Phil Bozell holds on to win Intimidator 100 on Opening Night at Kalamazoo Speedway

Phil Bozell holds on to win Intimidator 100 on Opening Night at Kalamazoo Speedway

By David Drew

KALAMAZOO — Phil Bozell said he always needs a handful of laps for his car to find a rhythm.

He had the final 14 laps in Saturday’s Intimidator 100 on Opening Night at Kalamazoo Speedway to settle into a flow and he used every one to his advantage.

After a neck-and-neck battle with Mark Shook for a good portion of the race’s final 20 laps, Bozell pulled away after the last yellow flag restart to secure his first-ever Intimidator 100 win.

“I have to give props to Mark Shook. He raced me hard on the outside all night,” said Bozell, of Portage. “My car takes about four or five laps to get going and it took four or five tonight, but after that, this thing got in a rhythm and it was hauling.”

Shook, who pulled out of the race in the final laps and tallied a 12th-place finish, led for most of the first 45 laps of the race.

“Mark was good for sure,” Bozell said. “I know in the first lap my car was good. I was just trying to take my time and things just went my way. I got to Mark and I could see he was getting loose. Me and Mark are good friends and race each other clean, and I just picked away. Finally, he wiggled one time and that’s all it took.”

Shook gave Bozell all he could handle following caution laps as well.

“On the restarts, he just did an awesome job, but on a long restart, we’re hard to beat,” Bozell said proudly.

Scott Hanz, of Angola, Ind., finished second in the 100-lap race. Andy Bozell, of Portage, finished third, Rick Sexton (Mattawan) was fourth and Jeff Ganus (Constantine) finished fifth.

After a winless 2010 season, Schoolcraft’s Matt Bainbridge started this season with a bang, picking up the win in the 30-lap Modified class feature race.

“This is my second year with this car and we worked so hard on it,” Bainbridge said with a big smile after the win. “It was pretty intense.”

Bainbridge trailed AJ Foote for a good portion of the race, but the 22-year-old made his move at the right time and snuck in front of Foote just two laps before a caution flag.

Bainbridge owned the final five laps following the restart, but it wasn’t without worry.

“I was actually pretty tired during that last caution,” he said. “I was just thinking during the caution, ‘Man, I hope the tires hold.’ This is awesome because we worked so hard over the winter.”

Kenny Head finally had reason to smile after a Super Stock race on opening night. For the first time in 24 years, the Plainwell resident took home the checkered flag in the first race of the season at Kalamazoo Speedway.

“I’ve never won in 24 years on opening night. This is awesome," he said.

Even after an extended delay during a red flag, the competition couldn’t catch Head in the final six laps.

He credited a new motor for giving him an edge in the race.

“We just got a motor in it yesterday afternoon and we worked on it all night,” Head said with pride. “We worked on it all day and night trying to get this thing to handle and, boy, we hit it tonight.”

A scratched and tattered car couldn’t mask the smile on Scott Elsey’s face after winning his first-ever feature race in the Pro Stock class.

“I’m about to cry. This is my first feature win here,” an emotional Elsey said. “We’re going to celebrate good. This win goes to my mom.”

In an exciting 25-lap race that saw cars three-wide for several laps, Elsey, from Paw Paw, was just glad to cross the finish line first.

“It was scary,” he said with a little laugh. “My car’s all tore up. I was getting bumped and I knew I had to stay low and I pulled it out.”

In the 20-lap Cyber Stock feature race, Plainwell’s Doug Smith passed his younger brother, Clark, with four laps remaining and held on to pick up the checkered flag.

“It was tough getting through there and that was my brother in front of me. I knew with four laps to go I was going to pull him, I just had to do it,” Doug Smith said. “There’s always a rivalry and neither one of us likes to lose. This is fantastic because I’ve been working on this for two years and tonight I did it.”