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, New York, police officer. The Lightner Cup has become a prestigious race over the past 10 years, and former winners Gene Bonsignore and Adam Mittl were among those competing on May 30.

Round one of First Division racing saw Mittl score an easy win, with his main competition, Mikey Buman, taking a spill and a last-place finish; Andy Crawford was second, with newcomer "Jammin' Jeff" Garlinghouse in third. Then Tuff McBride came out and won the next heat race, over Casey Donholt; Jerry Harman was third and Dave Clark fourth. Josh Carr put together an impressive ride in the third outing, beating Alex "The Hazzard" Heath and Gene Bonsignore; Dwight Basa was at the back, getting his feet wet in Division One. Brian Hollenbeck closed out the round out with a convincing win, over Shawn "Steamboat" Engel, Russ "Doctor Dirt" Cornell and Ray Barondick.

In the second round, Buman and McBride put on a great show in the next heat, with Buman just getting around McBride toward the end for three points. Mittl was first to the finish in the following race, with Bonsignore getting back into a groove and beating Clark for second. Next, Harman and Hollenbeck were first and second, and Donholt and Carr did likewise in the last heat of round two.

The third set of heats saw Clark finally get a checkered flag, with Buman second, Basa third and Barondick fourth. McBride then scored his second win, ahead of Mittl, with Hollenbeck third and Carr foruth. Donholt, Crawford, Engel and Heath was the order in the second-to-last heat before intermission. In the next outing, Harman finished just ahead of Bonsignore, Garlinghouse and Cornell.

In the final set of heats, Harman was riding well, defeating Buman, with Carr scoring one and Engel tallying zero. Mittl was leading the next heat, with Donholt in second, but Donholt fell, causing him to take third; Cornell picked up two points, while Basa also fell and took fourth. Next up, 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 made a nice outside pass for the win; Crawford and Barondick were next in the finishing order. Finally, Clark stayed strong to close it out with a win, over 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 top the D final. Crawford impressively won the C final. The B final was one of the better races of the evening, with Bonsignore taking an early lead, only to be passed nicely by Buman on the outside, and then Clark also worked his way past for second before getting squirrelly and almost taking out Bonsignore and eventual fourth-place finisher Hollenbeck in spectacular fashion. With his win, Buman would advance to the five-man A final.

Casey Donholt (above) made a great start off gate one in the main event and could not be caught as he went on to take his first Omar Lightner Cup Championship. McBride had second but caught traction and allowed Mittl to get by.

Results

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.

D FINAL: 1. Alex Heath; 2. Ray Barondick; 3. Jeff Garlinghouse; 4. Dwight Basa.

SUP: 1. Cole Farwell; 2. Zach Peters; 3. Katalin Davis; 4. Don Wheeland; 5. Brian Bailey.

JR: 1. Spencer Portararo.

DIRT BIKERS: 1. Spencer Portararo.