We are now past the halfway point in the 2017 Cycleland Speedway season, and the first half of the year was dominated by the young driver from Redding, CA, Rylinn Renaud. Rylinn has now won seven of the nine points races we have held. He also won the season opening Jim Shirley Memorial which was a non-points event. That brings his total to eight wins in nine starts this season.
When the green flag flew on the Main Event Renaud quickly jumped out front of the eight-car field in his Race City Injector #16. Once out front it became a race to see how far ahead he could get. When he crossed the stripe after 20 laps he was 7.6 seconds ahead of the second-place car, and he had lapped everyone else. An absolutely dominating performance for the young driver, something we have almost come to expect from Renaud. Second place went to Seth Standley, who scored his 7th top five finish of the 2017 season. Hank Simmons put together a solid run in the Main Event to pick up his 3rd top five finish of the year. Luke Hayes was the Hard Charger of the race as he started in the 7th position and passed three cars to finish in the fourth position on the racetrack. His eighth straight top five finish. The top five was rounded out by Rowdy Gramps who started 2nd and ran well but spun with just a few laps to go dropping him back to the fifth position at the conclusion of the race.
The night began with 8 drivers signing into the pit area for the night’s Points Race #9. Once again it was the Standley Bros. Hot Rods #25 kart of Seth Standley setting Fast Time in Qualifying with a lap of 12.307 seconds. Standley has been the dominant driver in Time Trials in the Box Stock Class this season as he now has nine Fast Time’s in a row.
With only eight karts signed in, the heat race was scratched and all eight drivers made the night’s Trophy Dash. Even still Rylinn Renaud made quick work of the field as he picked up his sixth Trophy Dash win of the season, and his fourth in a row.
The Points Standings after the first nine points races are led by the Race City Injector #16 of Rylinn Renaud. Renaud currently holds just a 30-point lead over second place driver Seth Standley. Standley has utilized his qualifying points to keep himself in the hunt for the Championship but gave up another six points this week. Rowdy Gramps remains third in the standings but lost a bit more ground this week as he now sits 179 points behind the leader. Jennifer Osborne is still fourth in the standings, now 216 points behind Renaud. Hank Simmons is still clutching the fifth spot in the standings as he sits 245 points back.
We will be off this coming Saturday but will be back in two weeks with our big Double-Header Weekend. July 7th and 8th we will have Points Race #10 & #11. Hot Laps are scheduled to begin at 5:30PM with qualifying to follow both nights. For ticket information and/or directions to the racetrack please visit www.cyclelandspeedway.com.