Champion Speedway
Owego, New York

Omar Lightner Cup
East Coast Speedway Series
By Jason Bonsignore
Photo by Bob Howland
Champion Owego, New York, USA - May 30, 2010
Eastern Speedway Promotions

Donholt dashes to Lightner Cup Win
May 30, 2010 Owego, NY

The first event of the season at Champion Speedway was held during excellent weather and was billed as the Omar Lightner Cup Championship in memory of the former track worker and Vestal, NY police officer. The Lightner Cup has become a prestigious race over the past 10 years and former winners, Gene Bonsignore and Adam Mittl were amongst those competing May, 30th for it.

Round one of 1st division racing saw Mittl score an easy win with his main competition, Mikey Buman, taking a spill and a last place. Andy Crawford was second with newcomer "Jammin" Jeff Garlinghouse in third. Tuff McBride then came out and won over Casey Donholt. Jerry Harman was third with Dave Clark not scoring in fourth. Josh Carr put an impressive ride together in the third outing by beating Alex "The Hazzard" Heath and Gene Bonsignore in that order. Dwight Basa was at the back getting his feet wet in Division 1. Brian Hollenbeck closed the round out with a convincing win over Shawn "Steamboat" Engel, Russ "Doctor Dirt" Cornell and Ray Barondick.

Buman and McBride put on a great show in the next heat series with Buman just getting around McBride towards the end for 3 points. Mittl was first to the finish in the following race with Bonsignore getting back into a groove and beating Clark for second. Harman and Hollenbeck were also first and second as were Donholt and Carr.

The third time out saw Clark finally get a checkered flag with Buman second, Basa third and Barondick fourth. McBride score his second win from Mittl with Hollenbeck third and Carr fourth. Donholt, Crawford, Engel and Heath was the order in the second to last heat before intermission and Harman was just ahead of Bonsignore, Garlinghouse and Cornell.

In the final heats it was Harman, who was riding well, defeating Buman first off with Carr scoring one and Engel zero. Mittl was leading his heat with Donholt in second but Donholt fell causing him a third. Cornell picked up two points with Basa also falling and taking fourth. The two 30 year plus veterans, McBride and Bonsignore came out for a great race with the 61 year old Bonsignore jumping out in front but McBride making a nice outside pass for the win. Crawford and Barondick were next order. Clark stayed strong to close it out with a win from Hollenbeck. Garlinghouse was third and the Hazzard last.

The riders were broken into D, C, B and A Finals at this stage and Heath rode smoothly to take the D-Final. Crawford impressively won the C-Final. The B-Final was one of the better ones of the evening with Bonsignore gating to an early lead only to be passed nicely by Buman on the outside with Clark also working his way past for second before getting squirrely and almost taking out Bonsignore and fourth placed Hollenbeck in spectacular fashion. Buman with his win would advance to the 5 man A-Final. Donholt made a great start off gate one in the Main and could not be caught as he went on to take his first Omar Lightner Championship. McBride had second but caught traction and allowed Mittl by.

Omar Lightner Cup Championship
A-Final
1. Casey Donholt
2. Adam Mittl
3. Tuff McBride
4. Jerry Harman
5. Mikey Buman

B-Final
1. Mikey Buman
2. Dave Clark
3. Gene Bonsignore
4. Brian Hollenbeck

C-Final
1. Andy Crawford
2. Shawn Engel
3. Russ Cornell
4. Josh Carr DNS

D-Final
1. Alex Heath
2. Ray Barondick
3. Jeff Garlinghouse
4. Dwight Basa

Support
1. Cole Farwell
2. Zach Peters
3. Katalin Davis
4. Don Wheeland
5. Brian Bailey
6. Alex Kumar

Juniors
1. Spencer Portararo

Dirt Bikes
1. Spencer Portararo
2. Roger Roberts DNF
3. Jordan Engel DNF