COEBURN, VA :: Ryan Stiltner and Hayden Woods swapped the lead several times between them in Saturday night’s 60-lap feature at the high banked Lonesome Pine Raceway. Stiltner qualified on the pole with a 16.592 second lap but it was Woods who took the early lead.
Woods led the first 25 laps before Stiltner passed him for the top spot. From there, it looked like Stiltner would be on his way to his fourth win of the season with ease until a caution came out on lap 42 when Erika Schmidt slammed the inside wall. That forced the field to a double file restart, allowing Woods to have a shot at Stiltner.
On the lap 42 restart, Woods once again used the outside lane to his advantage and passed Stiltner to retake the lead. He would go on to lead the next six laps before Stiltner got back around him to take the lead one final time.
“It was a lot of fun racing Hayden,” Stiltner said. “This one wasn’t easy to win like a lot of other ones have been. I actually had to drive my butt off to get it. Hayden was tough on the restarts. I knew my car’s handling would be right there and his faded away. I pulled back in front of him and pulled away.”
Woods would go on to finish second, holding off Michael Kidd in a photofinish at the stripe.
“It feels great to be back up in the top three. Stiltner put up one heck of a battle there,” Woods said. “He’s a good driver and he’s got this track figured out. I started using his line and I started catching him. We started losing the handling in the last 20 laps. The car got really loose. Good driver, great race with him.”
Michael Kidd finished third while Derek Woodward and Kevin Woolfe rounded out the top-five.
After the race, track promoter Harold Crook announced that they would be placing a bounty on Ryan Stiltner, who has won four times at Lonesome Pine in the five races run this season. The next race at Lonesome-Pine will be on June 1st when the UARA-STARS tour comes to Coeburn. Stiltner said he would be competing in the UARA race. The regular season at Lonesome Pine will resume on June 8th.
