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| Miller, Adams take USCS features at Putnam County | by Jon Harney
The United Sprint Car Series carried out a successful two day assault on Putnam County Speedway over the 4th of July holidays. Over 20 USCS cars made the trip to the 3/8-mile semi-banked oval.
Thursday night saw qualifying heats for the sprints as well as the Limited Sprints, Modifieds, and Mini Sprints. The sprints also ran a 25-lap feature. Kenny Adams set fast time of 16.46 in his Milk Movers Inc. #2a car, but found himself starting 6th after the inversion pill was drawn. Terry Gray started on the point and led while Adams fought his way to the front. Adams caught Gray and the duo battled hard for the top honors until they made contact and were sent to the rear. Michael Miller was the benefactor as he was promoted from third to first. Adams and Gray made an exciting dash through the field to make up lost positions, meanwhile Miller remained consistent throughout the evening. Many cautions flew as drivers unfamiliar with the track repeatedly spun. A mandatory refueling red flag on lap 23 set up a two-car dash between Miller and Red Stauffer. Miller and youth held off Stauffer and experience at the checkers. Roland Johnson finished third ahead of Gray and Adams.
Friday night was feature night for all three supporting divisions as well as heat and feature action for the sprints. Kenny Adams started on the pole for the 35-lap main event and left little doubt who was the dominant player. Hotly contested battles followed Adams as his car appeared to be on a rail. Red Stauffer and Roland Johnson staged a tight fight for runner-up honors until they knocked each other out of contention on lap 14. This race had fewer cautions than the previous night's main event and traffic played a considerable role for the top 5 runners. Adams won going away while Terry Gray beat out Jim Raptis for second. The remainder of the top 5 was Marshall Skinner and Bryan Thomas.
Open wheel Modifieds started 24 cars and also saw a wire-to-wire victory. The race was a cautionfest as drivers defended their turf very aggressively. When the sparks stopped flying and the smoke cleared, Jacksonville's Marion Sizemore easily outdistanced the pack to take the win. John Bradley had his best finish of the year in his Shell Harbour Resort #26 and was second. Roger Crouse made his PCS debut a good one by running third, Gary Sexton followed in fourth, and Chris Hammond hung in to take fifth.
Tim George continued the pole-to-checkers theme and was the class of the Limited Sprint field. The best race was for second as Bruce Brantley and Kurt Taylor went at each other in the closing laps. Taylor spun on the final go-round which shuffled the finishing order. Following George at the finish was Brantley, Andy Kelley, David Kelley, and Tony Pineiro.
Randy Carrier appeared to be on his way to winning the Mini Sprint feature until breaking down at the halfway mark. Bob Schaeffer inherited the lead and never looked back to take his first victory of the year at PCS. John Craddock was runner-up, Jesse Teed finished third, Allen Craig survived rolling his car at the start of the feature to finish fourth, and Russ Heider got paid for fifth.
The fans who stuck around at the end of Friday's racing were treated to a highly spectacular fireworks display that brought a standing ovation from the crowd.
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