How the Pro 4s shaped up on Friday night.... The final race of the night was Pro 4 Unlimited, and in this one, Eric Barron and his screaming #32 RC10/Mickey Thompson Toyota went straight to the front. Behind Barron, Ricky Johnson and the #48 Red Bull/Discount Tire Ford ran second at the end of lap one, with Rob MacCachren third in the #21 Rockstar/Makita Ford, Kyle LeDuc fourth in the #99 Monster Energy/Toyo Tires Ford, and Carl Renezeder fifth in the #1 Lucas Oil/General Tire Nissan. On lap two, LeDuc got by MacCachren going into and at turn two to take over third, and by lap four, the top five drivers had already separated themselves from the rest of the pack. On lap five, LeDuc moved up again, passing Johnson at turn two to grab second spot, and one corner later, Renezeder got around MacCachren to move up to fourth. Johnson appeared to have some kind of issue, as he then dropped from third to fifth on the next lap, while up front, LeDuc was quickly closing in on the leader Barron over laps seven and eight. Johnson then pulled into the Hot Pits, which put Greg Adler up into fifth spot in his #10 ProComp/G2 Ford (Johnson re-joined the action one lap down). In the battle for the lead, Renezeder had now closed right in on LeDuc, making it a three-truck battle, until a spin by Renezeder at turn four on lap 10 brought that battle back to a one-on-one between Barron and LeDuc (Renezeder dropped to fourth with his spin, and was now running with only rear wheel drive). On lap twelve, things got ugly. As Barron and LeDuc exited turn four, the two flew side-by-side off the jump after the corner, and Barron flew to the right side of the track. When he landed, he hit the cushion of dirt at the edge of the track, where the dirt climbs up the k rail towards the catch fence. The awkward landing sent Barron into a violent barrel roll, one which carried him up the face of the tabletop jump at the start/finish line, into the air, and hard onto the tabletop itself. As if the roll hadnt been bad enough, the truck then burst into a massive fire just seconds later, and fortunately, Barron was able to get clear of fire. Unfortunately, the fire engulfed his truck, and while Barron was taken to the hospital as a precaution, its certain that his truck wont be running in tomorrow nights race. Barron is reported to be ok, though, and for all of us, thats the most important thing. Get well soon, Eric; were all thinking about you! The race went to red flag conditions for a good chunk of time, but when racing finally did resume, it was now LeDuc, MacCachren, Renezeder, Adler, and Todd LeDuc in the top five. Renezeders lack of 4WD made him an easy target, and he was gobbled up quickly by Adler, Todd LeDuc, and Brandon Bailey as he slipped out of the top five. After that, the top five went unchanged, and a perhaps slightly subdued field took the checkers, with Kyle LeDuc taking the win, ahead of MacCachren, Adler, Todd LeDuc in the #7 Rockstar/LoanMart Toyota, and Bailey in the #72 MavTV/Solar World Ford.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 18:00:26 +0000