Matt Sheppard wins NES race to the front

NEW EGYPT - Matt Sheppard of Waterloo, N.Y., beat Ryan Godown to the front of the field Saturday night at New Egypt Speedway and then held off Godown's repeated challenges to post his seventh win of the year on Burnett Racing Engines "Women on Wheels" night.

Sheppard grabbed the lead from Tim Tanner Jr. on lap 17 and went on to capture the DIRTcar Modified 30 lapper and the $3,000 first prize.

"We were lucky to get to the front first tonight," stated Sheppard.

"I am sure if Ryan had beaten me there, that his car was faster and the results may have been different. Hopefully, we can come back and duplicate this on Wednesday night," Sheppard said, referring to the Super DIRTcar Series event coming up this week at the speedway.

John Keller brought the 24-car field down to starter Warren Alston's green flag and quickly assumed command. Keller appears to be getting tougher each week; he led the field for the first 12 laps before Rich Rutski was able to sneak underneath him on the front stretch. Just two laps later, a fast Tanner powered underneath Rutski to become the race's third leader. The first and only yellow of the event waved at this point when fifth-place-running Frank Cozze broke a right front spindle on the backstretch to end his night. The restart found point leader Sheppard, who started 17th, sitting right behind Tanner, with Godown up to fifth. It took only one lap before Sheppard shot by Tanner for the lead. Godown charged up to second by lap 20 and set his sights

on Sheppard, who was now about 10 car lengths out in front. Godown quickly started to eat into that, catching Sheppard with just five laps to go. It was at this point that lapped traffic began to come into play, and Sheppard was flawless as he went on to cross under the checkered flags first. Godown was a strong second, losing only four points to Sheppard in the championship hunt, as the two are still only separated by 14 markers. Keith Hoffman continues his string of strong runs, finishing in third, while Jimmy Horton came home fourth and Tanner settled for fifth.

Rocco Infante of Robbinsville won the 20-lap Sportsman feature event. Infante took the lead on lap two and cruised uncontested to his fourth win of the year in a race that took just over 12 minutes to complete. Dave Hunt posted his best finish of the year, coming home second, while Rich Scagliotta closes to within a mere seven points of point leader Willie Osmun by finishing third. Chad Barney turned in a strong run for fourth while Art Liedl drove the Mongiello Racing No. 94M to a fine fifth-place finish.

Al Cheney of Cranbury won his second in a row and his fifth of the season in the Super Stock 25-lap feature. Cheney took the lead from Kory Fleming before halfway and then raced to the victory.

Fleming was second, followed by Mick Search, Ron Coverly and Jason Bubeck.

In the Lucas Ford SS Sprint 20-lap feature event, Rick Cozze of Pittstown won his second career feature almost one year after getting his first. Three-time defending champ Art Liedl finished second to take back the point lead, while Rich Janney continues to be fast, racing home third. Fourth went to Ian Borden with Robert Liedl taking fifth.

In the Burnett Racing Engines "Women on Wheels" powder puff events, 25 cars took part in the four divisions on hand. Laura Liedl was the only one to do double duty, and she was the big winner taking both the SS Sprint event and one of the Sportsman events. Katie Lyons took the other Sportsman feature while Heidi Schaefer drove Kevin Bifulco's No. B1 to victory in the Super Stock event. The most exciting of the five races was the Modified event, which was won by Randi Rudy driving Rich Scagliotta's No. 8, as she passed Sandra Kell on turn four to win by just half a car length.

Saturday night, Aug. 18, it will be Vespia Tire and Auto Care presenting the Pit Stop Challenge for the pit crews. DIRTcar Big-Block Modifieds, Sportsman, Super Stocks, Outlaw Stocks and Crate 1 Sportsman will all be in competition. The Garden State Vintage Stock Car club will also be on hand. Gates will open at 4 p.m. with the first race at 6 p.m.

For more information, log on to the Web site www.newegyptspeedway.net or call the speedway office at (609) 758-1900.