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Ghost Rider Rides Again

Hickory, NC (April 28th) - It’s official. The American Racing Association All-Stars are just that - All-Stars. And Keith Bumgarner, the Ghost Rider, is king.

A near capacity crowd at famed Hickory Motor Speedway stood cheering, screaming, booing and cheering again as local favorite Bumgarner claimed his third win in a row in the toughest Late Model stock field in America, the first three-peat in ARA All-Star history. It didn’t come easy. No position throughout the entire field came easy. With a starting field including 27 cars running qualifying laps within 4/10’s of a second of the fast time, the All-Stars staged yet another classic battle, position by position, from beginning to end.

Series points leader Scott Kilby in the No.30 A&H Windows Chevrolet, once again traded a top five qualifying position for the charger points bonus, the only driver of the night to do so. Kilby, however, gave up the pole, putting Shane Wallace in the No.17 on the point, with Hickory’s ARA Weekly Racing Series Late Model division leader Mark Setzer, in the Galaxy Foods No.84, on the outside pole. No.5 Westley Huffman, No.25 Scott Hall, and the Ghost Rider all lay in front in the top five spots.

Setzer grabbed the lead quickly over Wallace, pulling away to a four car lead by the second lap. J.R. Robbs and series rookie Danny O’Quinn, Jr. spun in Turn 1 fighting for position, collecting Bo Messer, Carl Cormier and Stacy Vicars in the melee, bringing out the night’s first caution and putting the race leaders back together.

Huffman, the Iceman, dove under Wallace on the restart and claimed second heading out of Turn 2 on lap 7, only to see Wallace snag it back on the ensuing lap. Setzer had opened up a five car lead again, with a 6 car freight train dotting his rear view mirror.

Stephen Lite, starting out of the eighth spot, resumed his newfound skill of using his right front fender, this time nudging Hall out of the way. Kilby, who had dropped back to seventh, went to the outside of Lite. With Lite and Kilby locked in a position battle, Hall managed to fend off Lite’s charge and keep his fifth spot.

By lap 33, the Iceman and Wallace were at it again for second, running side by side out of Turn 4 and into Turn 1. Huffman stuck his No.5 in the outside groove and pulled ahead of Wallace leaving Turn 2 to settle back into the second spot. Meanwhile, Kilby, charging towards the top five, gave Lite a taste of the fender to move back into the sixth spot.

Six laps later, Setzer and Huffman were joined up front by Bumgarner, who had dispatched Wallace and Hall, and was beginning his familiar charge to the front. Huffman was reeling in Setzer, and the Ghost Rider, behind the wheel of the Country Chair No.95 Ford Taurus, was reeling in both.

Huffman dove inside of Setzer on lap 50 heading into Turn 3, and it looked like the Iceman was on his way to the lead. Side by side they drove for two laps, with Setzer, the obvious favorite of the highly partisan Hickory crowd, clinging relentlessly to the outside, unwilling to let the No.5 get his rear bumper in front. With the tight battle raging for the top spot, Bumgarner closed the gap, bringing on a three car battle for space only one car could fill.

Huffman finally managed to nudge ahead of Setzer. Bumgarner followed and dove inside of Huffman. By lap 55, Bumgarner had emerged as the leader, with Huffman and Setzer resuming their own war, swapping paint and position for the remaining 70 laps.

Nearing lap 100, Huffman again charged into Bumgarner lap after lap. While Bumgarner ran weak in the turns, he kept the No.5 car at bay. By the race’s end, no one had enough car to catch Bumgarner.

“We struggled a little bit, but the truth is you can run a couple of different lines around here,” said Bumgarner. “When you go in (the turns) hard, you’re not going to come out fast, but I stayed with the line I normally do and held my ground.”

Setzer would eventually get past Huffman to claim second, with the Iceman pulling in third. Greg Marlowe, who started fifteenth, carefully worked his way through the field to finish fourth. Hall, who had been on a season-long tough luck streak, finally broke through to hold on and finish fifth. Kilby suffered a major setback, hitting the wall in Turn 3 hard, losing a wheel near the race’s midway point, along with his hold on the points lead. His crew managed to get the car back in the race fifteen laps later, trying to salvage the night.

“I didn’t think he was off at all tonight,” said Huffman of Bumgarner. “I thought he was just kind of playing with us. Keith is on a whole other level right now. The points race is between the rest of us and Keith.”

The All-Star series is off next week, and returns to action May 11th at Tri-County Speedway in Hudson, NC as part of an ARA touring double header weekend with the ARA Southern Thunder Late Model Series coming to Hickory for a 125 lap feature Saturday, May 12th.

1 Keith Bumgarner
2 Mark Setzer
3 Westley Huffman
4 Greg Marlowe
5 Scott Hall
6 Tim Weaver
7 R.A. Brown
8 Keith Stiltner
9 Kenny West
10 John Michaelowski
11 Matt McCall
12 Frampton Ferguson
13 Danny O'Quinn, Jr.
14 Glenn Hoyle, Jr.
15 Ryan Zeck
16 Ray Spearman
17 Andy Loden
18 Scott Kilby
19 Butch Jarvis
20 Stephen Lite
21 Brian Conner
22 J.R. Robbs
23 Tom Jodway
24 Shannon Gonce
25 Shane Wallace
26 Bo Messer
27 Andrew Medlin
28 Ashley Huffman
29 Stacy Vicars
30 Carl Cormier