A pair of Bandolero Outlaws division winners – D.J. Canipe (round one) and Matthew Davey (round two) – battled it out in that class’s 20-lap main event, with Canipe emerging victorious after a lap 10 pass of Davey in turns three and four.
The event was punctuated by an opening lap crash – complete with Ethan Elder barrel-rolling in the midst of the incident – drew an early red flag and forced a complete restart. All drivers involved were okay, but Elder and Hayden Swank were forced pitside with extensive damage and did not return.
On the restart, Davey powered from third on the grid to the early lead, passing Montgomery and bringing Blaise Maddox with him, but the quickest man in town was round three winner Tommy Good – who was consistently lapping in the high 18 second bracket and passed Maddox for second on lap five, just before a caution flew to bunch the field back up.
A second yellow for a multi-car pileup gave new players a chance to strike and saw Canipe move around Davey for the point right as the crossed flags were shown for halfway. From there, the AK Performance driver pulled away from Davey and Good’s titanic scrap for second to win by two seconds at the checkered flag.
Good eventually worked around Davey for the runner-up spot in the race’s second half, with Matt Emery and Maddox rounding out the top five behind them.
Cameron Bolin finally broke through to Bandolero Bandits victory lane after three near-misses in the first three races of the season, including last week – when he was battling title rival Josh Kossek for the lead on the final lap before contact sent them both spinning in turn three and collected the entirety of the top five in its wake.
This time, however, there was no contest. Bolin bolted away from the front row on the opening lap and wired the field, despite having to hold off Bryson Ruff on a restart with four laps to go, for the elusive victory.
“We just had the best car all night,” Bolin said. “We took off good, but when that last caution came out I got a little scared. Other than that, we had a long run car more than a short-run car and I knew we only had three laps to go when they dropped the green flag, so I just put my foot down and kept looking out the windshield. Finally, tonight, it paid off.”
Ruff kept the gap close in the final laps but was forced to settle for second, followed by Leland Honeyman, Rapp and Robusto.
Kossek, the class points leader, was forced out of the race early after losing his right front tire on lap seven. The incident drew a caution and relegated Kossek to 10th in the finishing order as a result.
Garrett Lowe became the first repeat winner in the Beginner Bandolero division, using a lap 13 restart to pass leader Stanley Hayes and cruise to the winner’s circle for the second time in his young Shootout career.
Hayes, who led laps three to 12 in the hotly-contested race, was forced to settle for a runner-up result. Caden Kvapil, Zack Miracle and Parker Eatmon rounded out the top five.
And in the specialty race for the night, one of racing’s mascots ruled the roost as Champ the Cheetah – from the NASCAR Hall of Fame – edged out the Demon Deacon from Wake Forest University in a fur-flying fight to the finish during the Mascot Mania go-kart shootout.
Norm the Niner from UNC-Charlotte was scored third ahead of Blue from the Charlotte Hounds, who dominated the early stages before surrendering the lead on a late restart. Sir Purr, the Carolina Panthers’ mascot, rounded out the top five in a wreck-filled battle for mascot supremacy.
The Bojangles Summer Shootout returns to action on Tuesday, July 5 as the season hits its halfway points, with Legends Car and Bandolero racing in seven divisions along with the always-popular Faster Pastor school bus race for area clergy.
