MARBLE, PA – The BRP Modified Tour made the trip to Bedford Speedway on Sunday, June 4th and 21 cars made the tow to compete in the third race of the series. The weather was beautiful, and the track was in great condition for the start of the 35-lap feature event.
Jimmy Holden coming off two feature wins on Saturday night in the Mike Stine owned machine started on the pole and Trevor Wright was on his outside. Starting right behind this duo was New Jersey invader Billy Pauch, Jr. for his first ever appearance with the BRP Modified Tour and points leader Erick Rudolph. Row three found Chas Wolbert and Rex King, Jr.
At the drop of the green flag Billy Pauch, Jr. got a great start and got by Holden and Wright to lead the first lap. Holden muscled his way around Pauch, Jr. coming off the fourth turn and was able to lead the next two laps before Pauch, Jr. took the lead away from Holden on lap four.
Billy Pauch, Jr. led the next lap, but Erick Rudolph was able to get past Holden for second and then went to work on Pauch, Jr. Lap six found Rudolph making the pass for the lead but Pauch, Jr. took it back the next lap. When lap eight came around it was Rudolph in the lead ahead of Pauch, Jr. and Rex King, Jr who had started in the sixth position.
The first of two cautions took place on lap twelve for JR McGinley who was piloting the Rick Regalski owned Bicknell with rear suspension problems. The second caution flew seven laps later for Mark Frankhouser who was making his first appearance of the 2023 season after slowing down the backstretch. On the restart, Garrett Krummert who was slowly making his way forward from the ninth starting position had made his way into second looked to give Rudolph a strong challenge for the lead. However, Rudolph was ready and up on the wheel and jumped out into the lead and never looked back to pick up his first BRP Modified Tour win of the 2023 season by 2.643 seconds over Krummert. Finishing third was Billy Pauch, Jr. over Rex King, Jr. and Brad Rapp.
Finishing sixth was Trevor Wright who traveled six hours from Canada in his first year in the Big Block Modified division. Seventh went to Colton Walters who started seventh and passed the most cars in the feature. Eighth place went to Chas Wolbert with Kyle Fink and Steve Slater rounding out the top ten.
The BRP Modified Tour has a month off until their next scheduled event which will be the Lou Blaney Memorial event at Sharon Speedway on July 8th. July will be a busy month for the BRP Modified Tour drivers as we will also be racing on Thursday, July 13th at Expo Speedway in Cortland, OH and we will make our first ever appearance at Marion Center Speedway in Marion Center, PA on Saturday, July 22nd.
Feature Finish: Erick Rudolph, Garrett Krummert, Billy Pauch, Jr., Rex King, Jr., Brad Rapp, Trevor Wright, Colton Walters, Chas Wolbert, Kyle Fink, Steve Slater, Jimmy Holden, Ray Bliss, Shannon Whaley, Wally Wade, Shawn Kozar, Mark Frankhouser, JR McGinley, Robert Garvey, Mike Kinney, Rodney Beltz, DNS: Dave Murdick
Erick Rudolph Picks Up First BRP Modified Tour Win of the 2023 Season at Bedford Speedway