XENIA — With half of the inaugural Gem City Auto Racing series in the books, the points chases appear to be shaking out a bit at Kil-Kare Raceway.
With five race weekends down and five still on the GCAR schedule, the leaders in each of the four racing divisions remained the same after the most recent round of racing on July 9.
The late model division had July 9 off, to allow many of the series’ drivers the opportunity to race in the inaugural Gem City 100 Jegs CRA All-Star Series event at Kil-Kare. New Bremen’s Drew Charleson had the early lead in that event, but after collecting an accident on Lap 39, Charleson ended up 16th in the 23-car field.
Charleson still holds the GCAR Late Model lead by 10 points over Xenia’s Ryan Fleming (175-165). Of the four late model races contested thus far, Fleming has a pair of wins, while Charleson and Columbus’s Drew Carter Jr. both have one. Camden teen Cody Evans sits third with 120 points, then there’s a 25-point gap back to Hilliard’s David McKay.
The E-Modified division is the closest contested of GCAR’s four divisions right now. Beavercreek’s Jack Jones has the points lead with 180.5 points, but the top-5 are separated by less than 36 points. Jones has two wins this season so far, while division runner-up Jamie Sites of Kettering has three victories and 169 points. Xenia’s Fleming is tied for third in the E-Mods with Groveport’s George Lindsay with 150 points, and Troy’s Jerry Stapleton is fifth in the standings with 145. There’s a 20-point gap to the sixth place driver, Kyle Purvis of Marion.
Just six Street Stock drivers were on hand for Sunday’s feature, and one of those — Xenia’s David Stump — had mechanical issues and was unable to make the race. Even with his DNS, Stump sits third in the point standings behind two Columbus drivers: runner-up Jacob Muncy, who has three wins and 195 points; and points leader Phil Gussler, Jr., who has a pair of wins (including on Sunday) and 215 points. There’s a 30-point gap back to fourth place and Kettering’s Sites.
Finally, in the most participated division with 31 different drivers so far, Columbus driver Dusty Harding has no wins yet leads the division with 195 points. Columbus’s Corey Kyer is currently second with one win and 179 points, followed by Columbus’s Trey Gregory (two wins, 104 points) and Riverside’s Bo Hoelscher (two wins, 100).
Hoelscher is on a bit of a hot streak in the Compact division. He’s now won the last two Compact features to vault himself into the points battle. Jimmy McElfresh of Columbus and Kettering’s Nick Barrett are tied for fifth in the standings with 90 points apiece, then there’s a 25-point gap back to seventh.
The next scheduled GCAR series racing program is set for July 23 at Kil-Kare, with a full slate of Late Models, E-Modified, Street Stocks and Compacts expected. First practice runs usually start at 11:30 a.m., qualifying begins at 1:30 p.m., with heat races and features to start thereafter.
