SOUTH BEND, IN -- Historic South Bend Motor Speedway added even more allure to its impressive resume by hosting a joint venture of the ShortTrackTrucks.com Challenge Series and the Indy United Racing League. After a race that left South Bend Motor Speedway track owner Mike Bird exclaiming, 'If the fans didnt get there money's worth from that race, they never will!", Joe Hill and Joey Shuryan were left to claim the race wins in their respective series. For the overall feature win, Hill hung on to the checkers over a hard charging Shuryan. After two fast paced pratice sessions, the trucks tackled the quarter-mile bullring in qualifying. Keith Wioncek qualified late in the session and stormed to the Turbo Blue Racing Gasolines Pole establishing a new track record in the process. Joey Shuryan qualified second followed byJoe Hill. All 23 trucks on hand clocked in within a second in a very competive qualifying session. The first race of the evening, a fast dash for the fastest six trucks of the night, saw three trucks from each series battle for the win. Joey Shuryan jumped out front early and drove away to take the first checkered flag of this meaningful evening. Rod Morrison led from the start to capture heat number two over Dave Osborn. Ray Axsom claimed his first ever checkered flag in the next heat race outdistancing Jim Idema at the finish. A colorful array of trucks took to the track in the fifty lap feature with teams preparing infield pit areas in the event of a mid-race pit stop. The front row of Derek Price and Bob Fruit would bring one of the largest starting fields in South Bend Motor Speedway history to the green flag. As the green flag flew it was Price who shot out to the early lead and pulled away from Fruit and Tom Miller. Shuryan and Hill were on the move ahead of Wioncek. On lap 15, Price slipped high in turn one allowing the lead pack to bunch up. The next lap Price brushed the front stretch wall showing signs of pending trouble. Miller and Shuryan watched as Price pushed up high in turn two, hitting the wall again. Miller was able to scoot through to the inside as Price attempted to recover. Shuryan was not so lucky as he and Price collided on the backstretch to bring out the first caution of the night. Miller brought the field to the green on the restart but his lead did not last long as Joe Hill soon took the lead over Miller, Fruit and Morrison and Osborn. Shuryan drove like a man possessed from the rear of the field after the accident with Price. By lap 44 he had moved to third position knocking on the back bumper of Miller. Miller, sensing he had nothing for the leader Hill and not wanting to hold up Shuryan, pulled high in turn three allowing Shuryan through. The gentlemanly move by Miller coupled with a caution for a Mike Hayes spin brought about a three lap shoot-out for the win. Hill got a great restart and shot out about two truck lengths over Shuryan. Going into turn three on the final lap, Shuryan finally caught Hill and applied the bumper. Hill, steady at the wheel as he had been all night, kept the thottle open and drove hard off the final corner to take the checkers. Shuryan was second as Miller, Fruit, and Osburn rounded out the top five. In ShortTrackTrucks.com Challenge Series competition, Justin Claucherty grabbed the Zander Radio Systems top Rookie of the Race award, Kelly Doyle raced her way to the Hard Charger Award, and Keith Wioncek was awarded the St. Clair Engine Hard Luck Award. The ShortTrackTrucks.com Challenge Series moves next to Mansfield Motorsports Speedway on August 13th for their first-ever appearance at the nationally recognized half-mile. For more information, check out the series website, www.ShortTrackTrucks.com, for all the details.
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