Hulsey Hustles to First Vado Sprint Car Victory
Photo by C.J. Hulsey won the POWRi Jackson Compaction 305 Winged Sprint Car feature on Deming/Silver City/Hurley/Bayard/Santa Clara Night at the Vado Speedway Park in Vado, N.M., on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022. (Austin Hood Photo)
Once again, the state-of-the-art Vado Speedway Park in Vado, NM was back in action on Saturday, August 6th with another Hot City Nights promotion and the highlight of the evening was CJ Hulsey racing to his first ever Winged Sprint Car feature win at the track.
After preliminary action was completed, the first feature of the night was the S.H. Automotive Pure Stock feature event, which saw Diego Alvarado aim to race to his fourth straight Pure Stock feature victory, but the track point leader Michel Hartman, who started 14th on the field in the night’s feature had other plans.
Polesitter Rick Skillen led the field to the green flag, but the lead was short lived as Hartman, Alvarado, who started 11th and Jeremy DuBois, who rolled off 13th, were all three working their way toward the front early in the 20-lap event. Hartman was the first to get to the lead and never relinquished it, racing to the feature win over Alvarado, who crossed the line in second.
Jimmy Marta raced from 7th up to 3rd with DuBois edging Sharrii Minks at the line for fourth when the checkered flag flew.
The Hulsey Racing INEX Legend main event was up next with Hatch, NM youngsters RJ Garay and Cale Riggs on the front row. After an opening lap crash, the field went green and Eric LaCroix taking the early lead on the restart. Once the field went back to green, Jacob Masterson and Jared Candelaria battled for second as the event continued to be caution plagued, keeping the field bunched tight.
After the third caution of the event, Dusty Riggs was able to work his way around the top side of the speedway and race to the lead and off to the victory. Sean Salazar was able to hold off Zach Rodriguez, who rallied from the tail to finish second. Rodriguez crossed the line in third, just ahead of Masterson and Dave Smith, who raced from 14th into the top five.
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The third feature of the night was the POWRi Jackson Compaction Winged Sprint Cars and CJ Hulsey was able to the pace the field from green to checkered to win his first Winged Sprint Car feature at Vado for his efforts.
Hulsey, who originally started 5th on the lineup got out front early after an opening lap double flip eliminated Vance Wofford and Derek DeMartino from competition and then another flip on the ensuring restart sidelined Mike Archuleta and shuffled up the restart lineup. Once out front, Hulsey was never seriously challenged, while Robert Herrera,
Dylan Harris, Aydan Saunders and Kyle McCutcheon were all battling for position inside the top five for the majority of the race. Hulsey did was he needed to do out front all race long and raced to the win ahead of Herrera and Harris, who rounded out the podium, while Saunders was fourth and 6th place finisher Royal Jones was elevated to fifth after McCutcheon failed to scale after finishing inside the top five.
The S&J Automotive Stock Car main event was the fourth on the schedule and Rob Moseley raced from his fifth starting spot and got to the front first and then held strong with the lead as Bryan Bennett and Josh Cain were working to try to overtake the top spot.
Moseley never faltered out front and raced to the victory with Bennett holding off a last corner power move by Cain for second. Jonathan Burton ran fourth for the majority of the event and Josh Reynolds rounded out the top five finishes by crossing the line in fifth.
The final event of the night was the Johnstone Supply Super Truck 20-lap feature event and to no one’s surprise, Christy Barnett emerged victorious after working the low line of the speedway to perfection and racing from 12th up to the lead and then driving away with the win.
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Devan Smith and Rusty Bowen battled for the second spot for much of the second half of the race, with Smith getting by Bowen late and picking up a second-place finish for his efforts. Bowen ran third with Art Viramontes and Sherman Barnett rounding out the top five finishers.
The Vado Speedway Park will be back in action on Saturday, August 13th with another Hot City Nights event, where fans from Alamogordo, Tularosa, Cloudcroft, La Luz and White Sands will be admitted into the grandstand area for just $5 with a valid id. Gates open at 5 and racing begins at 7:30.
For fans not able to attend in person, all events held during the 2022 season at the Vado Speedway Park will also be live streamed online by PayPerView at www.WatchFYE.tv.
For upcoming schedule information and tickets, visit www.VadoSpeedwayPark.com.