By Mike Mallett

RANSOMVILLE, N.Y.: Parker Price-Miller had one shot at a $12,000 payday on Friday night at the Ransomville Speedway with the All Star Circuit of Champions, and he took it.

A slide job with two laps to go on a restart ended up giving the Kokomo, Ind., driver his third career series win and his second of the season for Sam McGhee Motorsports.

Price-Miller sat third and was nearly fourth when race-long leader Hunter Schuerenberg shredded a right-rear tire handing the lead over to Chris Windom with two laps to go.  Windom left the door open on the restart, and Price-Miller walked right through it.

“Before the restart I was getting passed for third and was going to end up fourth before the yellow came out,” said Price-Miller. “I knew I had to do something there. It worked.

“I tried timing his (Windom) restart the best I could, luckily I did. I got down on the straightaway and tried to get as much moisture as I could. I actually had to turn right to avoid the cone.  I figured he was going to block the slider, and he left it open. I drove across the track as quickly as I could.”

From there, Price-Miller did what he had to do to keep his No. 11 out in front of Windom. He cut down to take the line away from his pursuer.

“Once I got to two, I knew he was going to try and come back underneath,” said Price-Miller.  “I turned left to cut his momentum off.  He wasn’t happy with me for that, but I’d expect him to do the same thing.

“I’d be upset if I lost 12-grand on the last lap. I understand. It’s all a part of it. I’m glad I’m on the winning side of it this time. I’m sure it will happen again to me. You just have to take advantage of things when you can.”

Price-Miller felt like any chance he had at winning was gone on the first lap. He felt something amiss with the car. The culprit ended up being a right rear shock, but it didn’t deter him or his pace.

“The whole race I was in maintain mode,” he said. “My right rear shock got knocked off. I knew something got messed up. It hit hard, and I felt terrible the whole race. I just wanted to maintain.

“Fortunately, Hunter (Schuerenberg) and Sunshine (Tyler Courtney) fell out, and I took advantage of it. Sometimes, you are not the best car, but you have to put yourself in good positions and that’s what we did tonight.”

Cap Henry made it close at the checkered flag. He nearly sneaked under Price-Miller off the exit of turn four to steal the big check.

“I could hear him at the end,” Price-Miller said. “I was spinning the tires and getting up the race track the last two laps. I just tried maneuvering to make sure they couldn’t tell where I was going to go.

“It worked out. I don’t know if I could have held him off for one more lap, but it was 30 laps and not 31.”

The Month of Money is here, and confidence is growing for Price-Miller. You have to be on top of your game the next few weeks as the Kings Royal kicks off next week with the Knoxville Nationals on the horizon.

“When you win you build confidence, when you have confidence, you drive hard, and when you drive hard, you win races,” said Price-Miller. “So, this is huge. We go to Eldora next week where driving hard is rewarded. When you are feeling comfortable and confident you succeed there. It’s good to have that.”

CLOSE FOR CAP

Henry made a bid for his second win of the season after getting by Windom as the white flag was displayed.

After slipping past Windom in the first and second corner, Henry took his shot at the other end of the speedway. He dove to the inside of Price-Miller to make it close at the finish.

“Sitting third there, I got some good momentum and got through one and two really well and got to second,” said Henry. “I got through three and four really well, then on the last lap it was Hail Mary attempts at each end. I was close enough to get there. I just needed to be a better off of four. Parker was really good.”

Chris Windom (Brent Smith Photography)

Henry relied on experiences gained racing regularly in Ohio. See, Ransomville Speedway raced like one of his stronger tracks back in his home state, and despite not being good the whole night, he almost had enough speed late to get it done.

“There at the end, it felt a lot like Wayne County Speedway that we run really good at,” said Henry. “It was a little bit of experience that helped us there just knowing you have to move to try and get better than we were.

“We were really bad in the dash but got a whole lot better for the feature. We were bad until the end. I’m proud of the guys. We struggled during Ohio Speedweek at the end, so to get back up front is really good.”

FIRST WINGED WIN

Windom had a half-smile after placing third in Friday’s main aboard his Hayward Motorsports No. 19.  The half-smile was the result of giving up the top spot on a restart with two laps remaining in the feature.

Unfortunately for Windom, he opened the door entering turn one, allowing Price-Miller to pull a slide job before allowing Henry to drive by on the outside for second on the final lap. It was his first ever podium finish in a winged Sprint Car.

“It sucks, because it came from leading to finishing third, but it’s our first podium so we can’t be too upset about it,” said the Canton, Ill., driver. “I got a crappy last restart there, and we had a tire going down. I wasn’t aware of that.

“I left the door open going into one on that last green-white-checker, and Parker was able to get by us. I thought I maybe had him crossed back over, but he ran us pretty low down the backstretch. He did what he had to do, and that’s wing racing.  I have to get better on those restarts.”

Windom was still kicking himself afterwards even though the results have improved since the beginning of the campaign. He’s only run in the neighborhood of 30 wing races in his career after a successful stint with the USAC National Sprint Car Series and non-wing racing.

“This is our first year, so there is nothing to hang our heads about,” said Windom. “I’m just frustrated with myself. I’m better than that. I

“It’s definitely a big step in our program from the start of the year where we were just getting into races, and now, we are contending for top fives and wins. It’s a big stride. Hopefully, our first one comes sooner rather than later.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Last season, Paulie Colagiovanni was the talk of the World of Outlaw Sprint Car Series visit to the Ransomville Speedway. The youngster from Central New York scored a runner-up finish to Aaron Reutzel. Controversy followed, but Colagiovanni’s finish remained one spot short of victory.

Colagiovanni returned Friday night hoping for more good things, but it didn’t happen early. The team struggled in qualifying, placing them deep in the field for the start of the A-Main. The poor start led to a strong finish, as Colagiovanni managed to put a good run together charging from 14th to sixth in the final race rundown.

“We were struggling in the beginning of the night,” said Colagiovanni. “We were just way too tight. We started rolling in the feature. I got back in my rhythm, and we were able to work from 14th to sixth.

“The car felt good. We just need to improve upon a couple of small things at the beginning of the night. If we can do that, we’ll be right on top.”

Typical Ransomville offers a slick and shiny surface from top to bottom. That was not the case on this night. With cloud cover and cooler temperatures provided plenty of moisture during time trial and the feature. That was a detriment to Colagiovanni’s game plan.

“I was hoping it was going to be black-shiny by the time we ran the heat race,” he said. “We had our two-inch restrictors in, and that cut it (engine) down by about 50 horsepower. I think that was a mistake on our end.

“I think we should have left them out the whole night. That was our ticket last year with the Outlaws. We are still working on improving with the 410s.”

Colagiovanni will be aided by a new crew-chief for the rest of the season, as Kevin Loveys has joined the team. Loveys spent several years turning the wrenches on 410 teams before joining forces with multi-time Empire Super Sprint Series champion Steve Poirier. Most recently, he worked for Glenn Styres of Ohsweken Speedway fame.

POINT PROBLEMS

Current All Star Circuit of Champions point leader Tyler Courtney and second high point man Justin Peck experienced problems on Friday night.

Courtney set fast time with a lap of 13.371. He was solid in the heat before finishing second in the dash. It looked like he was on his way to victory, as he battled for the lead with Hunter Schuerenberg.

As they raced in traffic on lap 13, Schuerenberg made contact with the slower car, and it went up the track collecting Courtney to bring out the caution. Courtney went to the rear and recovered over the second half of the race to finish in eighth.

Peck blew a right rear tire on his Buch Motorsports No. 13 in his heat race on the final lap, sending him hard into the outside wall where he then got upside down. He went to a backup mount for the feature only to bring out the first two cautions of the race with mechanical woes. He was able to continue but could only muster a 17th place finish after going a lap down.

ODDS AND ENDS

There were 20 cars pit-side for the All-Stars, their lowest of the season. This was the series’ first trek to Ransomville Speedway in nearly 20 years. … New York 360 Sprint Car regular Denny Peebles has only made a handful of starts in a 410 Sprint Car during his career. He struggled on Friday night with fuel pick-up issues. The team sent the fuel cell for repairs with hopes they remedied the issues. It did not, so the team changed the fuel cell, and it fixed the problem for the A-Main where he finished 16th.