigt crossed me up earlier in the race so I did the same thing to him,” Price said.

“I don’t know what it looked like, but it wasn’t intentional.”

In the Grand American Modified 40-lap feature, Dave Phipps grabbed the lead on Lap 10 and survived two caution flags for his second feature victory this season.

Phipps, the points leader in the Grand Ams, started in the front row and took the lead from pole-sitter Rod Johnson.

Reseda’s Dave Blakenship finished in second place.

In the prelims Cromsigt set a track record in the Street Stocks with a lap of 23.31.