Memorial for Bobby Balkcom held at Putnam County Speedway
By: Tera Gunter 8-19-06
The speedway ran heat races in all divisions and was able to run the street stock and open-wheeled modified features before rain shortened the racing program Saturday night.
The street stocks hit the track with Rena Hurley and Lisa O’Connor on the front row and Hurley took the lead at the green flag drop. Marc Kinley pulled into second with Ricky Cooper taking third. Grady Christian wrenched third from Cooper, and set off after Kinley.
By lap 4, Hurley, Kinley, Christian, Cooper, and Tim Dowling had a good lead over the rest of the field. Hurley held off multiple hard challenges from Kinley before Kinley got loose on lap six, giving Hurley a short breather. Quickly recovering, Kinley flew up to challenge Hurley once again as Cooper and Dowling waged a side by side battle. Dowling overcame Cooper and Christian as Kinley and Hurley flew into lap 7 side by side.
Hurley held Kinley off before a tire blowout in turn 1 ended her lead. The restart saw Kinley in the lead over Dowling. A battle for third shaped up between Christian and Mills as Mills challenged Christian several times with Christian fending Mills off before the caution was thrown for O’Connor’s spinout in turn 2. While track officials attended to O’Connor, an incident during the caution in turn 4 sent Kinley to the pits. Kinley emerged from the pits back in the lead before the restart.
As the green flag dropped, Christian and Mills resumed their battle before a racing incident on the white flag lap placed both racers to the rear of the field. A shootout restart handed Kinley the checkered.
Sporting memorial decals on their cars, the open-wheeled modified division entered the speedway to pay tribute to fallen racer, Bobby Balkcom. Balkcom, of Macclenny, Florida, died August 14th at the age of 36 as the result of a tragic automobile accident in Jacksonville. Randy Spaulding of Spaulding Motorsports placed Balkcom’s familiar yellow #R22 in Victory Lane for the evening with his helmet and gloves on the roof as track officials placed checkered flags on the car. With the scoreboard displaying #22 in the first through 5th positions, Sonny Pipkins led Balkcom’s family and the crowd in a special prayer.
Spaulding, who plans to retire Balkcom’s car and enshrine it in his race shop with Bobby’s firesuit and gloves mounted behind glass in his office, spoke of Balkcom and the good times and memories shared with the young racer Spaulding became good friends with. Led by Mike Tripp, as the modified division drove three laps in missing driver formation in honor of Balkcom, there weren’t many dry eyes in the grandstands.
The modifieds lined up to run a special 22 lap feature event instead of the usual 25 laps. Jason Lowe and Mark Whitener lined up in the front row and Whitener took the lead. Lowe placed hard challenges on Whitener with P. J. Wiggins in third as Jamie Carter challenged Mike Tripp for fourth. Lowe pressured Whitener before Whitener was able to pull away from Lowe. Carter displaced Tripp for third before rain shortened the race at lap 11, handing the win to Whitener of Middleburg, Florida.
Racing resumes next weekend with both Friday and Saturday night shows. The Florida Mini Sprint Association will be on hand Friday night with the Daytona Antique Auto Racing Association on Saturday night. General admission is $10 each night with a two day pass for $15. Saturday night is Volusia County Citizen night for $2. Visit the speedway’s website at www.putnamcounty speedway.com or call the track at 386-649-5210 for more information.
