Long's night at Limaland

ALLENTOWN — It was a sight, Darren Long behind the wheel of his red truck towing his full-sized rig and hauler with his Sprint car inside. The rig blew an oil line Friday on its way to Limaland Motorsports Park, so Long did what he needed to in order to get to the track.

Good thing he did. For the second time this summer, Long took home a feature win in the NRA Sprint Invaders feature.

“You have no idea how good this feels,” Long said.

The mishap with the hauler was just another in the litany of problems during his season.

“It’s been the most frustrating race season I’ve ever been involved with,” Long said. “Nothing’s working.”

The first half of the race belonged to Luke Hall and Jared Horstman. Hall led the first 18 laps, with him and Horstman buzzing around the top side. Long, who started in 12th position, made the low line work and took over the lead.

Long continued his line through the final seven laps.

“I’ve got a pretty simple theory — go where they aren’t,” Long said. “The car worked where I put it.”

Sprints points leader J.R. Stewart placed third to hold onto his lead.

The Bud Thunderstocks were running for big money, a $2,000 winner’s share in the rescheduled Bobby Keysor Memorial. And if anyone needed that money, it was Earnie Woodard. The Kentucky driver regularly travels 200 miles to race at Limaland.

Woodard led all 20 laps, although with some serious challenges from Jeff Babcock and Craig Dippman. Dippman harassed Woodard through the first 17 laps until Babock made his move to second and proceeded to put pressure on the leader.

The normal length of a Stocks feature is 15 laps, but the Keysor race adds another five. When the field was given the signal for five laps left, Woodard was wistful for a shorter race.

“It was one lap after (the five-lap signal) that the cars started dipping below me,” Woodard said, “I knew I was in trouble.”

Stocks points leader Tony Anderson finished fourth, three spots ahead of his closest pursuer, Tim Bowen.

Darryl Banks has suffered through a difficult season, much like Long in the Sprints. And like Long, Banks enjoyed some redemption Friday with a win in the Professional Computer Company UMP Modifieds feature.

Banks edged just lower than Todd Sherman on the low side of the track on lap five to claim the top spot. From there, the 20-lap feature turned into a duel between Banks and Brian Post.

On the next-to-last lap, Post appeared to nose ahead of Banks. However, the lapped car of Ryan Ordway gave Post just enough interference to allow Banks back into the lead.

“Brian got underneath me, and Ordway was there in the right place at the right time,” Banks said.

“We’ve been fighting this car and it’s finally coming around.”

Points leader Jeff Babcock was eighth while Todd Sherman presumably closed the gap with a fourth-place tally.