Labor Day weekend means Bedford Speedway’s Labor Day 55 annual event. This years edition look bleak mid week when remnants of the hurricane flooded the track but by race day, you couldn’t tell and racing was on and it was a great night of action!
By far the happiest guy on the grounds was Michael Norris, who fought hard to score his first ever Bedford win and his third ULMS win of the season in the prestigious event. Norris became the 150th different Late Model feature winner at the track and took home $12,000 for his efforts. After Norris scored his first win.
Norris and Max Blair brought the stout Late Model field to the green flag and Norris grabbed the early lead. with Blair in pursuit. When Norris stumbled while lapping a car on lap 7, Blair made a wild move and slipped by for the lead. The pair were running in that order when the only yellow in the race flew on lap 11.
By that time, many eyes were on Gregg Satterlee who had taken the last spot in the B feature and had started 21st in the field. Satterlee and Mason Zeigler were coming forward fast with Satterlee already up to 11th at the caution.
Blair held the lead on the restart but Norris never gave up, shadowing him every lap while Zeigler and Satterlee moved into the top ten. Norris dogged Blair lap after lap as the pair dodged among lapped traffic repeatedly. After trying many times to zip Blair on the inside, Norris got a great run and flew by on lap 38 to take the lead.
By that time Satterlee had disposed of Zeigler and was in the top 5 and everybody was noticing. Satterlee made some big moves and grabbed third on lap 40 and began closing fast on the leaders. By lap 44 Satterlee had closed on the leaders as they negotiated traffic.
Satterlee got by Blair a lap later but Norris had cleared the traffic and moved out ahead. It took Satterlee a couple laps to also clear the traffic and he set out after Norris. But over the last five laps Satterlee failed to close on the leader as Norris raced to the big win.
Blair held on for third behind the leaders and ahead of a pair of 2s as Dan Stone and Justin Weaver ended a race long battle to complete the top 5. Max Blair set the Integra Shocks Fast Time of the night in qualifying over the 32 car field and captured the first heat event also, Norris, Ryan Montgomery and Mike Lupfer won the qualifying heats. Montgomery subsequently had issues and failed to start the feature. Shaun Jones and Rick Eckert won the joint B events. Track Late Model point leader Jeff Rine was not a factor in the 55, finishing 6th, but he clinched the 2021 track title.
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LATE MODEL 55 LAP 1 Mike Norris, Gregg Satterlee, Max Blair, Dan Stone, Justin Weaver, Jeff Rine, Jared Miley, Mason Zeigler, Jason Covert, Tim Smith, Chuck Clise, Matt Sponaugle, Andy Haus, Brian bernheisel, Nathan Lasalle, Dave Stamm, Shaun Jones, Rick Eckert, Trevor Feathers Dylan Yoder, Mike Lupfer, Kyle Lee Wayne Johnson, Deshawn Gingrich, DNS Ryan Montgomery DNQ Jeff Miller, Jason Miller, Brian Booze, Scott Flickenger, Larry Neiderer, Greg Moore, Drake Troutman