National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame member Rick Aukland bested a star-studded field of 49 entries Friday night at the Twin Cities Raceway Park to notch his first ever win with the O’Reilly NARA Battle of the Bluegrass Series presented by Arizona Sport Shirts. The Zanesville, OH veteran led all 40 laps on his way to cashing the $3000 first-place paycheck.
After six highly contested heat races, it would be Rick Aukland and Steve Barnett leading the field to the green with Aukland getting the early hole shot. Behind Aukland, Mike Marlar would grab second with Barnett falling to third followed by Victor Lee and Patrick Sheltra. Over the first several laps Marlar would pressure Aukland for the lead, ducking his nose under the #12 in the corners. A lap six caution for Ricky Arms would spoil the battle for the point.
On the restart, Aukland still had a rearview mirror full of Marlar as Lee darted ahead of Barnett to move into third. By lap nine, the front trio could have been covered with a blanket as, at times, Aukland, Marlar, and Lee were nearly three-wide for the top spot. Behind the leaders, the race for fifth was heating up with Sheltra fending off the challenges of Marty O’Neal, Bart Hartman, and Justin Rattliff.
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